We see it in Jesus’ commands to pray, “your Kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10) and to pray for “workers in the harvest”. (Matthew 9:37-38) We see it again in the Early Church who gathered in prayer meetings before the outpouring of God’s Spirit. (Acts 2:1, 4:31) Even today, when the Church sees remarkable growth in persecuted regions of the world, it’s a story that cannot be told apart from the great prayer that preceded it.
But over the years, even though Christians know the importance of prayer in the life of the church, I’ve noticed people struggle to know how to pray for their church. Not because people don’t love their church, or that they don’t love God enough.
People struggle to pray for their church because they know how to pray for their church.
PRAYER AS IT IS
In their defense, if you were to ask someone to pray for your church, think of all that could mean–
Do you mean prayers for the church building itself? Or do you mean the people in the church? Or the leadership? Or all of the above? Because the request is vague, the prayers that follow tend to be vague, as well:
“Lord, please bless my church. Amen.”
There’s nothing wrong with that prayer, per se. And yes, God can use prayers like that. But the problem with general prayers is it’s hard to know how God answered them, specifically. Isn’t he already blessing their church with his gifts and forgiveness? So how would anyone know if God responded to their prayer with some new blessing?
The problem with general prayers is it’s hard to know how God answered them, specifically.
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PRAYER AS IT COULD BE
Compare the vague prayers described above to a clear and detailed prayer for your church that asks, “Lord, would you come by your Holy Spirit in the hearts and minds of my church and help us to see opportunities to encourage one another? Move us to give gifts, speak kind words, and serve one another. Help us to see the downtrodden heart among us. Lift our eyes to see the overburdened and weary. Burden us to notice the poor in spirit in our midst.”
There’s no question the clear and detailed prayer not only looks expectantly for God to move, but also knows WHAT to look for, specifically! Of course, once you see a specific answer to prayer, it only inspires more prayer.
PROMPTS
But there’s one other problem keeping people from praying for your church. Even if you give people a list of topics to pray about, they still need guidance on how to pray for that topic.
Suppose you ask folks to pray specifically for the Youth Ministry leaders at your church. Without some prompting, even a specific topic of prayer will once again devolve into vague prayers, “God, please bless our Youth Leaders. Amen.”
The fervent prayers your Youth Ministry leaders want range from prayers for protection against the Evil One to wisdom in teaching to trusting relationships with parents. But the average church member doesn’t usually think or pray that deeply about topics outside of their expertise.
To pray for your church, you need both the topics to pray and the prompts to pray. That’s why we’re so excited to launch Pray for Your Church.
PRAY FOR YOUR CHURCH
Pray for Your Church is a website designed to “helping your church pray for your church.”
Each week we release a new prayer for your church that covers a specific topic and gives you a prompt to consider some of the ways you could pray about that topic. Each prayer is written in the first-person, and can be used by both individuals or groups.
Click here to get our weekly updates and see what God will do when you Pray for Your Church.
