In one of my emails I found this article by Daniel Darling called "5 Ways to Pray for Your Church", and he outlines well... 5 ways to pray for your church, regularly! Here is what he says:
"So, as you consider how to make your church better, here are five ways to help your church:
1) Pray for your pastor. I know this is cliche. I know people pray for me. But I really, really need prayer. And your pastor does too. He may not ask you for it. He may seem strong and courageous and "with it" all the time. But underneath that is a fragile, desperate soul often squeezed by the pressures of serving God's people. So pray for faithfulness, refreshment, wisdom, creativity, humility, people skills. I never fully realized the need to pray for pastors until I actually became one.
2) Pray for the pastor's wife. This is a tough role. There is really no template for the pastor's wife. She's thrust into a role that often asks more of her than she can handle. She's the one keeping the home life somewhat normal and consistent. She's the one holding things together when the pastor is at the bedside or meeting with someone in crisis. And sometimes the pastor's family has their own crises that need prayer. Pray for your pastor's wife.
3) Pray for God's spirit to move in the hearts of people in the community. In our community, something like 85% of people are unchurched, likely unconverted. That's a huge mission field. And it seems that with every passing day the church is becoming less of a factor in people's lives. Pray that your church would be a lighthouse, a place where people discover the eternal truths of the gospel, where the Word would shine and the Spirit would convict hearts to repentance. Sometimes we get so program-oriented that we forget to pray for a mighty moving of the Spirit.
4) Pray for unity among God's people. The devil loves to divide and conquer. He loves to sow seeds of strife in a church. He loves to prey on the natural, human, sinful tendencies of God's good people. Unity has to be intentional. It's not natural. It must be a spirit-connected thing. It's fragile. And here's a secret. If you are praying for church unity, you will be spending less time focusing on the hurts and faults of others that moves to destroy that unity.
5) Pray for the church staff and leadership. Don't just pray for the pastor, as if he's the only one who is on the front lines, as if he's the only important, exalted member serving your local body. He isn't. Pray also and earnestly for the paid and volunteer staff, for the leadership team -- elders, deacons, team leaders. Pray for their families, their spirituality, their faithfulness. Pray for God to enrich and refresh them and give them strength for His work."
I strongly encourage you take a few minutes each day to pray for your church in these few (if not other areas too) areas. Some people pray better by just praying what comes to mind. Some people like to work their way through the list. Whatever way you do it, be open to what the Holy Spirit leads you to. There have been times where I have been woken up in the middle of the night to pray, and there have been times where I have been praying about one thing and God brings something else to mind. The important thing is that you take some time every day, to pray.
Here are some quotations about prayer that make me think:
"There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer." ~ D.A.T. Pierson
"Worship and intercession must go together, the one is impossible without the other. Intercession means that we rouse ourselves up to get the mind of Christ about the one for whom we pray." ~ Oswald Chambers
"The great people of the earth today are the people who pray, (not) those who talk about prayer…but I mean those who take time and pray." ~ S.D.Gordon
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