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Four Guidelines for Pastors |
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By Cheryl Sacks
Pastors who desire to establish praying churches can delegate many responsibilities to their associates and prayer leaders; however, scores of pastors across the nation confirm that some things just can’t be delegated.
After talking with pastors about their role in calling their church to prayer, the following guidelines emerged:
- Develop
an authentic prayer life. Statistics indicate that many pastors pray
about five minutes a day. As pastors, our efforts to establish a
praying church will be in a strong position from the beginning if we
have started the building process with our own lives. A personal belief
in the power of prayer is fundamental.
- Take ownership for the
prayer ministry. We are the primary initiators of the vision, and
motivators of the people. Our efforts at becoming houses of prayer will
be spurred by our own ability to have a clear vision, preach about it,
promote it in the church, and celebrate it through prayer events and
activities.
- Mentor and disciple the prayer leaders. When we
become interested in their lives, they are strengthened and enabled to
carry out our church’s vision for prayer. Mentor them in prayer, mentor
them in the values of the church, and mentor them in leadership.
- Build
and maintain rapport with the prayer leaders of your church. It’s not a
task—it’s a relationship. The prayer ministry will grow out of these
conditions. Try not to delegate the entire ministry to a prayer
coordinator with the words, “Call me if you have any problems.” Your
prayer leaders will be motivated and inspired to the extent that you
take a real interest in them.
Leonard Griffin, pastor
of Covenant of Grace, tells the story of how he learned this lesson.
His prayer ministry was experiencing conflicts, power struggles and
accusations.
“At first I just wanted to close down the prayer ministry. Then I
realized this was happening because I had spent no time with the prayer
leaders. I didn’t take time to get them on board with the church’s
vision. It’s no wonder they had developed their own agenda.”
Leonard does things differently now. “Two years before I appointed my
present prayer leader, I recognized that he was a potential prayer
leader candidate. My wife and I began spending time with him and his
wife. I took him through a discipleship program. More than the
information that was being imparted, I realized that the greater value
was the time we spent talking about the vision of the church and
praying together.”
--Taken from The Prayer Saturated Church by Cheryl Sacks (NavPress 2004). Used by permission.
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November 2005