Nov. 2nd, Pray for our leaders: Election Prayer Stations

Today we are 2 days away from electing the next president of the United States. Some say this is the most important election because we will either have a black president or female vice-president. I think that is important but this isn't the most important election ever, in my opinion. My youth group has no one who is able to vote, student wise, but we have talked about the election and even had a mock debate with some of the students. I know that some students don't care because they don't see any implications to their own life but we have talked about it none the less.

Tonight we are doing something different than our normal worship service, we are doing prayer stations for this years election. Each station we have will last 5 minutes and focus on different aspects of the elections. I hope that students understand the importance of praying for our government officials. Whether we like the person who is the president or not we must pray for them. Our world is dictated by the laws they sign and the actions of their life. We may not like that bit it is the truth.

Below you will find the 12 Prayer Stations and what each station represented and a short description of the supplies needed.  I know this is late in the election season, but maybe you can use it for something similar.

1. Obama & Family - Printed out pictures of all for candidates (and their families), list of policies & stances, pens & notepads
- Have students hold each picture and pray for that specific candidate and their families
- Have students read each policy and pray for each stance the candidate is taking, whether they agree or not.
- have the students write letters to the candidate letting them know that they prayed for them

2. President/Congress/Senate/States - Print out of Congressional and Senate Members, Governors, etc

- Have students read through the name of the members and pray for each one, the upcoming election and decision they might have to make

- Possible ideas might be staffing, foreign policy, war and local issues

3. Economy - Monopoly money, house pieces, and game pieces (car, dog, etc)

- Have the students hold the money and think about the financial issues going along

- Pray for their parents who might be struggling

- Use the houses and game pieces to pray for specific pieces of the economy

- Ex. gas prices, stock market, housing market

3. USA - small puzzle of the United States

- Have the students put the puzzle together and pray for each state as they do it.

4. God Bless - Bibles, Candles, various prayers of blessing

- Print out 5 or so prayers of Blessing for students to read 

- Use candles for students to light to represent their life in the whole world

- Have the Bibles open to Matthew 5 and have students read the sermon on the mount

5. World - world map or globe, push pins or sticky notes

- Tell students to choose a place on the globe that may be going through a natural disaster, political trouble or just a place where friends and family live

- Let them know that we are not an independent country but one connected to the whole world

6. Church & Youth Ministry - directory for church & youth group, symbols of the church, pictures of pastoral staff

- Tell students to flip through the directories, pictures, symbols and pray for the church and youth ministry (could also use other ministries in the church)

- You could highlight the ideas of the church, how they might differ from the candidates

7. Self - mirrors, dry erase markers, markers and erasers

- Have each student look at the mirror and either circle or write out things they don't like about themselves or traits that they believe holds them back

- Once they are done, have them erase the marks and pray to God to use them in spite of their perceived problems.  Remind them that God uses everyone and all of us have problem areas

8. Worship -  ipods/mp3 player/CD player,  worship music, headphones (over the ear)

- Tell students to put the headphones on and listen to the music, allow the music to relax them and let them listen to how much God loves them.

9. Braided Life - string to be braided, many different colors

- Have students create a bracelet out of the string on the table

- Tell them to pray for everyone they are connected to (ie family, facebook/myspace, school)

I ended the night with Jesus for President: Litany of Resistance.  I think it gives a great idea of how we should be living our life.  This is a responsive reading that you can either put on a projector or use a handout.  I did the projector but think the handout would be good because the students can take it home and think about it.

I want you to know that I didn't come up with all of these by myself.  Some of them I got from CreativePrayer.com.  They have some great ideas that you can use and modify like I did.  My kids really enjoyed this and took it seriously.  I had fun watching the way the Jr High went through the prayer stations and then how our Sr High did it.  I was impressed with both groups and glad they liked it.