No kind of classroom coaching can teach us to ride a bike or swim unless we do it. So also for praying in groups. Here are a few things I have learned from my own mistakes, so that we can make praying together more effective.
Breaking the ice
Are you frozen at the mouth at prayer meetings? If praying at a prayer meeting strikes terror in your heart, you are not alone. Many are afraid to pray in public and avoid it as much as possible. 'I can't say things as well as someone else. When I open my mouth, nothing wants to come out. What will other people around me think? What if I don't say the right things?'
Too often, what should be an experience in worship becomes a source of fear and trembling. Dismayed, we remain silent in prayer meetings, because we fail to understand the first principle about prayer. Our hearts begin to pound at the very thought of it; this is because we are more often concentrating on what we have to say than the person to whom we are talking.
