Praying for your church and pastors is such an important ministry, and even praying for the church in general.   Do you ever get stuck on how to pray for your church, your pastors and the leadership?

Pastors shouldn’t covet but if there’s one thing they do, it’s our prayers, and not just when we’re annoyed with them but regular detailed prayer.

It’s one way that you can honour your spiritual leaders which we are commanded to do.

Honouring our leaders is so important because it directly affects our ability to receive from them.

When Jesus went to perform miracles in His home town He could only perform a few because the people did not honour Him there. Mark 6:4-5

 I have been thinking for a while about how important it is to pray for our church and our pastors.  We have good intentions towards doing it but I find I get a bit stuck on what and how, other than God bless them, keep them safe, tell them how much You love them.    All of which is good and well, but I’ve been wondering what are the real prayer needs?

For the  two years I was on staff in a small church as a youth/children’s pastor, and so I’ve sat through a number of prayer and leadership meetings and also sat in countless sessions at the Healing Rooms.    I’ve heard a number of needs for prayer in churches, and recently on facebook there was some statistic of how many pastors burn out, get divorced, get depressed etc.

I wanted to provide a resource that we could all use to pray for our pastors and I’ve listed a number of things that we could pray, and I’ve shown a number of pastors all of whom have been excited by this drawing, and now I’m ready to show you.   DOWNLOAD  PDF HERE

I want you to own it though.  Print it out and write in your Pastor’s names, maybe their children’s names.    Ask God if there are any other leaders in the church He wants you to specifically pray for.

Write your pastor a letter and ask what they want prayer for and encourage them in how much of a blessing they have been to you.   Don’t tell them what they are doing wrong, bless them.   

I found John Bevere’s book, Honour’s Reward to be very helpful in understanding how to honour our leaders, particularly spiritual leaders, even if we don’t agree with them.  It also delves into how to maintain an attitude of honour if they have sinned, whilst still dealing with the issue at hand, and what your actions as a member of the church needs to be.

Related: Balancing Biblical Honour with Honesty in Really Sticky Situations

Mostly though, it’s not the huge stuff that  creates rifts, but small issues that grow into offense, bitterness, unforgiveness.

If you’ve got a point of contention with them I suggest you start praying this prayer that God showed me:  God if it’s my problem show me, if it’s their problem show them.  That prayer has helped me navigate so many tricky situations because we’re giving God a chance to work on both of us and it’s prayed from a place of humility.

What are your churches needs?  Find out and write them in.  I’ve left blanks for this very reason.  Where is your church going in the future?  Has your church been built on any particular Scriptures?  Has it received any prophetic words for the future?

We need honour, unity, strong marriages, hearts of worship, forgiveness to flow, hunger for God’s Word, to love one another and SOULS.    If this helps you to pray for your church and pastor just a little more often, imagine the difference that it can make.   They will be so blessed and so will you!

And if you want 6 powerful and profound Biblical prayers from the New Testament that Paul was writing to the new churches, I invite you to sign up here.  You can pray these for yourself and for your church.  These prayers are straight from Scripture and include being filled with wisdom and revelation, understanding God’s will, and being rooted in love.

 

Linking up at www.arabahjoy.com