How to Keep Track of Prayer Requests in Your Church

By Jacob Gerber — a Pastor and the Founder of Shepherding Tools.

An up-front summary of this article:

• Peter names prayer in front of the ministry of the word as his priority for ministry (Acts 6:4).
• Pastors have many things to pray about, but we are liable to forget them.
• Pastors need a system for writing down prayer requests that will also help bring those prayer requests back in front of them when it's time to pray.
• The best time to write down a prayer request is immediately when you receive it. After that, do it as soon as possible to avoid forgetting it.
• Shepherding surfaces prayer requests, but praying prompts us to reach out in shepherding again to ask how the Lord has answered someone's prayer request.

And now the rest of the details.

Why is prayer important for pastoral ministry?

In Acts 6, Peter justifies the creation of the diaconate by insisting that the apostles must prioritize preaching: "It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables" (Acts 6:2). Yet, when he expands on this idea, I find it fascinating that he names prayer before the ministry of the word: "But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word" (Acts 6:4).

So much of our time is taken up in the ministry of the word: study and preparation, preaching, teaching, and counseling. That's good! The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. But, Peter's priorities should guide our own in putting prayer at the top of what we do.

What makes prayer so important? Jesus reminds us that apart from him, we can do nothing (John 15:5), so we must ever be dependent upon him in prayer. What good does it do us if we busy ourselves with the tools of the flesh, building with wood, hay, and straw, when the day of judgment comes and our work is revealed by fire (1 Cor. 3:12–14)? Only the gold, silver, and precious stones produced by the Holy Spirit will endure, a quality of ministry that we can only achieve through prayer (Mark 9:29).

Where do prayer requests come from in a church?

When pastors and elders survey the scope of their ministry, they have no shortage of things to pray about. The sermon for Sunday. The individuals they have shared the gospel with. The couples whose marriages are struggling. The couples who are expecting new babies. The widow who buried her husband in the last year.

Making it harder, these requests are often shared with us in places we don't expect. They come on a Sunday morning where someone catches me in the hall. They come from a surprise Tuesday afternoon conversation when someone pops in my office. They come from a text message I receive on a Saturday morning. Prayer requests come in at all times.

How do you keep track of prayer requests in a church?

As with tracking pastoral care, the most important thing to do to keep track of prayer requests is to write them down. Whether you have a to-do app on your phone, or whether you carry a physical journal, or whether you use a more sophisticated prayer software, you need something that lets you write down and keep track of all the prayer requests throughout your church.

So often, we mean well when people pour out their hearts with us, and we promise to pray for them. Yet, if we don't have it written down, we probably won't remember that request when we spend time in prayer. The big things will stand out in our mind, but the small requests that we promised to pray about will slip through our memory. The worst feeling in the world is when someone tells you, "Thank you so much for praying for me!" when you had actually forgotten to pray for them as much as you intended to!

I have tried lots of different systems to help me keep track of prayer requests. I have used a prayer notebook/journal, but it was hard to keep it updated, and it was hard to manage as the lists grew lengthy. I have used a simple to-do application, but it wasn't exactly tailored to prayer. The app I used (Todoist) was good for handling recurring tasks, but it wasn't good at dividing a long (and dynamically growing/shrinking) list of prayer requests evenly across multiple days.

These considerations went into the Shepherding Prayer application that I built. The best part is that it's integrated with Tracker, so that as I'm logging shepherding contacts, I can add a prayer request right there. Then, when I pull up my daily prayer list, I am surprised at how often I forget about the requests that are waiting for me. Those prayer requests had slipped my mind entirely, and they would have remained forgotten, except that I wrote them down.

How do you write down a prayer request in the moment?

You have to use sanctified common sense in how you write down prayer requests. With some people—and with some requests—I pull out my phone at that moment, explaining that I must write that down so that I don't forget it. Most of the time, people are pleased to see me writing those things down. The trick is with older people, who may not appreciate the intrusion of that technology into the conversation.

Most of the time, I make sure to write down everything right away, as soon as I can after the conversation. If it's still fresh in my mind, this works well. The problems come if "right away" turns into "as soon as I have a chance," and then a number of other things pile up and I forget to write it down altogether.

The best is when I am able to take notes during the conversation, although this really only works on a hands-free phone call. On extended calls, I may write down a number of notes, but I'll also be sure to single out individual prayer requests to add those before I forget them. It's possible to forget prayer requests in the flow of the conversation, so it's always best to write it down as soon as possible.

How do you close a prayer request?

On the one hand, we learn about prayer requests through shepherding contacts. On the other hand, when we pray for our people, we will be reminded to check back in with them to learn how the Lord has been answering those prayer requests.

I know that when I pray through my congregation and come across a prayer request that I have been praying about for a while, that prompts me to send them a text message or to call. It is a wonderful blessing to say (1) I really have been praying for you, and (2) we both should stop and consider how God has been answering these prayer requests. That is an opportunity for freshly praising the Lord who cares about his people.

Once those prayer requests have been answered—whether by directly receiving what we ask for, or by the Lord's providential removal of the circumstance that created the need in the first place—that's my cue to close the request in my system. (In Shepherding Prayer, you can delete, archive, or mark a request as answered.)

May the Lord bless you as you pray for his people!

FAQ

What role does prayer play in pastoral ministry?

Prayer is the source of real power in our ministry. God does not work through our strength, wit, or intelligence. Rather, God's power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9), and that dynamic of our weakness and God's power is never better manifested than when we are in secret crying out to Almighty God on behalf of our people.

Why do we have such a hard time remembering prayer requests?

Our memories aren't built to hold a boundless array of prayer requests. As the saying goes, "a short pencil beats a long memory." When we write down prayer requests, we don't have to spend all of our energy and effort in remembering. Instead, we can turn that energy toward praying.

When is the best time to write down a prayer request?

Immediately. Or, if it is not possible to write it down within the conversation, write it down as soon as possible. The more time that passes—and the more crises that arise—the harder it will be to remember that prayer request until we commit it to writing.

When should you follow up with people you are praying for?

As soon as reasonable to do so. As shepherding contacts provide prayer requests, so also our prayers may prompt shepherding contacts to follow up about how the Lord has answered prayers.

I use Shepherding Prayer to organize my prayer requests, especially to sync them with the congregation I serve and their needs. Shepherding Prayer is free to try, and I invite you to test it out as a resource for better remembering who to pray for.