The Power of Group Prayer - by Carolyn Carney (Paperback)

About the Book

Praying together has the power to transform you and the world around you. Drawing from decades of ministry experience, this practical guide for group prayer from Carolyn Carney offers stories and practices for corporate prayer, reflection questions, and supplemental resources to help pastors and ministry leaders build powerful intercession groups.

Book Synopsis

Praying together has the power to transform you and the world around you. Drawing from decades of ministry experience, this practical guide for group prayer from Carolyn Carney offers stories and practices for corporate prayer, reflection questions, and supplemental resources to help pastors and ministry leaders build powerful intercession groups.

Review Quotes

"Anyone who has been around the church world knows that group prayer meetings can be endurance exercises in spiritual awkwardness. The Power of Group Prayer mercifully puts an end to all that. Here is a compelling and accessible how-to manual that draws us into genuine communion with God through prayer for the sake of God's mission. With the simple humility of rich, personal, lived experience, Carolyn Carney brings a powerful spiritual authority to this insightful guide to effective group prayer. I recommend it to any group who longs to gather together to align with God's heart and grow in their shared experience of effective, creative, powerful, and joy-filled prayer."

"Carolyn Carney has given us a beautiful book with a rich theological and historical context on leading prayer. Carolyn embodies what she teaches as a transformational leader journeying for decades among students. Nothing is more powerful than a well-lead prayer meeting in this our fragile twenty-first century."

"Churches are often busy, but they are not often prayerful. And without prayerful people surrounding our work, our ministry is often powerless. For over a decade, I watched Carolyn Carney inspire and equip generations of students to intercede with power, joy, boldness, and humility. In The Power of Group Prayer, Carolyn shares what she's learned about how to mobilize and equip intercessors: the pathway and the pitfalls, the joys and the dangers, the opportunities and the costs. The students Carolyn trained heard God's voice and experienced his pleasure as they prayed. You will too, if you read this book and put it into action."

"Do you know there are gifted intercessors hiding in plain sight in your churches and fellowships? Maybe you are one of them. The wise and practical teaching offered here will unlock God's good gifts and ignite renewal and transformation in the church. Don't let this book sit on the shelf. Put The Power of Group Prayer into practice and watch the revival begin!"

"In the best of all that is InterVarsity, Carolyn Carney invites the reader to engage deeply with the God of the Word and seek the power of God for the world in which we live. She invites us to a powerful union of both the deeply formed life and passionate participation in God's mission. In the work of prayer we are drawn to Jesus and to practical engagement with the world and community of faith he created. This book is written out of the authority of a life lived authentically with Jesus. She has experienced every word."

"Many of us, believers and unbelievers alike, have all but given up on intercessory prayer. That is until there is nothing else to do, no one else to turn to. Then our hearts lead us back to God and to prayer. Carolyn Carney's clarion call reminds us that prayer, like life itself, is strengthened by joining with others."

"Prayer is an intimate invitation to commune with an infinite God whose love and power is unlimited. Carolyn Carney has accepted that invitation and invites us to do the same as those bearing faithful witness to our God. She boldly reminds us that what we pray for may not change, but we will be unrecognizably transformed."

"Prayer meetings don't have to be boring! In a day of increasing spiritual isolation, this book delightfully expands our imagination for what praying together could be, while offering practical, experience-birthed insight to help others connect with God in old and new ways. Read and be lifted up!"

"This book on prayer is, at its heart, a book about worship. I came to it thinking that I would receive practical instruction about how to pray and lead prayer, and I did. But more importantly, I received a renewed vision of the God of the universe and his transforming purposes in the world to renew all things, and reading this book reignited my longing to be a part of it. Carolyn is both a compelling storyteller and wise guide as she inspires us to join her in this adventure with God and others in prayer."

"With a biblical foundation, personal experience, and relevant application converging in this helpful, timely work, The Power of Group Prayer calls and equips churches to engage a largely forgotten but desperately needed practice."

