NATIONAL WORKING GROUP ON PRAYER
PrayingTogether Rhythms for Foster Care
MODULE SEVEN
Key Prayer Resources and Creative Elements
Prayer is where we begin.
Creative Elements of Prayer
The needs of children and families are vast, and seeing these needs every day moves us to action. But our actions are utterly insufficient unless God multiplies them. Like the loaves and fish, we bring what little we have and trust Him to do what we cannot. Developed by the More Than Enough Community National Working Group on Prayer, this guide provides a simple framework to anchor our shared efforts in consistent, unified prayer. Adapt these practices to your local context, gather others, and ask God to do what only He can do.
PURPOSE This module provides key resources and creative elements you can incorporate into a variety of personal, team and community prayer settings.
P R AY I N G T O G E T H E R : R H Y T H M S F O R F O S T E R C A R E
Key Prayer Resources and Creative Elements
Key Prayer Resources The Foster Care Prayer Journal: Praying Together for Your Community More Than Enough | CAFO The Foster Care Prayer Journal contains 30 entries to help you pray with others for foster care in your community. Each entry includes a quote or scripture, a reflection question, prayer prompts, and space to note people, requests, and prayers God has answered. This prayer journal can be used as a group with other collaborators on your team or in your community, on your own, or both. Lead With Prayer: The Spiritual Habits of World-Changing Leaders Ryan Skoog, Peter Greer, and Cameron Doolittle | Forward by John Mark Comer In Lead With Prayer, the authors share the spiritual habits, techniques, and practices of world-changing leaders. In addition, they include prayers for leaders to use in their own prayer time as well as tools for how to cultivate a personal and organizational commitment to prayer. By allowing these men and women to lead us in prayer, we learn not only how to pray, but how to build a culture of prayer wherever we lead. It is only when our businesses, ministries, and churches pray that they will be transformed.
Creative Elements These creative prayer practice elements aim to keep prayer fresh and inviting, empowering individuals to communicate with God in ways that feel natural and align with who He created them to be. 1.Contemplative Prayer: Spend time in silence or with soft music, reflecting on a passage of scripture and inviting God to speak directly to you through a keyword or phrase. 2.Praying Scripture: Pray through passages of scripture, a phrase at a time, over your family, your team, and your community. Join your heart with the hearts of others who have prayed over these same words throughout the centuries. 3.Liturgical or pre-written prayers: Prayerfully read pre-written prayers, psalms, poems, or song lyrics. Actively listen and pray along from your heart, without having to create the words yourself. 4.Breath Prayers: Repeat a short, simple prayer in rhythm with your breathing. Use this during routine tasks or quiet moments to stay focused on God. Here are a few examples:
P R AY I N G T O G E T H E R : R H Y T H M S F O R F O S T E R C A R E
Key Prayer Resources and Creative Elements
Contentment: Inhale: "The Lord is my Shepherd." Exhale: "I shall not want." (Psalm 23) Stillness: Inhale: "Help me be still." Exhale: "And know that You are God." (Psalm 46:10) Fear: Inhale: "The Lord is my strength." Exhale: "I will not fear." (Psalm 118:6) Loving Others: Inhale: "Help me love” Exhale: “as you have loved me." (I John 4:19) Purpose: Inhale: "You have prepared good works in advance," Exhale: "That we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10) Trust: Inhale: "You are able to do immeasurably more," Exhale: "Than all I ask or imagine." (Ephesians 3:20)
5.Receiving Prayer: Find renewal through creation and beauty. Rest in the Creator's delight as you walk or sit outdoors, and marvel at His creativity reflected through inspiring art and music. 6.Prayers with Personal Memorial Stones: Gather personal memorial stones—items like photos, mementos, leaves, or actual stones from places that recall sacred moments when God acted on your behalf. Reflecting on these “memorial stones” guides your prayer and petition, reminding you of His faithfulness in the past, His presence in the present and His guidance into the future. 7.Active Symbolic Prayers: Incorporate physical actions into prayer to engage your body. You can write down a concern and drop it in a box to signify surrender, or pray with open palms turned up to receive and turned down to release. For gratitude, create a paper chain with handwritten notes on each link as a visual reminder. 8.Imaginative Conversational Prayers: Sit down with a cup of coffee and imagine Jesus is sitting in the chair across from you. Talk to him and savor your time together until your drink is gone. Or, imagine yourself taking a walk with Jesus on a beach or in the woods. Picture Jesus saying, “What do you want to say to me?” to begin a personal conversation, and then tell Him what is on your mind. 9.Personal Prayer Journal: Record your time with God through letters, poems, songs, writing out scriptures, or drawing. It serves as a private, safe place for your prayers, impressions and innermost thoughts.
P R AY I N G T O G E T H E R : R H Y T H M S F O R F O S T E R C A R E
Key Prayer Resources and Creative Elements
10.Prayers for your Organization: Offer specific prayers for your organization and mission, using tools such as strategic plans, directories, maps, staff photos, and mission statements. Pray for individuals and areas by name, asking God to empower each person to do what God has asked of them. 11.Strategic Prayers for your Mission: Identify specific individuals, systems, or organizations in your mission field. For foster care, pray by name for judges, caseworkers, child advocates, and others. Consider sharing the first names of local children awaiting adoption with supporters as prayer reminders. 12.Prayer Calendar: Guide your team's prayers using the liturgical calendar, or design a custom prayer calendar for your organization. By including key calendar events alongside daily or monthly prayer prompts and themes, you can keep your entire team aligned and united in prayer.
Explore the Full Series This guide is part of the Praying Together: Rhythms for Foster Care series, designed to equip you to pray with others for foster care.
Praying every day, every week and every month for foster care MODULE ONE | Daily 3:20 Prayer Pause MODULE TWO | Weekly Foster Care 15 Community Prayer Calls MODULE THREE | Monthly Online National Foster Care Prayer Call
Other rhythms and tools for teams and communities MODULE FOUR | Praying as a Team for Foster Care MODULE FIVE | Communitywide Foster Care Prayer Vigil MODULE SIX | Foster Care Prayer Liturgy MODULE SEVEN | Key Prayer Resources and Creative Elements (Current)
The More Than Enough National Working Group on Prayer is a collaborative group of leaders and advocates from churches, organizations, and agencies across the country, working together to help every community pray for vulnerable children and families and for those who care for them.