How To Pray For Your Church’s Leaders
RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
Pray that they will. . .
- Be men after God’s own heart. (Acts 13:22 and Psalms 42:1)
- Be men of the word. (Psalms 119:97, Colossians 3:16 & Psalms 119:11)
- Allow God to direct their every step. (Psalms 37:23)
- Have a growing, deepening relationship with God in prayer. (Psalms 37:4 & Psalms 63:1)
- Be spirit-filled men of faith and love. (Ephesians 3:14-19.)
- Have good health, strength, and endurance.
Pray that . . .
- Family members are loving, unselfish, respectful, and understanding. (Ephesians 5:25, 1 Peter 3:7, Ephesians 5:33; 6:1-2; 6:4.)
- Their families are a source of joy and blessing to one another. (Proverbs 23:24; 31:30; 20:7)
- They will have God’s constant protection and peace.
Pray that they will . . .
- Be devoted to prayer and the Word. (Acts 6:4)
- Intercede for and instruct the congregation. (1 Samuel 12:23 & Romans 1:9-10)
- Have a fruitful ministry. (John 15:16 & Colossians 1:28.)
- They will be able to handle with grace and patience, the many responsibilities they have.
- They will be sensitive to the leading of the Lord both as they prepare and as they speak, resulting in the Holy Spirit speaking to us through the message.
- They will have a strong, close, harmonious working relationship with those in leadership.
- The Lord will give them insights into the solution for problems.
- They will know how to counsel those who come to them for advice and help.
- The will equip the saints for service and discipleship. (Ephesians 4:11-12 & 2 Timothy 2:2)
- Be protected from the evil one. (2 Thesselonians 3:1-3)
Pray that . . .
- The congregation will pray regularly for each pastor and his family.
- The congregation will respect and guard as much as possible each pastor’s time with his family, especially in the early mornings, evenings, and weekends.
- The congregation will not impose standards on their children they do not expect from other children.
Where Are You in Your Prayer Life?
Read Matthew 6:9-13
Have you ever felt intimidated about prayer...especially in public? You may have caught yourself comparing yourself to your Sunday School teacher or some other spiritual leader. “I’ll never pray like that!” you tell yourself.
Maybe so, but you probably forgot to consider the level of maturity that believer may have reached. After all, we mature spiritually just like we mature physically...over a period of time. In many ways it would be like a five-year-old child comparing himself to his dad, and wondering why he can’t do the things dad can do.
There is no difference when it comes to prayer. Many levels, in fact, exist between “now I lay me down to sleep” and the most intense level of spiritual warfare. Consider the following:
Level 1: Beginner. This level is where a believer first starts to realize that it is possible to personally talk to God about those things of concern. Most of the focus is on one’s own immediate needs.
Level 2: Growing. As you develop in prayer, you will start to see growth. This will come as you start to reach out beyond yourself and your family and broaden your self-centered praying to include a wider scope of requests (e.g. missionaries, crime, the nation, etc.).
Level 3: Imitation. As you move on to the third level, you will become more aware of how others are praying. You may not feel comfortable praying out loud, but you should be sensing a greater desire to learn about prayer. This level is caught more than taught. As a result, you will want to start learning more about prayer by listening to sermons or reading books.
Level 4: Intercession. At this point, you should begin to find yourself with more of a burden to intercede (prayer on behalf of others). This burden causes you to want to spend more time in the Father’s presence and bring the needs of others to Him. Your prayers focus on His will and His perspective on the things for which you are praying. Another thing you will probably notice at this level is that prayer no longer seems like an obligation. In fact, you may be looking for more time to set aside to pray.
Level 5: Investigation. You will find your faith increasing to believe God can and will do what is asked for in prayer. There is a reaching out to believe for bigger and greater things. Added to the foundation already laid is the need to learn more from others about different aspects of prayer. People at this level often seek out prayer partners. As in previous levels, imitation seems to be the key to unlocking this level.
Level 6: Prayer Warrior. Here the term “spiritual warfare” is often heard. When you operate at this level, your faith and vision will really be at work. Not only are you willing to defend yourself and your loved ones against the attacks of the enemy, but now you “go against the gates of hell.”
Review the six levels of prayer described above. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you where you are at, then pray for a burden to reach the next higher level. To build a “house of prayer” at Grace Church, prayer must begin in your home. How can you improve your prayer life?
From 1995.
Prayer Brings Revival
Houston Miles, pastor of Evangel Cathedral, Spartanburg, South Carolina writes:
Renewal in our church came in 1971. It was a traditional Pentecostal church named First Assembly of God. It had run the same attendance for about fifteen years prior to my coming, and after 1968, when I took the church, there was still about the same number on Sunday morning–about 175. After three years I was beginning to get discouraged. I wasn’t seeing any growth in the church, and I gave serious consideration to quitting the ministry. But I thought that before I did, I should at least pray about it and wait a while and see what the Lord would do.On January 1, 1971, I committed myself to prayer. I did everything I could think of to get the people in my church praying. We had prayer cells. We had an around-the-clock prayer chain on Tuesdays. On Sunday I asked for a show of hands: How many would get up thirty minutes early and pray? About 60 percent raised their hands. I organized prayer partners in the church; I instructed the people to get with a partner once a week. “Don’t gossip, but pray for the church, pray for the pastor, pray for your own needs.” So we prayed for about six months.