"Anyone who has been around the church world knows that group prayer meetings can be endurance exercises in spiritual awkwardness. The Power of Group Prayer mercifully puts an end to all that. Here is a compelling and accessible how-to manual that draws us into genuine communion with God through prayer for the sake of God's mission. With the simple humility of rich, personal, lived experience, Carolyn Carney brings a powerful spiritual authority to this insightful guide to effective group prayer. I recommend it to any group who longs to gather together to align with God's heart and grow in their shared experience of effective, creative, powerful, and joy-filled prayer."--Barbara Ettinger, executive associate superintendent in the East Coast Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church

"Carolyn Carney has given us a beautiful book with a rich theological and historical context on leading prayer. Carolyn embodies what she teaches as a transformational leader journeying for decades among students. Nothing is more powerful than a well-lead prayer meeting in this our fragile twenty-first century."--Mac Pier, founder of Movement.org and author of The Power of a City at Prayer

"Churches are often busy, but they are not often prayerful. And without prayerful people surrounding our work, our ministry is often powerless. For over a decade, I watched Carolyn Carney inspire and equip generations of students to intercede with power, joy, boldness, and humility. In The Power of Group Prayer, Carolyn shares what she's learned about how to mobilize and equip intercessors: the pathway and the pitfalls, the joys and the dangers, the opportunities and the costs. The students Carolyn trained heard God's voice and experienced his pleasure as they prayed. You will too, if you read this book and put it into action."--Greg Jao, executive vice president of communications and mobilization at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA and author of Your Mind's Mission

"Do you know there are gifted intercessors hiding in plain sight in your churches and fellowships? Maybe you are one of them. The wise and practical teaching offered here will unlock God's good gifts and ignite renewal and transformation in the church. Don't let this book sit on the shelf. Put The Power of Group Prayer into practice and watch the revival begin!"--Connie Anderson, national director of intercessory prayer, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA

"In the best of all that is InterVarsity, Carolyn Carney invites the reader to engage deeply with the God of the Word and seek the power of God for the world in which we live. She invites us to a powerful union of both the deeply formed life and passionate participation in God's mission. In the work of prayer we are drawn to Jesus and to practical engagement with the world and community of faith he created. This book is written out of the authority of a life lived authentically with Jesus. She has experienced every word."--Brian Wallace, executive director of the Fuller Center for Spiritual Formation

"Many of us, believers and unbelievers alike, have all but given up on intercessory prayer. That is until there is nothing else to do, no one else to turn to. Then our hearts lead us back to God and to prayer. Carolyn Carney's clarion call reminds us that prayer, like life itself, is strengthened by joining with others."--David and Beth Booram, codirectors of Fall Creek Abbey and authors of When Faith Becomes Sight

"Prayer is an intimate invitation to commune with an infinite God whose love and power is unlimited. Carolyn Carney has accepted that invitation and invites us to do the same as those bearing faithful witness to our God. She boldly reminds us that what we pray for may not change, but we will be unrecognizably transformed."--Jonathan Walton, author of Twelve Lies That Hold America Captive and creator of the Emotionally Healthy Activist course

"Prayer meetings don't have to be boring! In a day of increasing spiritual isolation, this book delightfully expands our imagination for what praying together could be, while offering practical, experience-birthed insight to help others connect with God in old and new ways. Read and be lifted up!"--James Choung, coauthor of Longing for Revival

"This book on prayer is, at its heart, a book about worship. I came to it thinking that I would receive practical instruction about how to pray and lead prayer, and I did. But more importantly, I received a renewed vision of the God of the universe and his transforming purposes in the world to renew all things, and reading this book reignited my longing to be a part of it. Carolyn is both a compelling storyteller and wise guide as she inspires us to join her in this adventure with God and others in prayer."--Christine Lee, priest-in-charge at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, New York

"With a biblical foundation, personal experience, and relevant application converging in this helpful, timely work, The Power of Group Prayer calls and equips churches to engage a largely forgotten but desperately needed practice."--Bruce Cochran, region minister, American Baptist Churches of Indiana and Kentucky

About the Author

Carolyn Carney is the national director of spiritual formation for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. She has a master of arts in spiritual formation and leadership from Spring Arbor University and serves as a spiritual director and retreat leader. She has led prayer groups and intercessory prayer training for more than thirty-five years. Carolyn lives in Jersey City, New Jersey, with her husband, David, and their exceptional dog, Keeley.