By Jonathan Graf
Congratulations–you are recognized as a (or the) prayer leader in your church. But that title is getting you nowhere in growing prayer. What can you do? Here are 3 things you can do to still grow prayer without a lot of support from leadership.
Pray about prayer.
The most significant thing you can do is pray. Pray about the prayer growth in your church. Pray for prayer ideas that would engage more of your people in prayer.
Pray for your pastor and leaders—but not in a critical or condemning way. Yes, acknowledge your frustrations to the Lord (only to the Lord!), but spend the primary time praying positively for your leaders
- Pray for increased hunger for Jesus.
- Pray for a dynamic prayer life with the Father for each of them.
- Pray for a deeper awareness of the benefits of discipling their people into deeper levels of prayer.
Support your church’s mission and ministry.
Rather than trying to start new prayer ministries, seek the Lord for prayer ideas that will come alongside your church’s existing ministries and mission. Is there an important ministry that could use more prayer support? Work with the leaders to come up with an effective way to engage more prayer for that ministry.
Use your church’s mission or vision statement. Are the ways to shore up prayer around the principles in that mission?
Be careful how you approach leaders with ideas or worse, about the lack of prayer in your church. If you have an open door with your pastor or a key elder, certainly use it, but be very careful that your conversations and ideas are supportive and not critical. Don’t push, push, push for something. Leaders will ignore your input if you become too critical in your pushing.
Work smart within your sphere of influence.
While I do not advocate stepping around leadership, there are likely some things you can do on your own to grow more prayer simply with the influence and relationships you have.
Can you mentor some people with your knowledge and experience in prayer? Can you develop guides or simple prayer systems that enhance the ministries you are a part of or for a ministry leader you have a strong relationship with (children’s ministry director, youth leader, etc.).
Being a supportive, come-alongside prayer leader can go a long way toward growing your clout within your church. It’s a slow process. Work for small steps rather than taking big leaps.
Jonathan Graf is the president of Church Prayer Leaders Network.
