Zoom prayer meeting how to

Hosting a Zoom prayer meeting or holding an online video prayer meeting is an effective way to pray together.  The secret is to take advantage of the best features of a Zoom prayer meeting or a video conferencing prayer meeting is to plan ahead to maximize the benefits and minimize the drawbacks.

1. Decide what kind of Zoom prayer meeting or video prayer meeting you want to have  

There are different types of prayer meetings and the ones that work best online are ones where members pray out loud together.  Often these are intercessory prayer groups where members pray together over specific requests.  To explore the different types of intercessory prayer groups see our article on How to choose the kind of prayer group to start. 

You may already have an existing prayer group that would like to do a Zoom prayer meeting or online video prayer meeting.  Your group may want to meet exclusively online or may choose to meet online for have a Zoom prayer meeting for special events, or to include people who are far away or when circumstances prevent gathering together physically. 

Our prayer group was meeting once a month in the prayer chapel at our church to pray for our church staff, volunteers and programs.  When the Coronavirus shut down churches and gatherings, we switched to a Zoom prayer meeting. We found it worked well for us once we discovered how to best use our time. 

2. Designate a host and a leader

When doing a Zoom prayer meeting or a video conference prayer meeting you will need a host and a leader. 

The host takes care of the logistics such as selecting and joining a video conference service, setting up the meeting on the website, sending out the meeting link in advance to members via email or text, admitting people into the meeting, muting people when needed and breaking the meeting into small break out groups if this is part of the prayer format.     

The leader conducts the meeting and plans the agenda, such as the opening prayer, greetings, sharing/prayer request time and prayer time.

In small groups the host and the leader can be the same person, however I have found that it’s best to have two different people do these roles.

In our group, several of our members already had Zoom accounts and they took turns hosting the meetings as schedules permitted.  Since I was acting as the leader this was very helpful to me because I could be speaking to the group while our host was watching her control panel and admitting people to the meeting who might be joining after we started.

3. Send out the meeting link to members

The host of the group should send out an email with the meeting link provided by Zoom to members of the group.  We found that sending it the day before helps members locate the link easily. 

4. Start and end on time 

A Zoom prayer meeting is like any other regular meeting – people will “arrive” online at different times.   I found it best to be online about five minutes before our start time.  At the hour our meeting is to begin, I go ahead with an opening prayer.  I then allow around 5 minutes for people to greet each other as they come online, then I proceed with the meeting.

People will be more willing to attend online prayer meetings if they know it will end on time.  This is important because when they are attending from home, there may be other family members who need to use the Internet or computer or who need the attention of the attendee. 

Some video conferencing hosts may limit or restrict your time, especially if you are using a free login which may only last 30 minutes or less.   

5. Limit chatting

The first way to keep your Zoom prayer meeting on track is to limit personal chat time. Our group, was used to meeting in person in the church prayer chapel.  People who arrived early or stayed afterwards usually had time to visit and carry on personal conversations with each other. 

When we first started doing a Zoom prayer meeting I discovered that personal conversations didn’t work well because everyone was a captive audience. And the more people who were listening, the more people there were to give their thoughts and opinions on things.     

I highly recommend managing chat time at any and all prayer meetings. People are big on trying to fix problems and can talk for thirty minutes about advice on what to do about a problem someone is requesting prayer about. Time gets away and there’s only five minutes left to actually pray.  

Value your prayer time above all else, and guard it well.

Sample time schedule

6:50 – leader and host log on

7:00 – 7:07 opening prayer and greeting as people come online

7:07 – 7:20 – guided sharing time using the weekly question

7:20-7:30  – prayer requests

7:30-7:55 prayer time

7:55 – dismissal and farewell 

6. Do guided sharing time

As we’ve already mentioned, people love to talk.  This can actually enhance your prayer time if channel it by giving members something specific and uplifting to share.

After one of our meetings where there was a lot of negative talk about the current problems in our country I noticed that we were feeding off of each other’s worries and it was very depressing.  I decided that at the next meeting I would ask each member to briefly share a personal experience on a question I emailed out in advance.

That Sunday I took notes on the sermon and made up a sharing question based on it.  As an example, the sermon was on the Good Samaritan and one of the points was that the Samaritan went above and beyond what was required and acted to the utmost of his ability to help.   The question I asked our group was this:  Tell about a time when someone went above and beyond for you.  Each person had something interesting to share and afterwards we were uplifted and also knew each other a little better.

