On Pastoral Prayer: It Should not Be so Difficult for Me but It Is
This summer the pastor-elders of our church listened to a 9Marks podcast about leading corporate prayers during church worship services (here). We found Jonathan Leeman and Mark Dever’s discussion both stimulating and convicting. We even made the change to incorporate more time for meaningful prayer during our worship services.
Now, each of our pastor-elders takes a Sunday to pray before the offering is collected, which is typically done right before the sermon. Sometimes teaching and travel schedules are such that an elder-qualified man who is not currently a pastor-elder may lead the prayer. But you get the idea. The prayer typically lasts around five minutes and often has overlap with the themes of the sermon. I’m so thankful Scott, one of our lay pastor-elders, initiated and maintains this ministry.
This weekend it was my turn to pray. We had a service less full than normal, so I took the opportunity to stretch us a bit by praying closer to ten minutes. It stretched me too. Because we’ve recently had an influx of newcomers, I used the opportunity to pray through our church’s five-year goals, which our leaders think and pray about often, but, admittedly, we do a poorer job of keeping in front of our people. For what it’s worth, we’re in year four of five.
Below is an edited version of the prayer I wrote Sunday morning before church. Jesus warned against praying in public to be seen by others (Matthew 6:1–4). But Jesus did not mean this as an indictment against all public prayer, for he immediately proceeded to teach us what we call the Lord’s Prayer. In this stream, I share below my pastoral prayer from last Sunday. I hope it encourages you to make prayer an increasingly important part of your local church services.
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Heavenly Father, we pause when looking over our goals. We do not want to be like those described in the book of James, those who in their arrogance and self-reliance presumed that by simply putting in time and effort they could bring about their goals of more profit and more abundance, not realizing their lives—indeed, our lives—depend upon you for strength and energy. Our hearts do not beat, and our lungs do not breathe, apart from your sustaining grace. We read in the book of Hebrews that your Son upholds the universe by the word of his power. The planets of the solar system continue to orbit because you say so, just as the details of our lives are held in place because you say so.
Yet, Lord—acknowledging your sovereignty, acknowledging your goodness, acknowledging the power of the gospel that is at work among us—we come boldly before your throne of grace.
Plant a church
Heavenly Father, we ask that you would help us plant another church in the city of Harrisburg, not for our glory and fame but for the name and renown of the one who spilled his blood so that more and more people could taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
We thank you for those who, some twenty years ago, left the comfort of a great church so they might, by your grace and power, labor to see our church built up in love. May you even now be giving some among us that same kind of pioneering, sacrificial spirit who see the name of Jesus being magnified as of more importance than the comfort of attending an established church.
Pursue a “new” facility & Care for our local community
Heavenly Father, we give you praise for our church building. We thank you for the beauty of the renovations you enabled us to complete eighteen months ago and the way people continue to come to this church building and find hope and peace and comfort. Lord, we thank you for the neighborhood in which you placed us. We thank you for the inroads that have been made in this community. May you enable us to become servants who seek to bless our neighbors in your name.
As we see brokenness around us—whether it be the search for joy that takes place in the strip clubs just around the corner or the quiet lives of desperation led by many who feel alone in their homes—we pray that you would make our church building a safe place, a place where people can heal and find joy that will truly satisfy.
Increase racial and ethnic diversity
Heavenly Father, please help our church to grow in racial and ethnic diversity as a testimony to the uniting power of the gospel. We thank you for those among us who enrich our lives by bringing other perspectives. We thank you for the dozens of people who come to our building three days a week to learn English as a second language. We thank you especially for those who have taken a particular interest in the immigrants and refugees among us. Lord, please forgive us for being slower to help than we ought; forgive us for being reluctant to reach out; forgive us for being hesitant to love. Forgive us, Lord, for using the pronouns us and them.
Stay streamlined, program-light
Heavenly Father, when we set the goal to be streamlined and program-light at our church, we do not intend to stifle the work of your Holy Spirit among us. Forgive us, Lord, if that has happened or is currently happening.
