I have used this idea at several places, all very different worship settings. First it was used in in my apartment in Chicago, as we prayed for each other, second it was used in a house church, third at a college all night worship event setting, and lastly in my current home church.
As people enter the gathering that morning for worship, we have a table set up with markers/crayons and paper. The people that choose to participate are asked to trace their hand, and their children's hands, on a A5 size sheet of paper and write their name in the middle of the hand. They can also add one word that describes what they would like prayer for, and then sticky tack them to the walls in the worship room/sanctuary.
Throughout worship this Sunday and in this case many Sundays to come, people can move throughout the church and basically pray for those hands. They can pray by standing there staring, or physically lay their hands on the outlines of other people's hands.
This time we actually left the hands up on the walls for weeks. We also left the table up so others could trace their hand and put it up (various groups meet at our church during the week, and even some of our non-church members traced there hands because they wanted prayer!! That's the kingdom!)
The idea is connect with each other, and although this is indirectly, there is still a sense of connection. Hopefully this triggers you to think about the hands you prayed for through out the week. The hands on the wall we hope will turn into the hands of the church waiting to be immersed in prayer.
This last time we also utilized some photographers in the community and everyone in the community. The week prior to this service the photographer brought black fabric and took pictures of various peoples hands in the community. Some pictures were just of two hands, some were of couples holding hands, some kids and on and on. They were all taken in Black and White. We uploaded them into iMovie, chose a song and made a short video just showing the hands of God in our community. It was really powerful to have the community so involved with worship.
Some background: I first did this when I lived in Chicago. We actually had them on the inside of our front door and would touch them and say a quick prayer for each other as we went out the door. I volunteered for a year in a very rough part of the city and we all knew we needed all the prayer we could. The idea of it being a simple prayer for each other as flatmates changed one day. The kids in the neighborhood noticed the hands and asked us what they were for. We explained it to them and they and wanted to make hands too. Next thing we knew instead of 6 hands on the door, the door was covered with probably 15-20 hands. This passion for prayer came while re-reading Red Moon Rising.
Kurt works part-time at a church outside of Philadelphia, PA, USA, called Valley View Community Church, leading worship and creative experiences for corporate worship. He received his BA in Sociology from Eastern University, where he interned for Dr. Tony Campolo. Kurt blogs about life & worship– icansing.blogspot.com