I made this sharing question the second thing on our Zoom prayer meeting agenda right after the opening prayer.  As we continued to share these stories weekly, I came to see them as an overall part of our prayer time because they were a way of expressing thankfulness to God.

Members like this time so much that people who couldn’t attend that week sometimes sent out their answer to the question via email.  

During the Zoom prayer meeting, I ask people to share one by one as I go across the people lined up along my computer screen.   Be sure to thank each person for sharing and make an appropriate comment or two that sums up what they said or highlights a truth, principle or common experience. 

Here are some other examples of our sharing questions:

Tell about someone who was helped you grow in faith.

Share an unexpected blessing you had this week.

Tell about a time when you felt really close to God.

Share a Bible verse that means a lot to you.

Tell about a time when you felt like God used you to help someone.

7. Share prayer requests briefly

In online prayer groups there are a number of ways to take/share prayer requests.  We share our requests out loud since this is the way that we do it when meeting in person.  On Zoom there’s a chat feature where people can write side comments, so participants can write their requests during the meeting or they can email them to the leader in advance.

I have found that sharing prayer requests can be a time trap if you get carried away.  I recommend that you set a time limit on prayer requests.  In our case, we meet for an hour and I try to spend 10 – 15 minutes or less on prayer requests. 

Sometimes someone will bring up a complicated request and I ask the person to send us an email or a link after the prayer meeting with the details so we can pray individually for the situation with more knowledge after the meeting. 

Other times, a group member might bring up a very overwhelming personal need.  In such cases, I break from our usual format and we go straight to a short prayer time just for their pressing need.  After this prayer time I then go on with the rest of our agenda. 

If you’re the leader, it’s a good idea to write down the requests and send them out via email after your Zoom prayer meeting.  This is also helpful for members who weren’t able to attend the meeting to stay  up to date on requests.            

I have found that sharing prayer requests can be a time trap if you get carried away.  I recommend that you set a time limit on prayer requests.  In our case, we meet for an hour and I try to spend 15 minutes or less on prayer requests. 

Sometimes someone will bring up a complicated request and I ask the person to send us an email or a link after the prayer meeting with the details so we can pray individually for the situation with more knowledge after the meeting. 

Other times, a group member might bring up a very overwhelming personal prayer need.  In such cases, I break from our usual format and we go straight to a short prayer time just for their pressing need.  After this prayer time I then go on with the rest of our agenda. 

If you’re the leader, it’s a good idea to write down the requests and send them out via email after your Zoom prayer meeting.  This is also helpful for members who weren’t able to attend the meeting to stay  up to date on requests.     

    

8. Play a leadership role during the prayer time

There are several ways to pray together at a Zoom prayer meeting.  Our group uses a method where people pray one by one in no particular order while the rest pray silently. 

I have attended other Zoom prayer meetings where they use a method where everyone prays out loud at the same time for a subject that has been announced by the leader.  This is a popular form of prayer in Korea that’s called “All together praying.”   

If you’re praying out loud one at a time, it’s always wise to ask everyone to put themselves on mute unless they are praying out loud.  This prevents distractions to the prayer time and also helps prevent feedback and garbled words.  

It works best when the leader begins the prayer time or designates someone else to do it. I usually explain to the participants that I will begin the prayer time and will end it.  In between, anyone is invited to pray out loud as they feel led. 

I specifically tell them that it will signal the end of the prayer time when I say, “In the name of Jesus we pray these things, Amen.”  I tell them that I may jump back in and pray in agreement with a subject of prayer in the middle of the prayer time, but won’t use the ending phrase until our closing time. 

While people are praying, I check off the requests I’ve written down to make sure that we’ve covered them all.  When I end the prayer time, I pray for those that haven’t been checked.  I also pay attention to who has prayed to make sure that everyone has had a chance if they want to pray out loud. 

I have found that there’s always a natural pause of silence that indicates that everyone has prayed as they feel led.  I keep an eye on the clock and I end the prayer time when it naturally occurs even if we are ending a bit earlier than our ending time.

9. Use silence effectively on a video prayer meeting

When doing a Zoom prayer meeting times of silence and meditation can seem a little awkward. I’ve noticed that when there are times of silence when no one is saying anything people tend to open their eyes and look around.   

