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The Pastor’s Prayer Life—the Ministry Side
Donald G. McDougall
A pastor can utilize various practical means for implementing scriptural calls to prayer into the life of a local church. It is of highest importance to emulate good models of prayer, both from Scripture and from everyday experience. As their motivation to pray, God’s people need to appreciate the importance of prayer. Prayer by individual Christians, by Christian leaders, by the corporate body of the church, by small groups, and by men are all necessary. The content of prayers should focus predominantly on ultimate spiritual battles with the forces of evil rather than on the mundane affairs of everyday life. A right purpose and a proper attitude should determine the manner of prayers. The outworking of prayer needs to show in one’s personal life, family life, daily meetings, prayer meetings, small group meetings, staff meetings, Sunday services, and leadership meetings. Ultimately, members of the congregation must have as examples leaders who model the importance of prayer in their lives.
Discipling is receiving a lot of attention lately. A major part of discipling is modeling, a fact that is evident from Scripture and from everyday life. A conference speaker recently observed that a church, in time, tends to mirror its pastor. Since children in a home tend to mirror their parents, it should not be a surprise that imitation takes place in ministry as well. Paul said to the church at Thessalonica, “You also became imitators of us and of the Lord” (1 Thess. 1:6). That is why it is challenging for a pastor to consider discipling people to pray. We talk about prayer, but are we willing to model it, even though we know that no matter how much we pray, we will still be far from perfect?
One of the rare privileges of the disciples was watching the Lord model prayer. Our Savior found it necessary to spend extended periods of time in prayer, so much so that He did not have to remind His close followers to pray. He modeled prayer and did so without making a public display of His prayer life. He certainly did not hide it, however. The influence of His prayer life is evident in the attention given it by the Gospel writers. He not only modeled prayer, but He also responded to His disciples’ request for instruction in how to pray (Luke 11:1–4).
Scripture provides many other models of praying people. One of the best ways to learn about prayer is to study the prayer life of people like Moses, Nehemiah, David, Paul, and numerous other biblical characters. They talked and wrote about their prayer life. What kind of letter could we write were we to share our prayer life with others as they did? We are reticent to discuss our prayer life, because it is not what we wish it were.
In addition to profiting from models of prayer in Scripture, some of us have been blessed by other models God has brought into our lives. Two men have taught me much about prayer. One of them was my father, who brought me the greatest joy as I listened to him pray. As a child, I would find my father either reading his Bible or praying very early every morning. A fellow missionary told me of an occasion when my father was not well, and yet each morning his office light was on at 4:00. One day she asked him, “Why don’t you sleep later in the morning and try to get better?” He replied, “Because I have too many things to pray for, and I can’t afford to sleep in.” The other example was my father-in-law, with whom I had some of my greatest experiences in prayer. I have never known anybody who prayed the way he did, during the day or through the night. Prayer was his response to any problem he faced. I spent countless nights of prayer with him, praying principally for revival, which he loved to do. What a heritage!
Although many of us can in no way measure up to the examples in Scripture or in life, we do have some patterns to follow. The contents of this chapter are the result of a quest to learn some of the principles Scripture sets forth for prayer. The purpose is not to give an exhaustive statement on prayer. In fact, even the topics addressed cannot receive exhaustive treatment in a work this size. The principles included here stem from the reflections of a fellow servant and a fellow shepherd regarding truths that have emerged in his heart over many years. The following principles are not mere theory, but have proven their practical effectiveness time and time again.
THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER
God’s people need to learn to pray. We miss so many things necessary for the spiritual victory that God would gladly provide if we would come to Him in prayer. James 3 ends with a reminder of the need for peace to reign in relationships among Christians. James 4 begins with a description of the cause of the conflict that all too often replaces that peace. James 4:2 then provides a most interesting remedy for problems of conflict, a remedy called prayer: “You do not have because you do not ask.” Yet we fail to use the remedy by not going to God in prayer. Joseph Scriven stated it well in the first stanza of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”:
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer.
