The Core Team 

The Prayer Meeting is the Ministry of the Core Team

At the Prayer Meeting, the Core Team is .....

Welcoming - Creating a warm, comfortable, friendly environment.
The Core Team, who meet together regularly outside of the prayer meeting to pray, share and plan, are the hosts of the prayer meeting, welcoming guests as if into their own homes, whether the meeting is in a home, church, social hall or wherever.  Make a point to greet and welcome each person as they arrive.  Be especially attentive to new people to the prayer meeting who may not know anyone else there.  Be enthusiastic and joyful, and sensitive.  Be welcoming.

Ready - Finished with preparations and free to welcome, greet and socialize as the guests arrive.  The Core Team arrives early enough to have everything set up and to have had prayer time together before the guests arrive.  Arrive early and help in the set up and prayer.  This is not the duty of the few, but the privilege of the entire Core Team.

Prepared - Their "gas tanks are filled and their engines are revving."  The entire Core Team - not just the prayer meeting leader - comes to the meeting "prayed up."  Each Core Team member finds quality prayer time prior to the meeting.  The prayer meeting is a time to fill the tank of those others in attendance.  Be filled, your praise engine revving, before you arrive.  The Spirit will thank you by "topping your tank off" during the meeting.  Make the entire day a special day of prayer.

Participative - Be energized in prayer, teaching & sharing - be life-filled, life-gicing and vibrant in all that you.  You are there to minister to others and to evangelize them through your love for them, your love for the Lord and your positive energy.  The Core Team must be fully engaged throughout the prayer meeting - in praise and worship, in listening to the Lord, in teaching, and in sharing.  Be part of the crowd. Don't stand on the sidelines or be cliquish. Participate fully in every aspect of the meeting.  Be an example.

Attentive - Be aware of what is happening with the group.  The Core Team, in addition to being actively involved in the prayer meeting, should maintain an awareness of what is happening within the group at large.  Disruptive situations can arise that require the quiet intervention of member(s) of the Core Team.  Be prayerfully vigilant.

Submissive - The prayer meeting leader is in the lead.  Any instructions and directions from the prayer meeting leader are for everyone.  The Core Team must set the right example by following that leadership.  For example, if the leader has asked that sharing of praise reports, prayer requests, personal stories, etc. be held until later, that applies to the Core Team as well as to the other guests.  Be submissive and obedient.

Reflective - Prayerfully review the meeting.  After the others have left the meeting, the Core Team prayerfully reflects on and discusses the meeting, learning from what went well and what didn?t.  You may be moved to consider changes or adjustments in some areas for the future.

Discerning - The Holy Spirit provides gifts to the community through the entire body.  The Core Team recognizes, encourages and helps develop the spiritual gifts in others who attend the prayer meeting.  Affirm the individuals to whom the gifts have been given.  Invite them to develop their gifts in the prayer community, allowing them to practice their gifts in the ?safe environment? of the prayer meeting.  Allow them to fail and to try, try again.  Be attentive to communal gifts: prophecy, discernment, knowledge, healing, teaching, leading, exhortation.

Nurturing - "Feed my Sheep."  The Spirit often provides a meandering, but true, pathway for overall direction within a prayer community as well as for individual meetings themselves.  The Core team assesses the needs of the prayer community, seeks the direction of the Spirit and is flexible to the leading of the Spirit.  The prayer community may need regular teaching and/or testimony.  Discern those needs, prepare/practice prayerfully and deliver the chosen material concisely and succinctly.  Limit talks to 20 minutes max.  Limit testimonies to 3 minutes  (addressing 3 points in that time: (1) The situation. (2) What God did. (3) The end result).  There may be times when, for the growth of the community, teaching may be dispensed with to allow greater prayer time or sharing time.  Ask the Spirit.  He will tell you.

Open - The Holy Spirit is in control - allow Him to be.  The Core Team, as individuals and as a group, strives for complete openness to the Holy Spirit.  A prayer meeting is the work of the hands of the Holy Spirit.  In your prayer meetings, and especially in your Core Teams, the Holy Spirit must grow greater and you must grow less.

Unified - '"With one heart, all these joined constantly in prayer." Acts 1:14.
The Core Team must be in one accord.  Disagreement, strife and lack of unity will inhibit the movement of the Spirit in the prayer meeting, and will be evident to those present at the meeting, regardless of what is said or not said.  You must be an example to others, scrupulously practicing the words of Jesus to ?leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering.? Mt 5:24.  You, as the Core Team, have the opportunity and the calling to put those words of Jesus into living practice, for the world to see, and so that others will give glory to their Father in heaven.