Prayers of the Leadership of the Church – Part III

 “Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you;……” I Samuel 12:23

Many years ago I came across this passage above in my yearly readings through the Bible and I have often since been inspired by the prophet Samuel’s example. His calling to intercession was from the Lord Himself, and it was His desire to please the Lord and not sin against the Lord that helped him fulfill his calling.

In our first two articles on prayer in the book of Acts, we focused on congregational or group prayer. As we jump back into the book of Acts, I want to focus in this article on what role prayer played among the leaders Christ raised up to lead His church forward. And the first example we see is Peter & John going to the temple to pray, “Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer.” Acts 3:1  The ninth hour was about 3:00 p.m. Evidently there was a regular time of prayer (and sacrifice) at that time in the temple and Peter and John were evidently regular attenders. It is interesting that even after the pouring out of the Holy Spirit and the New Covenant revelation, Peter and John continued to observe this prayer time. It is interesting that after explosive church growth, and all the added pressure that brings, they were still observing this regular prayer time.

Regularly scheduled prayer times are helpful for busy leaders. It can and should be a time where we take a break from our responsibilities and give attention to our own souls and intercession for the souls of others. Regularly scheduled prayer times can also serve as a time where leaders can re-focus through worship and praise on the greatness of their Savior.

It should be noted that while Peter and John experienced a lot of failures and fleshly moments together before Jesus’s resurrection and ascension, and I would note especially their falling asleep three times when Jesus expected them to be praying in the garden of Gethsemane - -  they, especially after those ten days of seeking God in prayer and receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, now saw the value of praying together and probably did it often. What Jesus had intended in their relationship was now being realized by the power of the Holy Spirit through devoted prayer.

The next time where the prayer life of leaders comes into play is in Acts 6. The church at this time in Jerusalem was growing like wildfire. And with growth in the number of worshippers also comes an increase of the needs represented by those worshippers – especially the widows, orphans and the poor. In this particular situation, the church was seeking to feed the widows among them, but somehow the widows of the Hellenistic Jews were being overlooked. This problem was brought to the attention of the twelve apostles/elders and they immediately summoned the congregation to solve the problem. What they wanted the congregation to know is they themselves could not and should not personally solve the problem as it would distract them from their much greater responsibility of devoting themselves to the word and prayer (vs. 2,4). They then made sure spiritually mature men were found to meet the need.

The leaders of Christ’s church must be like their Savior in terms of devoted prayer. And they need to know it will never be easy; and many good things (like caring for needy widows) will constantly be a potential distraction from this most important priority. Thankfully these apostles had learned their hard lessons, and their refusal to get distracted with seemingly important things and to instead continually devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word resulted in even more church growth (see vs. 7).

The next time praying leaders are highlighted by Luke is in Acts 13:1-3. One of the most fruitful missionary journeys in the first century came out of that prayer meeting. “Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.  2. While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.   3. Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.”  Prophets and teachers, at least in my experience, are not naturally drawn together. But there was nothing natural about the church in Antioch. They had learned through prayer and fasting to rely on the Holy Spirit and to experience the clear leading of the Holy Spirit. They recognized His voice together and they gladly heeded His command. And as a result the gospel spread in wonderful ways through Paul and Barnabus as they sought to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit wherever He took them.

Paul and Barnabus had the great privilege and blessing of being used by God to help establish churches in many cities including Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Antioch etc. But those churches were all young and in great need of godly leadership. So in every city they ministered in, they devoted themselves to prayer with fasting, and then out of that posture, the Holy Spirit led them to appoint elders, “When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.” Acts 14:23  Few things affect the trajectory of a congregation and the church in a city more than the kind or quality of leadership in that church. Few things affect the trajectory of a city than the kind or quality of leadership in the church in that city. These leaders/elders must be spiritually mature men who are birthed out of devoted and dependent prayer.

I recently read this in E.M. Bounds’ biography re: the absolute necessity of the church being birthed and led and anointed by the Holy Spirit through prayer, “The church is distinctly, preeminently and absolutely a spiritual institution, that is, an institution created, vitalized, possessed and directed by the Spirit of God. Her machinery, rites, forms, services and officers have no comeliness, no pertinency, no power, save as they are depositions and channels of the Holy Spirit. It is His indwelling and inspiration which make its divine being and secure its divine end. If the devil can by any methods shut the Holy Spirit out from the church, he has effectually barred the church from being God’s church on earth…..” p. 215  Paul and Barnabus knew this and through prayer (along with the other leaders of these churches) made sure the church had every opportunity to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh.

The proof that Paul and Barnabus devoted themselves to prayer in any and every circumstance is probably best demonstrated in their time in the prison in Phillipi. At midnight when the other prisoners were sawing logs, Paul and Barnabus “..were praying and singing hymns of praise to God…” Acts 16:25, which ultimately resulted in prisoners listening, buildings shaking, doors opening, chains loosening, and the jailer and his family getting saved and baptized (see vs. 26-34).

Finally when Paul and Luke (not sure who else) were in Miletus they called for the elders in Ephesus to come and meet with them (Acts 20:17). Paul poured his heart out to them about the high calling of elding Christ’s sheep/church and the dangers therein (vs. 18-35), and then before he and Luke boarded a ship they “…knelt down and prayed with them all” (vs. 36). Knowing Paul I’m sure this was not a quick prayer but a time where a number of them cried out to God for His kingdom to come and His will to be done in that region and beyond.

Elders have many responsibilities, but none more important than prayer and Paul made sure both by example and exhortation that the elders he interacted with saw that and knew that.

So what do we do with all of this? Well here’s a few suggestions:

1.     Pray for the leadership of the congregation you are a part of to devote themselves to prayer

2.     If you are not part of that leadership, be quick to do anything you can of a more practical nature to help them stick to that priority and not get drawn into things that could be taken care of by others like we saw in Acts 6.

3.     Please know that if you have a pastor that shows up at everything, and visits every sick person in the hospital, and is always available for people in need, your pastor is most likely not devoting himself to prayer personally and with his other leaders. It might look good to men to have such an available pastor. But God is not pleased with it, and ultimately the church’s depth of spiritual life and maturity will be negatively affected by it.

4.     Leaders when you have a meeting, get in the habit of devoting significant time to prayer in the beginning and at the end and perhaps in the middle. Sometimes in our staff meetings it becomes obvious no more discussion about an issue is appropriate, but prayer about that issue is. So discussion stops and prayer kicks in.

May the Lord make His church a house or people of prayer in every city on the planet. And may its leaders fully cooperate with Him in the process.