Why do we seek solutions to our problems so many other ways besides through prayer? Often the first response to a problematic situation in the church is to call a meeting to decide how to overcome it. In contrast, when on one occasion Jesus identified a major challenge facing Him and His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Luke 10:2), His first action was to instruct the twelve, “Pray therefore” (RSV). In response to this philosophy, Hull wrote, “
Prayer is the most effective recruiting tool that leaders possess. . . . Leaders can employ various recruiting tools: entertainment followed by an appeal; guilt stimulation followed by an appeal; calling favors followed by an appeal; arm twisting followed by an appeal; and old reliable, the tear-jerker film or story followed by a tear-jerker appeal. These are common, but not commanded recruiting techniques. The various appeals mentioned above are prefaced or followed by the obligatory prayer. But how common is the organization that uses prayer as their primary recruiting method? . . . I do not argue against the use of other methods in addition to prayer, but against the use of other methods as primary means of recruiting.1
At the very root of it all is the need for each believer to realize that prayer is foundational; prayer is not supplemental. Believers need to pray more, to pray more often and to pray over many more issues. The reminder to Israel in 2 Chronicles 7:13–14 is just as applicable today as it ever was. If we are to experience the blessings that only God can give, we as God’s people must humble ourselves and pray.
The Need for People to Pray
A major problem—perhaps the major problem—facing many evangelical churches today is the failure to appreciate the need for prayer. The ultimate challenge is not to convince people to pray. It is rather to help them realize why they need to pray.
In times of crisis very few need convincing that they should pray. Let a major illness or financial catastrophe come into the life of an individual or community, and even those not normally inclined to pray will commit themselves to prayer. It does not always take something major. It can be just something that is important to the individual, something that triggers a sense of the need of prayer.
If Christians understood what kind of crises they face, they would not need constant reminders to pray. They would be continually on their faces before God. Believers usually focus their prayer on physical or financial needs, the types of things that are solvable from a merely physical or financial perspective. They could arrange more planning meetings, more workdays, or whatever else would resolve the issues. On the other hand, if they were convinced that their problems are spiritual, they would spend more time in prayer meetings than in planning meetings.
An average day in the life of a pastor reflects this faulty mentality. He gets up in the morning and faces a full schedule of responsibilities. He has many meetings to attend and many crises to tend to. Not to be forgotten among other duties are two sermons to prepare for Sunday. He sets out to meet the many demands on his time through applying himself diligently to the extent that his physical strength will allow. He later realizes that, aside from a few token prayers throughout the day, he has not had time alone with the Lord. If he really believed that the real issues facing him in each of those situations were ultimately spiritual rather than physical, he would spend a great deal more time in concentrated prayer to God for His intervention in them.
We pastors tend to address surface problems without looking beyond them to the real problems facing the church. We often forget that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). If human effort is the means of victory over spiritual forces, then the more believers exert themselves physically, the greater the chance of victory. On the other hand, if the only recourse is to depend fully upon the Lord, then they would spend more time on their faces in His presence, seeking His help.
Many passages in Scripture address this issue. In Nehemiah 1:3, Nehemiah’s brother described Israel’s problem as follows: “The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire.” On the surface, the problem seemed to be simply physical, but Nehemiah realized that such was not the case, as verses 4–11 reflect. The problems were primarily spiritual, not physical, so the only answer was to seek God’s intervention. Therefore, he went to God in prayer, and God answered by intervening in the way described in Nehemiah 2.
Nehemiah’s situation and prayer recall Israel’s earlier history when they had been without rain for three years, and “David sought the presence of the LORD” (2 Sam. 21:1). God revealed to him that the real problem was not physical but spiritual.
Another very important passage points out the believer’s dependence on the Lord’s strength and empowerment even in areas that are very physical. In Zechariah 4, Zerubbabel was leading the people of Israel in rebuilding the temple after their return from exile. In this case, God came to a man, not man to God. He encouraged Zerubbabel, the leader of the people, in directing the people to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. The key statement reminded Zerubbabel that it is “ ‘not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts” (v. 6). Dr. Charles Feinberg’s rendering of this statement to our class one day is unforgettable: “ ‘Not by human strength, nor by human ingenuity, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
The Need for Leaders to Pray
If the church wants to succeed in its God-given mission, its leadership must realize that one of its greatest needs is more prayer meetings, not more planning meetings. If the monthly leadership meetings would give more time to praying than to planning, leaders would soon find changes in attitude, in perspective on ministry, and in results.
The bottom-line objective is for the leadership to face the fact that the church of which they are a part is not their church; it is God’s church. And the people they lead are not their flock but very distinctly God’s flock. The purpose of their meetings is not to come to a consensus about running the church but to wait upon God to find out how He wishes His church to run.
Leaders in the early church brought in other individuals to plan and program so that they might “devote” themselves “to prayer, and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). By their example they evidenced that the two best ways of knowing and yielding to the mind of God are prayer and a commitment to reading, obeying, and teaching God’s Word without rationalization or reservation. Prayer was and is a major key. To our shame, many of us who are committed to the importance of the ministry of the Word do not have an equal commitment to the importance of prayer.
