Peace Lutheran Church-Winthrop, MN - Peace Opportunities and Lay Ministries

Peace Lutheran Church - Winthrop, MN 55396
Women of the ELCA Prayer Chain Policy
Purpose:
Is anyone among you suffering; Is anyone sick? He should call upon the elders of the church to pray for him. -James 5: 14,16
Prayer is an essential element of every personal and women's ministry. A prayer chain is an effective way to:
· Encourage and motivate personal and corporate prayer.
· Bring prayer needs to mind throughout the days and weeks and to promote praise in worship
A general prayer chain is a network of individuals who will receive prayer requests and thanksgivings, forward them to the next
available person in the network and will pray immediately for each request.
Procedure:
1. All prayer requests are to be received and initiated through the Pastor.
2. The pastor will initiate the prayer chain by calling one of the two WELCA prayer chain
coordinators, the Mission community Secretary or the Mission Growth Secretary.
3. The Prayer chain coordinators are responsible to write down the requested information for
accuracy and continue the prayer chain by calling the next person on the list.
a. If that person is not available, a message will be left, if possible, stating there is a
prayer request and asking them to return the call for the information.
b. The coordinators will then call the next person on the list until they reach an
individual who is home.
c. The next person will continue to call as above (a and b), and the chain will continue
until everyone on the list has been called.
d. Finally, pray! It is important to establish the discipline of praying immediately upon
receiving notification from the chain.
4. Guidelines to receiving a prayer request include:
a. For accuracy, write down the precise request.
b. Reduce the information to one clearly stated sentence. It is not necessary to go
into detail about relations, specific medical terminology, etc.
c. The goal is to give enough information to the persons on the prayer chain that they can
pray intelligently.
d. Pray for “Gods will to be done.” Do not pray for answers.
e. When receiving and passing a request, remember to repeat the request, word-for-word, making no comment about the request
other than what is being passed through the line.
f. Be content with the details given, the goal is to provide enough information to pray intelligently, not to solve, dissect or discuss the
situation with anyone except God.
g. Other than those who are participating with you in prayer on the chain, keep all information
Completely confidential to protect the privacy of those who call in requests.

5. The Prayer Chain coordinators will be responsible to coordinate the prayer chain lists and program.
a. Each prayer chain list will include 7 to 8 individuals.

PRAYER REQUESTS MUST BE KEPT CONFIDENTIAL!

Members of the Prayer Chain must be sensitive to the hurts and
misunderstanding that broken trust in a congregation can cause.