You can use silence effectively by doing some gentle guided meditation where you pray a sentence on a topic such as, “God, you hear the unspoken requests on our hearts today.  Let us take this moment of silence to bring our unspoken requests to you.”  Or you can say, “Lord, we feel your presence in the silence.  Please bring to our minds something you would like to remind us about today.”

Another way to plan for and enhance silence is to have soft meditative music or tones called music pads  playing in your room that others can hear during silence.  (music pads are tones produced by synthesizers which are soft soothing tones)  Make sure the sound isn’t too loud to prevent participants from hearing the person praying.  Or mute yourself when people are praying out loud and then unmute yourself when there is a time of silence so the tones can be heard.

During a Zoom prayer meeting I have attended the leader always ends with a time of silence and tells everyone to listen to what God seems to be saying to them.  The leader than asked people to share anything that might have come to them.  

10. Allow for technical difficulties

If your group is like ours, you have people with varying levels of technological know-how using different devices such as smart phones and  laptops.  On top of that, internet signal and connectivity varies from member to member.  Pray that God will give you the grace to take glitches that come up in stride.

I learned early on that our home internet connection doesn’t have much capacity.  In order for me to have a smooth Zoom meeting, I’ve found that it’s best that my husband isn’t online at the same time. 

I also discovered that sometimes I freeze up on Zoom, which is not a good thing when I’m leading a prayer meeting!  I tell group members about this before the meeting starts and tell them to be patient or continue discussing or praying until I unfreeze.    

Some members have a family member who is tech savvy who gets them connected to the meeting.  Another woman I know had another group member come to her house and show her how to get connected to our meeting and then the two sat in on the meeting on one screen.

11, Take advantage of the upside of video prayer meetings

After we had been doing online video prayer meeting for a short time we soon learned that we enjoyed some of the unique advantages. 

You can meet more often.  We decided to meet weekly instead of monthly as we had been doing when we were meeting at the church.  It worked out well because it took less time and effort for us to join the prayer meeting than it did to get in our car and drive to the church.   Not everyone can join each week, but we always have enough people for a meaningful prayer time.

People far away can join.  We had a group member who moved away to another town about 70 miles away and we missed having her as a part of our group.  When we began doing a Zoom prayer meeting she was able to once again join us for our prayer time.  Also, people who might be out of town on travel could also join us as well.

People who are shy feel more comfortable.  Not everyone feels super comfortable praying out loud.  It was interesting to me to discover that those who were new to our group and were sometimes reluctant to pray out loud began to warm up to praying in front of the group because they they were home praying. It felt less intimidating than when you’re sitting in person in a group of people.

People who are ill can join in.   A Zoom prayer meeting can make it easy for those who are sick or suffering from chronic illnesses to join in because they can do so from the comfort of their home without risking their well being. 

On one occasion our group held a special online healing prayer meeting for a church member who was facing a very serious 14 hour surgery.  He and his wife joined in from their home without the risk of being around other people before surgery.  We began by inviting members to share things they loved and appreciated about the couple.   This created wonderful feeling of care and love among us that was just as healing as the prayer time we held.  The couple was extremely grateful for our prayer time and felt uplifted and encouraged.

12. Follow up after the meeting with an email with prayer requests and praises

I’ve found it good to send out an email the day after the Zoom prayer meeting with a list of the praises and prayer requests from the previous day.  This helps those who attended to continue in prayer for the needs and those who couldn’t attend can use the list to pray as well.

About this article

I got a crash course in participating in Zoom and video meetings when our church was forced to close down during the Coronavirus pandemic.   I had never really participated in video meetings much in the past.  Our Sunday school class started meeting online, so I got used to the simple process of joining and participating in a Zoom meeting.  Our church also started Zoom Bible studies, so it was natural that our prayer group should try doing a Zoom prayer meeting.

Everyone in our prayer group adapted fairly well, some with a little help from family members who were more tech savvy. 

We also found that video meetings aren’t for everyone.  One member wasn’t terribly comfortable doing video meetings so she kept up with us via our weekly emails.   We also had other members who were working remotely from home and some days they had video meeting fatigue, so they sometimes took a week off from our meetings.   And we had a member whose husband and children also had video conferencing going on when we met, so she was unable to meet with us due to their home Internet  capacity overload. 

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Copyright Karen Barber 2020. All rights reserved.