The Need for the Corporate Body to Pray
Prayer by individuals and by the leadership is not sufficient, however. The church needs to spend more time in corporate prayer. A contemporary perspective is that the midweek prayer service is outmoded and does not belong in the church of the twenty-first century. The broader and more important issue is why so many do not consider corporate prayer meetings an essential part of the church schedule. One suggestion has been that small groups now exist in order to provide for more meaningful prayer. Yet can smaller, more meaningful prayer groups ever replace what the larger body accomplishes when it gathers for periods of prayer?
Actually, this move away from midweek congregational prayer meetings is not a recent innovation. It has been coming for years, but believers have found it difficult to dismiss such an established part of the church life. Part of the problem is that what has been called a prayer meeting has not been that at all. It has rather been a midweek Bible study with a little prayer thrown in. Bible study is important and appeals to a larger number of people than does prayer. The idea of a midweek Bible study is very commendable, but it should not crowd out the important role that prayer plays just because prayer is less attractive. If it does, the unspoken message of such action is that prayer is not that important.
Churches often decide to eliminate corporate prayer meetings (whether midweek or at some other time) simply for pragmatic reasons. One of the major problems with extended corporate prayer services has not been the services themselves, but the way of conducting them. Some mishandled services should have seen their end a long time ago. Some who are responsible for terminating corporate prayer services have never attended corporate prayer services where meaningful prayer continued for an extended time. Relatively few services of this type are still available for them to attend. Having never seen God move powerfully through a purposeful prayer service, they have not understood the need to continue with the meaningless and merely perfunctory exercises that they have witnessed.
A standard question I ask whenever anyone initiates a new idea for the church is, “Why?” What is our purpose? What are we trying to accomplish? How does it fit into the purpose statement of the church (if in fact such a statement exists)? With that criterion in mind, a question might be, “Why did the church set apart a night for corporate prayer in the past?” What was its purpose? The issue does not relate just to the midweek prayer meeting. It is whether or not the need still exists for extended periods of corporate prayer. If it does, how is that need being met?
The Need for Small Groups to Pray
Small-group prayer definitely has a place. It is not an either/or proposition in comparison with corporate prayer; it is both/and. Small groups are a setting where people often feel a greater sense of security and confidentiality. They feel free to share things they would not otherwise share. Sharing in a smaller group can lead participants to do so more freely than in a larger setting. An atmosphere of openness is a worthy objective to be developed by the church. It is a part of the church’s functioning as a body.
The Need for Men to Pray
An additional part of discussing the importance of prayer is to note the part that men play. When it comes to prayer, men have a God-given responsibility to provide leadership for the entire congregation. First Timothy 2 begins with an emphatic statement of the need for prayer. Verses 2–7 are somewhat of a digression. With the conjunction “therefore” in verse 8, Paul resumed the general subject of prayer initiated in verse 1. In returning to the theme of prayer, it is the men whom he addressed. Verses 9–15 address women with respect to their demeanor, but verse 8 addresses men with reference to prayer. The Greek word for men clearly indicates that it is males who are in view. The location of their prayer is “in every place.” The preparation made before coming to prayer is to have “holy hands, without wrath and dissension” (v. 8). How exciting it is when men take the leadership in prayer both at home and in the church!
THE CONTENT OF PRAYER
God gives a significant warning in James 4:3 as He points to the danger of asking for the wrong kinds of things and for the wrong reasons: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” Many areas of our prayer life certainly need examining in that regard. A comparison of our prayer lives with many examples in Scripture, especially that of the apostle Paul, reveals glaring weaknesses in our praying. The weaknesses lie in the kinds of things for which we pray and what they indicate about our understanding of prayer and its ultimate purpose.
Have we reflected that much on the kinds of things we pray for? Are the real challenges of the Christian life primarily physical, financial, or interpersonal? If not, why are they so prominent in our prayers? What is our purpose in coming to God and what do we seek from Him?
It is interesting to see what the Bible identifies as the root cause of problems. The problem of family strife receives treatment in Ephesians 5:22—6:9, but the next section (6:10–20) identifies the devil as the ultimate source of that problem. The problem of self-control over such things as the tongue (James 3:1–5) has its ultimate source in hell itself (v. 6). The problem of internal tensions is ultimately traceable to demonic forces (vv. 13–18). The ultimate solution to interpersonal strife (4:1–6) is to “submit . . . to God” and “draw near to God” and to “resist the devil” (vv. 7–8). Problems between the leadership of the church and those being led have their source largely in the onslaught of the devil (1 Pet. 5:1–11).
