Transcript Prayer Ministry Strategies for Associations and Churches

I. Guiding Associations and Churches in
Prayer
Specific, biblical prayer makes a dynamic
difference in the lives of the families and
churches who make up associations.
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Associations across North America have a unique
opportunity.
Associations can guide churches to listen to the Spirit
for a powerful and comprehensive prayer ministry.
Prayer needs to be the foundation of everything in the
life and ministry of every believer.
A. The Resource Kit
•Overhead cell masters, CD ROM, Guide
B. Purpose of this Guide
This guide prayerfully seeks:
•To identify ways to hear and respond to the call
of God to pray.
•To encourage believers to seek the Holy Spirit
for a prayer ministry strategy in an association
or church that can be customized to their
specific needs.
• The resulting strategy provides a specific
process to challenge believers to reclaim the
church as a house of prayer with a passion for
lost people.
• The strategy helps associations and churches
create a prayer ministry that is foundational to
everything done in and through their
ministries.
• Each section in this guide is in response to
many requests for help from those who hear
the call to pray.
• The response includes transforming lifeless
rituals of prayer and witness into dynamic
relationships with God and humankind.
C. More Than a Strategy or a Ministry
• Prayer is broader than a strategy and is not a
human made activity for the church.
• Prayer is also broader than a typical prayer
ministry.
• God is calling His people to prayer and revival
as He has done before each spiritual
awakening.
We need to be talking to God about men and women as
much as we talk to men and women about God.
D. An Associational Luncheon
• Revival is needed when believers treat holy things with
mundane attitudes.
• At the typical pastor’s luncheon, the conversation
centers around three groups of people:
• “Sorry state of the churches” group.
• “It’s not about God, but about me” group.
• “Sports and current events” group.
• Thankfully, this scenario is changing in many
associations as they attempt to renew a personal
passion to pray unceasingly.
II. Hearing the Call of God to
Pray
Hearing from God requires prayer and Bible
study.
A. Called to the Priority of Prayer
• Imagine the consequences of every church and
every person receiving specific, biblical prayer and
witness.
• Prayer has to remain a priority or it immediately
moves to the sidelines.
1. Prayer was a priority to Jesus
(see Matt. 14:27; 6:46; Luke 6:12)
2. Prayer was a priority to the early church
(see Acts 1:14; 6:1-4)
3. Prayer was a priority to Paul
(see Rom. 12:12; 1 Cor. 7:5; Phil. 1:4)
4. A priority is seen by use of money, time, and
talents.
B. Called to the Difference in Ritual Prayer and
Relational Prayer.
• Jesus focused attention on ritual prayer in
Matthew 6:5; 23:14; and Luke 18:9-14.
• Jewish disciples of Jesus knew a lot about prayer.
• Lifeless ritual prayer was not fulfilling.
• When they watched Jesus pray in Luke 11:1, they
said, “Lord, teach us to pray, . .” (so we can pray
like You pray).
• Jesus causes people to examine their external rituals
and replace these with a spiritual relationship.
• If believers are not careful, we will “develop,”
“create,” or “build” a human-led prayer plan that is
not from God.
• If it is not from God, it will not be blessed by God.
• Personal devotional time is essential for pastors.
• State prayer leaders have discovered that
baptismless churches are led by men who allowed
their personal walk with Christ to stagnate.
C. Called to Biblical Prayer
• Satan hates biblical, specific prayer.
• He has created a lot of counterfeit prayer movements to
confuse believers.
• It is important that biblical prayer be taught.
• The Holy Spirit always points people to Jesus
(see 1 Tim. 2:5).
• Angels are not to be worshiped or addressed in prayer
(see Rev. 22:9).
• Pastors and other spiritual leaders should not assume
authority that belongs to God, His Son, or the Holy Spirit.
• First Peter 5:1-9 is a biblical definition of the pastor as a
shepherd.
• Shepherds lead, cowboys drive.
D. Called within Two Types of Churches
• In the first three chapters of Revelation, the churches are
described as in need of revival.
• The first type relies on the world’s way to draw a crowd by
means of human leadership.
• “My Way” Community Church represents this type of
congregation.
• The second type of congregation tries to rely on God’s plan
and the Spirit’s leading.
• “God’s Way” