How Your Prayer Support is Their Life Support
PHIL ~ Eddie, what problem is this book hoping to solve ... and is the problem becoming a crisis?
EDDIE ~
Hi Phil. The purpose of this book is to educate and encourage congregations to pray for their spiritual leaders, thus increasing the prayer support for their pastors. What I have found is that there are far too few people faithfully interceding for their spiritual leaders and those who do, do not spent enough time covering them in prayer. As a result, we have seen so many pastors come under attack and feel so alone in their fight for their ministries.
PHIL ~ How did you discover this to be true: "There is a direct correlation between the strength, blessing and protection of the pastor and the prayers of the church"?
EDDIE ~
There was an experiment done in Arizona years ago, that I mention in my book, that looked at the impact that intercessory prayers had on a group of pastors. This prayer group was asked to pray for 130 local leaders for an entire year. After this period of time, the pastors were interviewed and they found that 89 percent of these leaders who received prayer said they experienced a number of positive changes in their lives and ministries as a result. They also found that daily prayer was more effective than weekly or monthly prayer. And even in my own life, the times that I am covered in prayer, be it through prayer chains, my prayer ministry, or specific seasons of increased prayers, I have sensed a greater sensitivity to the Spirit’s work in our church and a greater sense of effectiveness and fruitfulness in our ministry.
PHIL ~ Every congregation believes they pray for their pastor - Are you saying we need to pray more fervently? Do we we need to think differently when we pray . . .
EDDIE ~
I know there are some congregations who would say they faithfully pray for their pastor, but surprisingly, I have also talked to many people and churches who said they do not pray for their leaders. Some common responses I would get from congregation members would be: “My pastors are so much more spiritually mature and closer to God than I am. They don’t need my prayers. I need their prayers!” or “When I pray for my pastor, it’s usually just, ‘God, bless my pastor.’” And there were a number who confessed that it never even crossed their minds to pray for their pastor. So in light of this, I did see a glaring need for this book to show the need of interceding for pastors and to share how we can pray for specifically for key areas in their lives.
PHIL ~ In my experience, I've seen intercessors and congregations who recognize their pastor's need for serious and strategic prayer, but their pastor fails to recognize the value of or refuses to engage their support. How can an individual or a congregation partner with a reluctant pastor?
EDDIE ~
Wow. I have never come across a pastor who doesn’t welcome more prayer from their prayer team or congregation members! But if that is the case for some of the congregations you’ve come across, I would say begin with prayer! :) Pray that God would open up their eyes to see the warfare that surrounds them and that they would see the need to covered more with prayer. And maybe give them a copy of my book too so they’ll realize the areas of the pastor’s life that does often get neglected in prayer.
PHIL ~ As founder of the National Pastors' Prayer Network, I discovered the healing and hope-giving power of pastors praying together; with and for one another. Is this type of prayer support also a strong source of life support for every pastor?
EDDIE ~
Yes! There are some things that only a pastor can understand as they fellowship and share with another pastor. There is great bonding, healing, and power that comes with pastors are able to be vulnerable and honest in his or her struggles. And I’ve also experienced such happiness from God’s heart when pastors from different churches join together and seek the Lord together in worship and prayer. I would highly encourage pastors to meet together with other ministers from different churches on a regular basis to fellowship and pray. The international congregations in Korea meet together once a month for prayer and fellowship and it has been such a powerful source of encouragement and sharpening each time we gather.
PHIL ~ Please comment on PRAYERS:
EDDIE ~
I use an acronym PRAYERS to be a guide and a memory aid to help people know what to pray for concerning their pastors in my book:
- P stands for Protection: I share about the crucial warfare that pastors are up against and the need to pray for protection on many levels of attack from the enemy.
- R stand for Rest: I share about the importance of praying for not just physical rest, but spiritual and emotional rest as well.
- A stands for Anointing: I share how we can pray for a greater anointing and work of the Holy Spirit in the life and ministry of our pastor.
- Y stands for a Yielded Heart: I encourage people to pray that their pastors will also be in a place of surrender before the Lord, so that their leadership will be a reflection of a heart and life that is fully yielded to God - not our will, but God’s will to be done.
- E stands for Effectiveness in Ministry: I share about the need to pray for fruitfulness and faithfulness in their ministry.
- R stands for Righteousness & Integrity: I guide people to pray for their pastor to honor God in their private life and public life, that there would always be integrity in every area of their lives.
- S stands for Strong Marriage & Family: Not only are pastors under attack, but their marriage and family are also attacked heavily by the enemy. I share about the importance of caring for and praying for this part of their lives too.
PHIL ~ Anything else we need to think about (and pray about)?
EDDIE ~
I also wrote this book as a gift to my fellow pastors who often feel they fight alone. As a pastor, I know it’s not easy to keep asking your people to “pray for me! Pray for me! Pray for me!” So I wanted to do that for them. I want to raise up more prayer support for them and get more people to fight FOR them and to fight WITH them, and hopefully then there will also be less people in the church who are seeking to fight AGAINST them. And I also hope that through this book, the churches would realize the truth behind my subtitle, that their prayer support really is the life support for the pastors in their life.
PHIL ~ Eddie, please write a prayer for us to pray so that we become a praying person / congregation for our pastor...
Father in heaven,
I thank you for the love that you have for your church, and the love that you have for your servants who lead the church. I know there is so much warfare and attacks that the enemy brings to discourage and bring down pastors. I pray that you would open the eyes of your church to see the battle that is play towards our leaders and you would open our eyes to see the gift that pastors are to our lives. As a result, draw us to our knees to give thanks for them, to pray for them, to fight for them, and to fight with them. I pray that you would awaken your church and raise up your church to be mighty in prayer and faithful in prayer for the leaders you have placed over our lives. May more churches pray and more pastors be protected, so that they might finish their race well and be found faithful to the very end.
In Jesus name,
Amen.
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