What is the bottom-line problem? Peter identified it very clearly in 1 Peter 5:8 when he commanded members of the church to “be of sober spirit, be on the alert,” or as one has put it, “Pay Attention! Wake Up!”2 The tenses of the imperatives make it clear that he is not saying, “Stay awake,” but rather, “Become awake.”3 Immediately afterward Peter reminded his readers of their need to be aware that their singular and very real adversary is the devil. The words recall Paul’s statement that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). A clear understanding of this can and will transform the prayer life of individuals and local churches.
I personally struggled for years with the first three chapters of Ephesians. As difficult as the grammatical and lexical problems were, they were not the major problem. The real issue was how the subjects discussed fit practically into my life or into the life of the church. What was difficult for me to understand were the things for which Paul prayed. They were in another world. They did not fit into the kind of prayers I regularly prayed and certainly not into the kind of prayers I heard others pray. One time when concluding a series of messages on Ephesians, I came to Ephesians 6:10–20, and finally the light dawned. Paul’s prayers related to another sphere, because he understood that our real struggles are in that other sphere.
That was life-changing. I then reflected on my own personal prayers and on the majority of prayer requests regularly given by people at prayer meeting and on cards submitted by members. Almost everything mentioned as an item for prayer was either physical or financial. This may reflect a worldly mind-set that is totally absorbed with things in the material sphere. Such thinking fails to consider that the real issues of life find their roots in the sphere of the heavenlies. Failure to take into account that our problems do not have roots in the physical sphere but in the spiritual will show up in the nature of our prayer. The reason we do not see answers to prayer often is that our eyes are not on the sphere where true warfare takes place. Is that not partly why we find ourselves in the dilemma described by James: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:3)?
THE MANNER OF PRAYER
In addition to the importance and the content of prayer is the need for care in praying in the right manner. Two matters pertaining to the manner of prayer are the purpose and the attitude of the one approaching God’s throne in prayer.
The Purpose of Prayer
People often seem to be trying to use prayer to accomplish their own purpose in their own way. This is wrong, because prayer is a God-ordained way for man to ask God to accomplish His purpose in His way. One of the most important aspects of praying is to come to see what God desires and then to pray that He will accomplish it.
Many passages reflect God’s desire to fulfill His will in response to prayer. One clear one is Zechariah 3. Development of the entire passage is not possible, but a summary of the message is as follows: Zechariah was in the midst of recording the night visions he had received from God. In his account, Joshua the high priest was standing before God in filthy garments. Then in a beautiful picture of God’s gracious work for sinners, He says to the angelic beings standing by, “Remove the filthy garments from him” (v. 4). He then said to Joshua, “See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.” In all his night visions, only one time did Zechariah attempt to interject something into God’s stated plan and purpose. This was when he pled, “Let them put a clean turban on his head” (v. 5), which is exactly what they did.
Why did Zechariah interfere with the proceedings to request this of God? The answer is a helpful reminder for us in our prayer life. The robes which the angel of the Lord (the preincarnate Christ) was going to put on Joshua were “festal robes” (v. 4). Zechariah sensed something lacking in the attire of this high priest and therefore asked for the placing of a clean turban. The turban worn by the high priest was of fine linen and “bore upon the front of it, ‘Holiness to the Lord’ (Ex. 28:36) and indicated that Joshua was morally and spiritually cleansed.”4 Zechariah realized that after the removal of the filthy garments and before the putting on of the festal robes, the turban, which spoke of holiness and purity, had to be in place. The beauty is that God concurred and granted Zechariah’s desire.
What a beautiful picture! We need to be in such a close relationship with the Lord and have such an understanding of His will that we are sensitive to what He desires. We are not to take God’s desires for granted but should rather make our request according to what we know His wishes are. He is then ready to respond to our request.
We often try to use prayer to change difficult circumstances that God purposes to use to change us. Joshua wanted victory; God wanted a change in the lives of His people (Joshua 7). David wanted rain; God wanted a change in the lives of His people (2 Samuel 21). Ultimately, both Joshua and David received what they wanted, because God ultimately wanted the same thing, but He did not want it until they had done something tangible to evidence a change of behavior.
Attitude in Prayer
What kind of attitude do we portray when we pray? Several Scriptures address this need, but one that stands out is 1 Peter 4:7. Drawing on verse 5, which says God is “ready to judge the living and the dead,” Peter concluded in verse 7 that “the end of all things is at hand.” Since the end will be very soon, he reminded the readers that “there is an increased need for watchfulness and prayer. . . . Men are not to neglect their duties, or fall into panic.”5 The first verb telling those praying to “keep your heads . . . connotes the cool head and balanced mind which is the opposite of all 
or undue excitement.”6 This fits with Peter’s subsequent command about “casting all your anxiety upon Him” (5:7).
In approaching God in prayer, one needs to be careful to enter His presence with the right purpose and the right attitude. He must desire God’s will to be done (not the will of the one praying) and must exhibit the right attitude. Christ’s return is near, and when He comes, He will manifest His sovereign control over all things and all people. Such a God presently controls every circumstance we face. It is because of this that our Lord Jesus Christ “kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Pet. 2:23). Peter reminded his readers, “Let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right” (4:19). As we approach God in prayer, we must not become unduly excited but must maintain a cool head and balanced mind for the purpose of prayer. We must exhibit confidence in Him, cast all anxiety upon Him (5:7), and “be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let [our] requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6).
THE OUTWORKING OF PRAYER
It is important to apply the above principles to the life of the church and not merely theorize regarding what ought to be. We have many books on prayer and soul-winning, and yet we seem to do so little of both. What follows is not an attempt to tell others what they ought to do or to provide guidelines by which to measure their prayer lives or ministries. The suggestions are merely steps the author has tried or is trying to implement or has learned from the lives of others in attempting to apply biblical concepts about prayer to both life and ministry.
In Personal Life
The most basic test of what we believe is whether or not we apply the truths to our own personal lives and ministries. The questions are not, “Should we pray?” “Should prayer be foundational?” and “Should prayer play a pivotal role in our daily or weekly life?” They are rather, “Do I pray?” “Is prayer foundational in my life and not just supplemental?” and “Does prayer play a pivotal role in my daily or weekly life?”
I recently heard a speaker who referred to a covenant group of which he is a part and with whom he meets about five times a year. In those meetings he is asked whether he has been praying for an hour a day, and if not, why not. Maybe you and I do not want to covenant with someone else to whom we are accountable that we will pray for an hour a day. We should not necessarily do so, but if I am not willing to covenant to pray for an hour a day, why not? An hour a day in prayer is minimal at best if I really see prayer as foundational. Am I ready to make that kind of commitment?
In Family Life
Prayer in the life of a family needs constant reexamination and adjustment. As our personal and married lives and the lives of our children change in circumstances, we need to readjust those times we spend together before the Lord. Sad to say, many families have not made those adjustments as well as they should have. Do I pray with my wife as often as I should? How often would that be? That last question has no specific answer, but in spite of how great our overall relationship has been, our times of prayer together have not been as often as they could or should have been. Do I pray with family members as much as I ought? Do I pray as much as I should with our youngest son, who as our only teenager is still in that significant developing stage of his life? Is the time we spend together by his bed or mine enough?
In Daily Meetings
Many times when someone drops by or has an appointment to come into the office, the conversation begins and ends without any time spent in prayer. It happens all too often. More tragically, in some of those meetings we make decisions affecting the life of God’s local body of which we are a part. It is very easy for a casual conversation to turn into a business matter, and we simply neglect, though not purposefully, to stop to acknowledge God’s presence and concern for what we are doing.
We could make it a practice to remind each other when we fail to include prayer in our times of discussion. We should feel free to stop a conversation in order to recognize the presence of the Lord. Prayer can come at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of our meetings. Doing all three is not a bad idea either.
Why pray in times like that? Is it simply some type of perfunctory thing we do just because we should? No, it is much more than that. It is recognition of His presence with us. It is recognition that our total dependence is upon Him for everything we do and discuss doing. It is because we realize that without Him we can do absolutely nothing (John 15:5).
In Leadership Meetings
In our church, we are concentrating our efforts on making prayer a focal part of all our leadership meetings. This is worthy of a more extended discussion than is possible here. We can only suggest some basic principles by which we attempt to operate, which when applied cause the focus to be on prayer. We continually attempt to move the decision-making process down, not up. That is not a statement about authority, but it does have a lot to do with the matter of power. This also has nothing to do with what is commonly termed “congregational rule.” It is rather a planned step away from centers of power at the board level, staff level, or anywhere else in the church. According to Peter, “to Him be power for ever and ever” (1 Pet. 5:11 NRSV). God is the only one to whom power belongs in the church. The board members do not abdicate their place of leadership but allow others to be involved with the decision-making process in areas that do not pertain to policy or matters of spiritual direction. Instead of letting a variety of housekeeping issues dictate the nature and length of meetings, as they often have done in the past, the spiritual leaders (that is, board members) devote their time to spiritual ministry, in large part to prayer.