The first indication I had that God was doing anything was when people began to come in on Sunday nights. Our crowds on Sunday nights were larger than on Sunday morning, which is unheard of.
From there it just began to explode. We had hundreds of people pouring into our church. We didn’t anticipate it–even though we’d been praying for it. The Lord sneaked up on our blind side.
There was no way we could have organized what happened. Before we knew what was going on, the whole thing was just right off the launching pad. There we were with this revival on our hands. It lasted about four months. Almost every night from August to December we had church till about midnight.
After a month or so, I tried to close it down. One Sunday night I got up and said, “Well, we’ve been going about a month now. Everybody’s pretty tired. We’ve been to church every night till midnight. That’s enough. Let’s close it down.” But we came back Wednesday night for the mid-week service, and the place was packed out. We started up every night again!
Looking back on it, I believe we probably could have gone right through 1972. The momentum was there. During those months we saw hundreds of people won to Christ....
We have never been the same since. Today we have about twelve hundred people. (Excerpted from Power House by Glen Martin & Dian Ginter, p. 17-18.)
If someone asks you to tell them about Grace Church, what is the first thing you bring up? We have a good pastor? The music is inspiring? The friendly people? Our heart for missions? These are all good qualities, but they are not the defining qualities of a great church. Jesus said, “my house will be called a house a prayer.” (Matt. 21:13). Let’s not strive to be just a great church...let’s strive to be an extraordinary church. Let’s strive to be a house of prayer.
Grace Church Must Be A “House of Prayer”
Read: Matthew 21:12-15
The scene is dramatic as recorded by the gospel writer Matthew: a man enters the crowded temple in Jerusalem. He is no ordinary man, however, for He is the very Son of God. The sight of merchants and shoppers wheeling and dealing in God’s temple sparked the righteous anger of the Lord Jesus. He overturned the tables and chased the merchants from the temple exclaiming to them, “My house will be called a house of prayer!”
What would the Lord Jesus say if He entered Grace Church today? Would He see a “House of Prayer”? What are the elements that are common to churches where prayer is at the very center of its activities?
- Prayer is visible from the pulpit. Prayer is a key part of the answer, not something to tack on to the end of a sermon.
- Prayers are offered throughout the service. Prayer saturates every aspect of the service. Members have prayed during the previous week for the Sunday services and activities; several pray with the pastor before he speaks and pray during the service; and there are those available after the service to pray with anyone desiring prayer.
- Leadership is committed to prayer. All leadership, staff and key lay-leaders have a burden and sense of expectancy. They are convinced of prayers effectiveness and as a way of life and devote significant periods of time to its development in their personal lives.
- Prayer is at the top of every agenda. Every meeting, from Elders’ meetings to the smallest Sunday School class are bathed in prayer.
- Prayer is a part of Christian education. Periodically, Sunday School classes teach series on prayer in addition to their regular commitment to praying for the needs of their individual class members. Prayer is a priority in learning.
- The pastors have a strong prayer covering. There are several reasons for this:
Second, even godly leaders cannot win the battle alone.
Third, godly leaders will motivate other people.
Fourth, godly leaders have weaknesses.
- Prayer is the first step, not the last resort. In a house of prayer it is natural to see people praying together about personal problems and interests.
- Intercession is an integral part of the church life. In a praying church, a variety of times and places are available for people to gather to pray–early morning, evening, church, homes, even restaurants over a meal.
From 1995.
Building for the Future
1 Chronicles 29:1-20
It’s a problem many churches would love to have: not enough space. We’re so short of space, if there is a free office, hallway, or closet on Sunday mornings, it’s in use. It could be worse, however; remember 35th Street? Remember what it was like to have 500 or 600 people packed into a lobby that could comfortably hold 100? Remember what it was like to come to church on Palm Sunday or Christmas Eve and crowd around the auditorium doors just to see what was going on inside?
And then there was the parking. If you were disciplined enough to get to church an hour early, you might get a parking place within eyesight of the building. There are many of us, I’m sure, who put on 10 or 20 pounds after we moved into our present facility simply because we no longer had to walk two miles from our cars to the church every Sunday.
God has been very good to us. We now have a beautiful building sitting on 20 acres of land. Every day there are thousands of cars that buzz by our building on the freeway. We have a volleyball court, ball diamond and basketball court. Most importantly, we have an auditorium that seats 700 and an atrium that gives us plenty of room to fellowship.
In spite of all of these positives, we can’t avoid one inescapable truth: we’re out of space. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have an educational wing with enough classes to hold a growing Sunday School? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a sanctuary big enough to seat our entire church family during one incredible service?
What’s the answer? Simple: we have to get excited about building. We need to see the potential this added space would give to our church, and we need to begin praying now that God would provide the funds necessary to finish the project.
The next time you drive by the church, picture in your mind the finished project. See that educational wing extending to the south; see the sanctuary rising above the horizon to the west.
More importantly, see the hundreds of people who will come to know the Lord Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior through this ministry. Picture the classrooms filled with hundreds of people studying God’s Word, becoming disciples, and growing in maturity through the love they have for one another.
What can you do?
1. Pray.
2. Be faithful in your giving.
From 1995.