Try these youth and adult–friendly creative prayer ideas on for size. Here are four ideas for an interactive prayer event.
Get arty, get creative, get on your knees and open up in prayer…
Random objects
Choose an object related to each of the five key areas highlighted by Tearfund's mission and use them to help people in their prayers.
For example, write prayers about unjust trade laws on monopoly money and encourage people to keep them in their wallets to remind them of their prayers or get a long stretch of red ribbon or string and holding one end pass it around everyone in the church until everyone’s connected to this ribbon and then as the ribbon gets passed back to the beginning pray for a halt in the spread of HIV around the world.
Art and the rest
Read the passage in John 9 where Jesus heals the blind man.
Allow people to choose their creative response. But as a suggestion have a bucket of mud and allow people to put mud on their eyes and then wash it off as they do asking God to change their perceptions of world poverty and show them how they can make a difference.
Maps and paper
Get a large map of the world (placed on a large table in the middle of a room), a stack of newspapers and a bag of tea-light candles (a safer alternative are clean pebbles or small dried flowers).
Have people read quickly through the papers and cut out stories that relate to any of the key issues you’re praying about.
Once the stories are cut out place them on tables around the map of the world. Have people quietly read through a few of the stories they have not yet read and encourage them to take one candle (or pebble or flower) and pray directly for the situation that has moved them the most, then place their candle, pebble or flower on the map in the location that relates best to their story.
If you can, leave the map in place – or attach the tokens and stories and hang it on a wall for all to see and add to.
Prayer food
Find five tempting-looking, great-smelling foods. Lay them out on a table and get people to look and smell but NOT EAT. You might want to play some music.
Tearfund's prayer pod at New Wine 2007
Read this proverb out loud:
‘A poor man's field may produce abundant food, but injustice sweeps it away.’ (Proverbs 13:23)
Invite people to spend a few minutes thinking about this, telling God how they feel and asking him to change it. Close by reading Pete Greig’s prayer found here.
When you’re done, eat the food and drink and talk about how God feels about poverty.