From 25 May to 4 June, Christians up and down the country, and across the world, will be praying for people to get to know Jesus, an event called Thy Kingdom Come. The hope is that people will be transformed through prayer be given new confidence and encouragement by the Holy Spirit and be effective witnesses to Jesus Christ.
To help you, your family, your children’s and youth groups and your church family as a whole, you can get yourself some Thy Kingdom Come resources. Stuffed full of prayer ideas for all sorts of contexts, all the resources are designed to give you ideas for prayer at home, in church and wherever you might pray. Here’s the lowdown on what you can get.
Kingdom Kit
The most eye-catching part of the whole set of resources, this box is full of resources to help you and your family pray. The accompanying leaflet gives instructions for activities that use the resources, providing a daily structure for prayer for the time Thy Kingdom Come runs. This is a great starter kit for a family prayer time (providing you can keep your hands off the sweets until Day 3).
Bright prayer ideas for families at home
This booklet gives families more ideas to try at home, including craft, activities to do on holiday (for example, on a beach or up a mountain) and simple everyday prayer ideas. You’ll need extra resources (you have to provide your own mountain), but there’s nothing too difficult to get hold of.
Family creative prayer journal
Created by the people at Engage Worship, this journal has lots of different activities for families to do together. Keeping a journal like this helps families revisit prayers from previous days to see how God has answered them. The journal includes teaching on prayer, and lots of different ideas.
Bright prayer ideas for your church
This booklet is full of ideas for use in all-age services, other church services or for putting on special prayer events during Thy Kingdom Come, and beyond. There’s advice on running a 24/7 prayer space, an assembly outline and plans for children’s and youth sessions. For Messy Churches, there’s a special outline on prayer.
Resources for prayer and worship
For services and events for adults, this resource has texts and outlines that are drawn from traditionally Anglican forms of prayer and worship. It has a service outline and daily prayers and readings.
Overall, the resources provide you with a wealth of ways to engage. In fact, there’s so much that, if you get all of it, you’ll need to set aside time to look through everything so that you can find the best resources for your context. However, it’s worth that small effort, as you’ll be able to empower children, young people, families and adults engage in prayer for those who have yet to catch sight of Jesus. What an exciting privilege!
The resources are available from CPO.
Alex Taylor is part of the youth and children’s team for the Diocese of London. He likes baking, Bolton Wanderers and the Eurovision Song Contest.