Revitalize Your Sunday School – Prayer

Beth and I just finished teaching a seminar on how to revitalize your Sunday School.  This series will address the “Six Keys” that we presented, with a bonus seventh way.

This post talks about praying for your students.  After all, two central purposes of Sunday School are (1) developing a relationship with God and (2) developing a relationship with each other.
While it is important to pray during the class, I believe that a teacher develops a stronger burden for the students by praying for them through the week.  To do that, I suggest a few techniques:

1. Get a Sunday School class roster.  While you probably need to leave the original attendance sheet at the church in order to complete statistics, making a copy for your own records is easy to do.
2. Keep the roster in your Bible.  This means that you will have this list of your students with you when you have your daily devotions.
3. Write prayer requests on the roster.  You can start with this during the Sunday School class, and add to it through the week.
4. Pray 10 minutes a day.  I have always asked my Sunday School teachers to spend at least one hour each week praying for their students.  That means a minimum of 10 minutes a day.  While this requirement is reasonable, anyone who puts it into practice will soon start using more time praying for their students.
5. Follow up with students the following Sunday.  If you have been praying for someone’s grandmother, ask about her the following week.  That follow-up will not only communicate your ongoing concern, but the updates will also allow you to be informed as you pray the following week.  But perhaps the best benefit of revisiting the requests is to inspire your students with demonstrating that God really does answer prayer.

Praying with and for your students is a privilege and a responsibility.  But more than that, it can make your Sunday School class that much more exciting week in and week out.

Maybe you have some Sunday School prayer tips.  If so, please leave a comment below.