This emphasis does not just happen; the leadership must plan it and work it out. Five important principles facilitate the achievement of this goal. Some of them may not seem immediately to relate to prayer, but all of them, when seen together, lead to a greater emphasis on prayer.
Church leadership is about overseeing God’s church, not our church. For prayer to become a priority, it is essential to remember that the church we serve is God’s church. Paul addressed one of his letters “to the church of God which is at Corinth” (1 Cor. 1:2). It is God’s church, and the flock to which we have received a call to minister is God’s flock, as Peter so aptly indicated in 1 Peter 5:2. God’s ownership of His flock is not a concept that originated in the New Testament. Through Ezekiel, God reminded his people,
“As I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “surely because My flock has become a prey, My flock has even become food for all the beasts of the field for lack of a shepherd, and My shepherds did not search for My flock, but rather the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock. . . . Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I shall demand My sheep from them and make them cease from feeding sheep” (Ezek. 34:8, 10).
It is God’s church. God’s flock and God’s sheep fill God’s church. That is an important reminder to those of us who refer to our/my church, our/ my people, our/my board, or our/my leaders. They do not belong to us; they belong to Him and to Him alone. Reportedly, over 80 percent of all church problems center around power struggle or control. That stems from viewing the local church as our church, because we have been there for so long or have sacrificed to bring it to the point where it is. No matter what price we have paid, it will never compare with the price He paid to bring His church into being.
Church leadership is about authority, not power. A major problem facing contemporary society is authority. Disrespect for secular authority has grown and has spread into Christian homes and churches in an alarming fashion. Christians do not respect the authority of the Word of God, the authority of church leaders, or the authority of parents as they should. In many cases, those who are supposed to be in authority have caused the problem. They have abdicated their role of leadership and often blame the problem on those whom they are supposed to lead.
In addition to the matter of authority, the church must address the issue of power. Authority is one thing; power is another. We need a greater sense of authority and a lesser sense of power. We must continue emphasizing the need for authority; we must rid ourselves of the many instances of power abuse. Church leadership is not about having or wielding power. We need to dispense with all centers of power within the church, especially those among the leadership.
Centers of power or power bases in the church follow the pattern of secular corporate structure, not the pattern or teaching of Christ and the apostles. Power bases lead to politics within the church, which in turn leads to manipulation. Neither belongs in the body of Christ. Scripture upholds the need for servant leadership in the church.
Church leadership is about servant leadership, not lordship leadership. peter told church leaders not to lord it over the flock, but rather to put on the apron of a slave and provide a servant leadership that is an example to the rest of the flock (1 Pet. 5:1–5). Is this not what Jesus continually used many means to remind His disciples about? So important was this matter that all three Synoptic Gospels refer to it (Matt. 20:25–28; Mark 10:35–45; Luke 22:24–27). Matthew recorded,
But Jesus called them to Himself, and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:25–28).
Church leadership is about releasing and confronting, not controlling. The typical leadership meeting spends much time making sure that the leaders do not lose control. If doctrinal issues are at stake, this is proper and necessary, but excessive control of opportunities for ministry is detrimental. First Corinthians 12:11 teaches that God sovereignly bestows gifts on all Christians, and 1 Corinthians 14:26 describes individual members coming to a time of worship with a song or a teaching. The fourteenth chapter then establishes the guideline by which the church works together in love to allow the expression of worship by appropriately gifted people while maintaining orderliness in their worship (vv. 27–33). Much of the giftedness of God’s people, whether in worship or in ministry, is not currently evident because the leadership has stifled the exercise of many of the gifts, being unwilling to release people to use their God-given gifts, (within the guidelines of Scripture and orderliness, of course) preferring instead to control the ministry of people in a categorical fashion.
It is this felt need to control everything that consumes so much time and energy of those in spiritual leadership of God’s church. Because of this obsession, relatively unimportant household issues consume an inordinate amount of time, while important issues that deserve prayer suffer from neglect.
