@PrayToGod: What is Prayer?

Goal of the Edge Night

The goal of this Edge Night is to invite the youth into a relationship with God through prayer and to help the youth to understand what prayer is and that it is the foundation of our lives as Christians. This night will focus on Jesus as our model of prayer and reflect on His example to help us to pray.

Edge Night at a Glance

This night begins our semester on prayer and will lay the groundwork for exploring all the different types of prayer. Before we can get into all the forms of prayer, we need to understand what prayer is. Prayer is the raising of our earts and minds to God and requesting good things from Him. Prayer is an encounter with God and the beginning of a covenant relationship with Him. We are constantly searching for something; St. Augustine puts it beautifully when he says, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.” Prayer is our opportunity to rest in God.

The night will begin with a “play” on the idea of Twitter, making the connection that God is constantly trying to communicate with us. In the icebreaker, each small group will come up with a creative Twitter username and come up with some creative and funny “tweets” that have to do with God, prayer, and sharing it with others. After this icebreaker, there will be a comical skit that shows God sending out “tweets” to us. The skit will transition into the Proclaim, which will cover the basic points of prayer. After the talk, there will be a witness and then a time to reflect in small groups. Within small groups there will be two additional activities: a Scripture search and a time for each small group to write their own prayer to share with the large group. After each small group has completed the activities, the night will move into a time of prayer where each teen will be given an invitation to deepen his/her prayer life. If possible, have the closing prayer in the church.