The current implementation of the prayers list seems to be focused around a specific prayer need that is expected to be answered/resolved, but it would be nice for these kinds of prayers to be wrapped up into long-term prayer cards (for lack of a better term).
For example, I pray for each of my children daily, and will continue to pray for them daily for the rest of my/their lives, but the specific things I pray for for them will change over time. Some things I pray for are active/approaching needs (e.g. a struggling friendship, recovery from illness, etc.) but other things are more permanent fixtures (e.g. understand God’s love more deeply, handle anger in a more mature/godly way, etc.). The current implementation would force me to essentially have a prayer list per person, ministry, thing, etc. that I am committed to long-term prayer for.
Instead, if I could have lists contain one or more of these “cards” (e.g. Family (list) -> Wife, Child 1, Child 2, Child 3, …) and determine the desired schedule for the list as a whole, I could maintain these long-term prayer needs more effectively.
Meeting a ministry need as well
This functionality could also be used to meet a significant ministry need. Many of the missionaries I support will send us updated prayer lists every week or two with a list of ministry needs, people, etc. Instead, they could create and share a prayer list with these types of long-term prayer cards, with the ability to update the individual prayer needs/answers on a per-card basis, but recognizing that God answering one prayer need doesn’t mean that person/need no longer requires prayer.
This could also facilitate community commitment to meet needs in prayer. If we, as a community, commit to praying for everything on a given shared prayer list daily (or at whatever rate), when I open that shared set of prayer cards, I could see which have already been prayed for and prioritize those which have not yet been prayed for, ensuring we, as the committed community, are blanketing every need of the ministry in the needed prayer.
Mock up
I also have this version of a prayer card based prayer application written in google sheets and have been using it for years. It works well for an individual, but does not facilitate the sharing of lists well given that it is not a full-scale application. But I am happy to demo the functionality or share the sheet for reference if helpful.