The ongoing debate over elder rule versus congregational rule has ignored an important fact. God has never abdicated His leadership over His people. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament have many examples where God put people in places of leadership but then indicated clearly that He had not thereby relinquished His own leadership. Moses received a leadership role from God, but God continued to lead by directing the actions of Moses and the people. When Saul became king, he could not do as he wished, much to his dismay. When Saul failed to follow God’s directive, God replaced him with David. When David numbered the people, God reminded David of His ultimate leadership over His people. In the New Testament, an appropriate title for the fifth book is “The Book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit,” since it is very clearly an account of the Holy Spirit’s guidance in the life of His church. Human beings are only instruments that He used to provide leadership.
Most would probably agree that God leads today, but He is leading in a more direct way than some recognize. How can we as leaders in local churches see God leading the day-by-day operation of His church in a tangible way? The first way is through His Word. To allow God His rightful place of leadership through His Word means accepting without qualification or reservation the directives of God in Scripture.
The second way God provides direct guidance to each local church is through the giftedness of people He has sovereignly given to each church. God has given gifts to all believers and then has given those gifted people to churches. As each individual is unique, so each local church is equally unique. It is easy for pastors or leaders to adopt their own agendas for a church, and consequently to place people in positions that will best accomplish their purposes. They do this instead of directing people into areas of service that best enable them to use their unique gifts in the greatest possible way.
We would do well to set aside our own agendas and wait upon God for His agenda in each church situation. The constant in each church will be His Word. That which makes the ministry of each church unique will be the mix of gifted people whom God gives to the church. The gifted people whom God has sent will be the basis for determining His plan for the church and the pattern for the leadership to follow. Building the church’s programs around the gifted people will result in the outworking of God’s specific design for that church. When we design our own, merely human programs and then find people to fill the holes in accomplishing our agenda, it is very easy to miss God’s direct design for His church.
Finding God’s design for each local church forces the leadership to do three things: (1) spend more time studying Scripture to determine God’s will for His church, (2) spend a lot of time in prayer, seeking God’s will and preparing their hearts to receive whatever God should reveal, and (3) take the time necessary to become closely acquainted with God’s sheep.
Church leadership is about handing much of the decision-making process over to other members of the body. Many seem to have a tendency to want to control everything. Whether it is a desire to protect their own domain or whatever it is, they deal with too many things at the leadership level that should be released to others. One of the first lessons from the early church is that the leaders of God’s church in Jerusalem assigned the important matter of caring for widows to other spiritual individuals so that they could devote themselves to what was of primary importance: prayer and the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:3–4).
This principle relates to prayer and the ministry of the Word, because a failure to understand the nature of true biblical leadership is at the root of so much of the prayerlessness in conducting leadership meetings. We should understand clearly that church leaders are not obligated to decide everything or manage everything. Instead, we are to oversee a church or a flock that belongs solely to God and not to us. This awareness will cause us to take ourselves less seriously but to take our responsibility more seriously. It will free us up to spend more time doing the more important things in life and ministry rather than spending the endless and often senseless hours merely managing a business.
In Prayer Meetings
As noted above, “prayer meeting” has often been a misnomer, because prayer does not occupy much of the meeting time. Prayer requests take up a good part of the time, but actual prayer for any extended period is often lacking. This writer has attempted over the years to make prayer meeting a time of actual prayer. The results have usually resembled what is happening in our present ministry.
When I entered my present ministry, the church had a prayer meeting. The hour-long meeting each Wednesday night included almost equal parts of Bible study and prayer. Now we have no Bible study, although we do start with the reading of Scripture to prepare our hearts for praise and prayer. The format each week begins with praise. This recognizes our dependence on the Lord and expresses our thanksgiving to Him for all He means to us and has done for us. We try to focus on praise for Who He is and not what He has given to us. Praying for missionaries is the next part of the format. Then we pray for the needs of the ministry of the church, and last of all, for individual needs. This sequence is an attempt to keep prayer from focusing primarily on personal or selfish things and to assure that the focus is on needs foremost in God’s sight (outreach). We then give attention to praying for others before praying for ourselves. We often do the last two parts, praying for the church and for individual needs, together for the sake of time. With this format, the prayer meeting now lasts two hours and not just a single hour as it once did. Also, attendance (which is not an issue or a matter of emphasis) has increased to such an extent that we had to change to a larger room to accommodate everyone.
Something else we have done over the years is to have a “night of prayer.” Most recently, it concluded a prayer-emphasis week. Prayer groups met early in the morning or in the evening. The night of prayer was on Friday night after this extended prayer emphasis. Instead of beginning at 9:00 P.M. and praying until 5:00 A.M., we planned it from 7:00 P.M. until 2:00 A.M. This enabled the senior citizens to attend in the early hours and get home before it was too late. Some people remained the entire night, while others came for portions of it. An exciting development was that the older people started us off with a tremendous burst, and the college and career young people arrived around midnight to help us finish the night in a resounding fashion. What a blessing it was!