Lord, we do not want to be streamlined and program-light because it’s easier or because it allows us to remain lazy, preferring our comfort over your mission. We do not aim to be streamlined and program-light so we can have more Netflix.
Instead, we believe we should measure spiritual maturity, not by how often we attend church meetings other than Sunday mornings, but by how many of our neighbors and co-workers we know well enough and have loved well enough that they could ask us to pray for them when their lives seem to be crashing down around them. In a culture that applies increasing pressure to do more and more and more, we ask that you help us to intentionally build margin into our lives so that when your Spirit does lead us to begin new ministries, we can do so with joy and obedience.
Lord, we long to stay streamlined and program-light so that the members of this church are not so burdened with the ministry initiatives of our leaders that they can’t be free to serve you wholeheartedly as your Spirit leads them; we long for a passion for new ministries to bubble up from within the hearts of those who call this church home. Lord, I thank you for the new ministry of the Christmas Giving Tree that will bless those among us with Christmas presents signifying, in tangible ways, your love for us. We’ve never done this before, but I thank you, Lord, for placing the idea upon the hearts of a few individuals and giving them the vision and obedience to see it become a reality.
Expand evangelism ministry
Heavenly Father, we pray for our evangelism ministry. Oh, that you would cause your gospel to go forth from us with greater power. Lord, as we share the story of the life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, and his second coming, oh that more and more people would come to understand the sacrifice you made for them. Lord, would you cause your good news to be received by us in such a way that it is actually treasured as good news, news we long to share with others. Forgive us that our love for you is so small that we find it easier to talk about things that are here today and gone tomorrow.
Connect and disciple newcomers
Heavenly Father, you commanded us to go and make disciples of all nations, to baptize people into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You promised that your authority, your power, and your presence would be with us as we do so. I pray for the many relationships that have formed among our church, relationships not built around simply having coffee or watching our children play together, but relationships intentionally seeking to help one another be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
Lord, many at our church have no idea what being in a discipleship relationship would be like—to have someone to offer sound, biblical counsel and someone to weep with when their children walk away from the faith. Lord, would you make us into the type of church where discipleship relationships are not only natural but that to not be in intentional discipleship relationships would be seen as rare and unusual.
Lord, I pray especially for the older, mature Christians among us who were never themselves discipled by someone else. I pray that though they never received such care, they would build into others, giving what they never directly received.
Lord, as I think about the connection’s ministry of our church, I pray for the new pastor we are seeking to hire. We’ve been looking and praying for the last six months and are currently interviewing pastors. Give us wisdom; we need it.
Lord, I think about what one candidate said when we asked what it might look like for a connections ministry to thrive here at Community. He said it might look not so much like one new pastor doing all the work of connections, but rather like a congregation who sees themselves more and more as connecting pastors and a church where a young couple notices an elderly couple who needs care and love and, unprompted by staff pastors, they move toward each other in love. Lord, yes, for more and more of this kind of connection here among us.
Increasingly become a church of prayer
Finally, Heavenly Father, we ask you to make us a church that increasingly values prayer. I don’t think we are good at this, at least I do not think I am good at this. Praying to you in a church service for ten uninterrupted minutes should not be as difficult as it is. Forgive me for thinking I can build your church simply through effort and time on task. Forgive me for mistaking commotion and activity and sawdust flying around in the air for the substance of true spiritual life. Lord, we will cast our cares upon you when we see the weakness of our shoulders and the futility of our ingenuity.
As we call out to you in prayer—as a church gathered together in unity on Sunday mornings; as a church scattered around the city in small group Bible studies during the week; as families and homes and individuals who follow you when no one is watching but you—Lord, surprise us with the beauty of your grace, the joy of your forgiveness, and the peace of your presence.
So we ask all this, Heavenly Father, knowing you can do more than we could ask or imagine. And we pray all this in the name of Jesus Christ, by which we mean prayers prayed not consistent with our will but Christ’s will and prayers prayed not on our authority but upon Christ’s authority.
Amen.
* Photo by Tyson Dudley on Unsplash