5 Fantastic Prayer Resources for Families

In our Children and Families Ministry we are passionate about equipping young people and their parents, guardians and families with tools to develop their relationship with God prayerfully and spiritually.

Our pastoral team and team leaders are regularly asked how best to bring prayer and worship, God’s love and Jesus’ teaching from church on Sundays into everyday life.

This is what the Orange philosophy is all about; bringing the church and the home together (If you’re brand new to the Orange philosophy, click here to read about what it is, why we have adopted it and what it means for you and our young people!).

To run alongside our latest talk series ‘Deeper’, I’ve put together some incredible resources for you and your family to use to connect with God at home.

101 Ways to Start a Conversation with God

Via Parenting for Faith

One of the ways we encourage our young people to develop their relationship with God in our Kids ministry is through Chat and Catch.

Not sure what Chat and Catch is? Read our article on it here!

There are endless things you can talk to God about in our lives, but sometimes this amount of choice can make it difficult to start the conversation!

Parenting for Faith has put together some great ideas of topics for young people to talk to God about, to catch and to receive. These ideas are great for prayerful conversations over breakfast, in the car or anywhere you might want to spend some time talking to God.

Read 101 Ways to Start a Conversation with God here

Creative Ways to Pray with your Kids

Via 24-7 Prayer

As anyone who has or has worked with children will tell you, no two kids are the same.

This rule applies to praying with our kids too!

If you want your kids to develop in their relationship with God, finding ways to pray that best suit their interests, skills and personalities is a great way to start.

I think this creative prayer article from 24-7 Prayer is a really good guide for this. It’s got some great things to think about around engaging kids in prayer, and how you can incorporate prayer into your day-to-day life in a way they can connect with. 

Read Creative Ways to Pray with your Kids here

Engaging Kids in Worship

At Sutton Vineyard we aim to create a space for Kids of all ages to feel welcome, safe and to grow in their understanding of faith and their relationship with God.

We want our Kids to feel the power of worshipping God and enjoy developing in their faith alongside friends and leaders. Engaging Kids in church can sometimes be challenging, and worship can be one of the greatest hurdles for us to navigate as leaders and parents.

To equip us to help our young people connect with God I put together an article discussing some of the challenges in engaging Kids in worship and how we can encourage participation.

Read our article on Engaging Kids in Worship here

Devotional Dippers Prayer Sticks

Making prayer fun is a really good way of encouraging our kids to connect with God, and I personally find products like these devotional prayer sticks really useful.

Prayer sticks like these normally include a theme, a verse, a question to discuss and a prayer point to encourage our young people to speak with God.

Find a time that works for you to pick a short devotional with your family. It could take as little as 5 minutes and helps you to turn your focus to God as a family.

If you’d like to give these prayer sticks a go but the cost would be a barrier, please send me an email at kids@suttonvineyard.org and we would be glad to buy a set for your family!

Devotional Dippers Prayer sticks are available here

Help! My Kid Won’t Pray!

Via Raising Prayerful Kids

Our kids might not always want to pray at the time or in the way we would like. 

It’s normal for our children to resist if they’re asked to do something they don’t feel like doing. 

This article from Raising Prayerful Kids gives some ideas of things to try if prayer feels like a struggle in your house including encouragement, perseverance and making prayer fun!

Read Help! My Kid won’t Pray! here

There are plenty of fantastic resources for families to encourage our young people in developing their relationship with God prayerfully. 

If you want to chat about any of these resources, or are keen to learn more about equipping your young people, please feel free to drop me an email at kids@suttonvineyard.org!

S.O.A.P: A Simple Way To Meditate On Scripture

Meditation is such a popular topic these days, but did you know it is also ancient and Biblical!?

In the Psalms, King David wrote, 'I meditate on your words day and night.'

Meditation, at its core, is a simple yet powerful practice. It involves focusing your thoughts and directing your concentration. And, it's a practice that anyone can engage in.

Meditating on scripture can be as simple as 4-20 minutes (or though feel free to make it longer) of intentional thought using a structure like SOAP to help you reflect and pray. SOAP stands for Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer. If you are familiar with the practice, it's like a condensed version of a Lectio.

Regardless of whether you are new to this or not, it has served me well as a way of helping me concentrate my thoughts and prayers in devotional time with the Lord, and it may help you, too.

Here is a quick guide to help you get started:

Scripture: 1-5 mins

Sit down in a quiet place, invite the Lord to speak to you as you settle yourself, being mindful of our ever- present Heavenly Father. Ask Him to quiet your heart and speak to you through His Holy Spirit. Plant your feet firmly on the ground, open your Bible, and read through your selected passage of scripture once very slowly. Breathe slowly while allowing yourself to linger over the words. Take your time with this process. Don't try to interpret the words; just read them and take them at face value.

Observation: 1-5 mins

Read the passage again, but this time, allow yourself to stick to a few words. Perhaps a few words will seem more important as you read. Trust the Holy Spirit to help you see deeper beyond the surface reading. What are you observing as you read? Pay attention to the words that stick out to you and take a moment to reflect on them further.

