Day 4: Prayers for Churches Serving Children

Posted on August 22, 2012

Prayer for Churches and Ministries that are Sharing Good News with Children

Did you know that church attendance has declined for more than 60 years in the U.S. and that one bi-product of that is there is growing percentage of the children in our nation who have never heard the basic stories from the Old and New Testament that provide a foundation for knowing God and God’s love. Did you know that congregations and ministries have access through the public schools, especially when approached with a servant’s heart, to offer after- school programs that children (with parental consent) can attend?

Let’s Pray
Gracious God, we come before you today to Hallow your name. You are the God of love. You cause your sun to rise on the evil and the good, and send rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45). We praise your name today!

Father, your word declares in Proverbs 22:6, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” We acknowledge that one of the most important ways that we participate in helping your Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven is to teach the children your ways.  We confess that ours is a generation where many children are not being trained in the way they should go. We confess the neglect of our own children as we pursue the consumer culture that surrounds us. We confess our sins of judgment toward parents who do not train up their children in your ways.  Our sins of apathy toward those children who have not had parents to teach your ways stand before us today. Forgive us Lord and renew in us a passion for all the children of our city.

We are thankful for ministries like Chinese Church of Houston’s Good News Clubs. Thank you for the faithful work they have done of forging relationships with the Administration in local schools in southwest Houston. We praise you for the work they are doing and for the impact they are having in the lives of children. We ask you Lord to raise up a growing number of individual volunteers and of churches in communities across the greater Houston area who will take on the challenge of teaching children your ways.

We pray that a growing number of congregations and ministries will learn to take church outside of the walls of their buildings to the places that children spend their day. Thank you for the commitment that is growing in our midst. Bless these efforts and cause them to multiply across the Greater Houston area. All of this we ask in your name, the name of Jesus, and for the sake of the children of our city.