Another feature that worked well was to divide the time into segments, each of which centered around a special ministry in the church. For example, the children’s ministry was the topic in one portion, and the choir in another. During their allotted time periods, people involved with the respective areas of ministry came to share their needs and spend time in prayer.
In Small Groups
Before going farther, let me introduce a backdrop. As stated earlier, the why question is very important. Why do any of our ministries exist? To answer that, we must first understand why we as a local church exist. Many churches have understood their purpose or biblical mandate to include four things: worship, outreach, shepherding care, and spiritual development.7 If these are valid (whatever titles are used), aside from the administrative needs of a church—its buildings and financial records—all other aspects of the church’s life should exist only if they fulfil one or more of these purposes. This principle provides a standard for measuring the validity of any ministry. A ministry must fit under one of the four purposes adopted in the church’s philosophy of ministry.
To minister personally to each individual in a growing church without leaving anyone out—if humanly possible with God’s help—we concentrate on two basic smaller care-group concepts. Others exist, but the goal of these two is to provide a connection with everyone in the church. The first centers around such things as age and marital status. The geographical area in which people live is the focus of the other.
The first of these small groups is what has been known traditionally as a Sunday school class. In the overall scheme of things, we view the purpose of these as not primarily for outreach or worship but for shepherding care and spiritual development. That does not say that outreach and worship cannot occur in that setting, but they are not the primary purpose of the classes. Some churches emphasize spiritual development and, therefore, use Sunday school classes for teaching primarily or exclusively with little attention to shepherding care. Our church uses these classes for both teaching and shepherding care. It is a smaller setting than the worship service and allows more opportunity for sharing and prayer. That is one of the small-group settings where prayer takes place.
The other small group, which we continue to develop as the church grows, is our area-care groups. For us, the purpose of these groups is also twofold. They do not exist primarily for worship or teaching, although both may occasionally happen there; their purpose is for shepherding care and outreach. It is our goal for these groups to provide another level of shepherding care and prayer. This type of group has a different dynamic since age, marital status, or personal interest does not determine its members. Such a group may have people all the way from newborns to grandparents. A different type of prayer request usually surfaces here, and a different type of interaction and discipling occurs than in the Sunday School setting. The fact that the area-care groups usually meet in homes influences the degree of freedom people feel to share as well.
Other types of small groups exist, from personal discipling groups to men’s or women’s groups. Prayer should be a major focus of each small group. A different type of atmosphere prevails in a small group than in a larger setting, but not necessarily one that is more beneficial. That is why both must exist.
In Staff Meetings
Prayer should be a major part of our staff meetings. It is important to pray for the ministry and needs of each staff member and of the church. In our present ministry, we distribute the praise and prayer items submitted by the congregation the previous Sunday among members of the ministry team, and then we have a time of prayer for each need. One morning each month, the entire staff—secretarial staff, receptionist, bookkeeper, librarian, ministry team—meets for a time of personal sharing and prayer. That has become one of the highlights of the month.
In Sunday Services
For the family and body of Christ to function most effectively, it is essential to manifest care for each other through prayer on a regular basis. Most members of the body have no way of knowing about or participating in the needs of others. One way of rectifying this is by praying for special needs in the morning worship service. The offering of such prayers can come in a variety of ways. In one service, following the death of a family member, church leaders and their wives gathered around a young family while we prayed for their need. In our evening services, we conclude with the sharing of praise and prayer needs, often leading into a time of praise or prayer for those needs. Though it is often difficult to hear each other in an auditorium, the ministry to the hearts of everyone is most effective.
MODELING PRAYER
If it is true that people tend to imitate the life of someone who ministers to them (see ch. 16, “Modeling”), what kind of prayer example are we as leaders providing for those we lead? Do they see the importance of prayer reflected in the programs of the church, in the worship life of the church, and in the meetings held in the church? If people imitate what they see in our lives, what will the content of their prayers be like? Will the requests evidence an awareness of the spiritual warfare that is going on, or will they be mired in the mundane matters of this life? Will the manner of prayer portray an attitude of confidence in the power and sovereign control of our mighty God? Will the purpose be to see God’s will, not ours, done? Will the model be one of prayer that permeates every relationship we have, whether in the home, in the church, or even in society? May God help us to model the kind of prayer life evident in the life of our Lord and in the lives of the apostles who followed Him, so that if others imitate us, they will be people of prayer.