Application: 1-5 mins

Ask the Holy Spirit to help shape what you have observed in your reading into action. What have you observed that you need to put into practice? Is it a new line of thought? Is it something you need to do to live out the scripture? Is it something that you need to be mindful of throughout your day?

Prayer: 1-5 mins

Finally, turn what you have read and observed and what you need to apply and turn it into a prayer. Ask the Lord to help you enact what you have read. Ask the Holy Spirit to empower you as you walk deeper with Him. Ask Him for the things upon your heart and for His help to be mindful of the time spent with in His presence.

You may wish to keep a journal as you reflect. It's amazing what God can begin to reveal during these times, and it's important to try to capture these moments, even with a little note reminding you of anything significant that you have read.

As you practice some simple meditation on scripture, may you know Him deeper, and may you walk closer to Jesus.

Much love,

Julian

Deeper - Words Revealed in Prayer

Every term, three times a year, we invite the church together for a 'whole church' prayer meeting. Each time is like coming for air as we ask God to breathe life into the plans laid on our hearts. We usually take time to sit and listen. Without fail, it seems like the Lord is ready to speak, nudge and prompt us as we stumble our way forward into His plans and purposes for our lives and the church.

In this new academic year, we sense the Lord calling us deeper—deeper as a church, deeper in relationship and connection, and deeper in community. This journey is not one we take alone, but one where each of us plays a vital role, prodding around in some uncomfortable ways as we allow ourselves to walk tightly in step with the Holy Spirit. It's impossible to have a lasting impact if we don't have depth in our faith, and your role in this is crucial.

And so, many people began to pray and share what God was showing them; here is a snapshot of those words and pictures from our time in prayer together. We ask that you continue to bring these things before the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit to help you put words into action as we go deeper.

Follow

Come and follow me, and I will make you fishers of men; closeness to Jesus comes first. As we follow Jesus, He will make us into something. Let us walk closer and go deeper.

Ice cream

A chain of people bringing hope and joy to the borough. I see an ice cream van and a chain of hundreds of people who are the church, and they are passing the ice cream down the chain of people to those who have nothing.

Fortune cookie

The excitement and accessibility of the faith that comes with knowing that God is not a fortune cookie. Unlike a fortune cookie, it’s not a guess but something that will come to pass. What has God said? What do we need to remind ourselves of?

Aslan

Stop, think, give, Aslan. Make giving accessible. Make it easy to give as we support them. If we all sacrificed a cup of coffee and offered that in support, it would amount. How can we offer deeper support?

Lion

Boldness and purpose, no-nonsense, true and deep, stand out like a lion. We are called to be a lion, fierce, beautiful and bold.

Keep it real

God doesn’t want us to pretend to be happy all the time. He wants honesty and realness. Be honest in our relationship with Him.

Colossians 3:2

Set your mind on things above, be like Jesus and do His work - Be: Jesus, he reveals his character and heart as gentle. Do: Seek and save the lost, and remember what it is really about.

Relationship

Deepening relationships with the Father so that we can deepen with others and with those we serve.

Creativity

There is ingenuity within us - how we outwork things is creative in many ways and God wants to use this.

Dig

Digging wells deeper from those who have gone before. The deeper we dig the fresher the water.

Eagle

A picture of an eagle flying back to the nest feeding the young - bring lost souls back to the nest to feed.

Skyscrapers

They require deep foundations and are tall, seen landmarks. As we go deeper, it is in preparation to build skyscrapers of faith.

Excavator

Large industrial excavator coming towards us - God says he’s got some serious digging to do!

Cavern

A deep cavern full of people singing with a beautiful echo. Sometimes, there are cracks from the surface down to a cave, and through these cracks, the music in this deep place is seeping out, and people are noticing.

Consistency

The deep walk towards Jesus is like weight training- don’t give up too soon, keep going and maintain the course.

Bite

A bite out of an apple, God's goodness is plentiful fruit. The community work is also like a plentiful fruit, God has so many good things for our community.

Viking Ship

On the side of a Viking ship, the timber overlaps and connects and is watertight. We need tight connections with each other. Deeper connections will keep the sheep watertight.

Spread

An image of ice spreading and connecting, Holy Spirit spread through our church.

Partner

Partnership - working together with each other, the community, etc. learning from and with one another.

Connect

A deeper connection is to the Lord's Church, of which we are a part. It’s not just us, it's all of us together!

Courage

As the community develops, we will need the courage to fight for fairness and justice.

Forward

The picture of the hole left behind encourages us to move forward. We cannot go back. The past is past. Let us move forward.

Sunset

There is a sunset below a dark cloud over Sutton. There is often so much more than we can see. Hope is on the horizon, and below that cloud, light is breaking through.

These are some of the words the Lord began to stir in people's hearts. Let me encourage you to pick one or two and begin bringing them to God regularly in prayer. Ask him to reveal more to you and show you how to put these things into action as we look to go deeper as a church.

What would happen if we all began exploring the depths of these words? 

I can't wait to see what God does in and through your life!

Much love,

Julian.