Obstacles to Prayer Groups

Fear
One of the number one fears that people have is the fear of public speaking. While prayer is communication with God, if there are other people listening and it is a corporate prayer meeting, people are similarly afraid of prayer. This fear can be somewhat alleviated if we provide training for those that will lead prayer, and avoid putting people on the spot to pray without prior notice and training. Stress that prayer is communication with God. It is talking to God. Also stress that in private, you can pray to God in whatever way most comfortable for you, but in corporate prayer it is best to do it in such a way that you benefit those listening in on your prayers with God.

Communication Issues
Prayer is communication, and like every other form of communication it only develops with training and experience. Many people have not developed the skill of communicating verbally with God so they may tend to repeat prayers and phrases they have heard -- simply stringing together prayers they often hear. The best way to overcome this is to provide specific guidance for prayer items.

Unrealistic Expectations
Many people think that they will be considered less spiritual if their prayers are not on the level of the pastor or other church leaders. We need to stress in training that God is more concerned with our heart than how polished our prayer sounds.

Violation of confidences
Sometimes it can become a fine line between honestly praying for someone in need and turning the prayer request into little more than gossip sessions or finger pointing sessions. We need to pray for so and so because he did such and such.... Keep confidences and private prayer requests private. Make sure that even in prayer that everything we say is edifying to those who are listening. (Ephesians 4:29)

Planning issues
Many prayer meetings lack variety and become boring and routine. Vary the format and introduce a variety of concepts, styles, and vary the focus to add a little life to meetings that have become stale.