Personal Use
Begin using the booklet yourself. Become familiar with it. People have appreciated the accessible style and non-preachy tone and it has been a stimulus to their own prayer life. As you use it, pray for your own ‘big issue’ and for others you know. Look for answers as you pray. Begin to ask God who you can pass it on to. Pray for a God-given opportunity to give the booklet to a friend, a colleague, a neighbour or someone you just bump into.
At its simplest, all you need to say in passing it over is:
This booklet is for people who are not religious. Why don’t you try praying for a week and see what happens?
Then pass the booklet over. Easy.
If you are looking to get the booklet for yourself click our resources tab where you can purchase a whole range of trypraying resources for yourself and your church. If you would like to get the booklet for someone dear to you, check out our ideas below to see how you can navigate the minefield of faith conversations and begin to share trypraying with them.
CONVERSATIONS
Trypraying is about getting into conversations. Start with your own conversation with God! Ask him to give you opportunities to be in conversation with people. Then see what happens… It always helps to be a good listener. So ask questions and learn to listen.
Continue to read scripture, learn how Jesus and the Apostles shared the gospel with people and emulate them. Watch videos, or check out the Our Stories section of this website to get inspired for sharing your faith.
STARTERS
Here are a few ideas:
- When talking with someone about a concern: job, health, family, etc. you could ask: “Have you ever tried praying about this?” or simply state: “I’ll definitely be praying about that.” and gauge their reaction.
- “We’ve got a thing going on at church. We’re all using a booklet called trypraying. I think you would be interested to see it. Can I show you?”
- “Have you ever prayed?”
- Or a gentle challenge: “Why don’t you try praying for a week and see what happens.”
In what follows there will be an opportunity to share something of your own experience. At some point in the conversation you can offer the booklet and encourage them with a few words, ‘I’ve found this really helpful. I think you would like it.’ It’s often helpful to introduce it by saying, “This is for people who are not religious and who don’t do church!” making people either curious or relieved! There are many people for whom this is an easy and appreciated gift. A minister wrote about the booklet, “It’s a brilliantly simple, totally accessible and non-cringey booklet that any of us would benefit from personally, but which has actually been written for people who aren’t religious.”
NEXT
When you next meet you should ask how it went, what interested them, or if they managed to pray. Ask whether they feel their view of God has changed in any way. Refer to stories in the trypraying booklet or the section on questions. You could ask, ‘Did you pray the prayer on Day 5?’ This is where a person can respond to God’s love and forgiveness. Talk about what it means to be forgiven. Share your experience of understanding God’s love. You could ask , ‘Did you pray the prayer on Day 6?’ Talk about Jesus promise to come in to our lives when we ask him. Share your own experience of Christ coming to you. Encourage them with his faithfulness to give new life to all who sincerely ask. Perhaps they have already invited Christ to be part of their life. If so encourage them in the adventure. If not you can ask what it is that is holding them back and see if you can help with that and/or pray with them about it.
Maybe we could address more how to respond/react if people haven’t been keeping up with the prayers? Do you think it would be appropriate to encourage people not to become jaded or hurt over unbelievers not committing to the booklet? Something like this for example:
If you face a lot of pushback or minimal engagement from people, don’t be angry or worried; Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.’ ” – John, 10:27. Jesus will gather his sheep and despite facing rejection we should rejoice that we get to be a part of his great commission. Even if your attempts to share the good news don’t seem to be getting through on the surface, who knows what kinds of seeds you’re planting in that person’s heart for a future harvest.
Want to join in? click here.
Town and City Use
A project for churches to do together
Using trypraying with other churches makes a great impact and demonstrates unity in the gospel. It also opens up advertising possibilities. This can make an impact on a whole town or city.
Although many churches working together opens up more possibilities of putting things into the public space with advertising. getting it started on can be a challenge. It will require coordination, communication and prayer. To state the obvious, it is always a good thing to do the praying first. Ask God if this is what he wants. Then take action.
Many places have local gatherings and networks of church leaders. The idea can be shared there. An email sent to everyone with a link to the trypraying video (trypraying – the idea) may be a good place to start. Getting it on to the agenda in a local network meeting would come next. It may be a good thing to see people individually by suggesting you meet for coffee to talk about it. Plan for a two week period (allowing flexibility!) for churches to all do the project at the same time. It doesn’t take long for this to get started in a church.
It is such a simple thing it will not need a long lead time.
There is an amazing sense of excitement that is palpable when the same logo appears on banners on many different churches and people begin to hear about Jesus Christ in a relevant and accessible way. There is a hunger for spiritual reality and it is always OK to have conversations about our faith. This makes it an easy start to have conversations about faith.
“Trypraying is a simple, proven and effective way to help people encounter God. It is
non-threatening, easy to use and yet profound. To see a city full of posters simply
suggesting people ‘try praying’ has been so inspiring – but to hear the stories of lives changed is amazing!” – Rev Dave Richards, Rector at Ps and Gs Church, Edinburgh.
Church Use
Use it and lose it.
The core idea is to give everyone in a congregation a copy of the booklet for one week and encourage them to check it out (Use it). The next week encourage everyone to look for a God-given opportunity to give the booklet to a friend, a neighbour, or a colleague (Lose it). They can encourage people by saying: “Try praying for a week and see what happens.” That’s it. Simple. Subsequently we can ‘news it’ by asking people to tell the stories of what has happened as people have prayed and shared their faith.
Churches are making use of this initiative, and, in many places, churches are working together to make a greater impact. See below for how other people have used our resources in their churches or community!
The trypraying booklet and smart phone app are not for Christians. Trypraying is unapologetically for those outside the church: the irreligious and the self-respecting agnostic. It’s very simple for anyone to pass on to a friend or a family member with a few words of encouragement ‘trypraying for seven days and see what happens.’
Aside from the booklet, the trypraying logo has had a major impact on many people’s lives. It’s possible to make it visible on your church or in your local area with banners, posters, car stickers and advertising.
IDEAS
For your church.
- Choose two Sundays – one to introduce trypraying to everyone by giving a copy of the booklet to use themselves and the next to encourage them to give it away. (‘Use it and lose it’).
- Get a trypraying banner to put up outside. The Spring bundle has 100 booklets and a banner for a substantial discount. There are other resources too.
- Pray for the congregation to get into conversations to share the booklet with friends. Pray for people to become Christians and for good stories to come back to encourage the church.
For your town or city.
- Contact other church leaders.
- Share information about trypraying.
- Bring people together into a meeting to decide: whether, when and how to work together.
- Contact us for help.
Want to join in? click here.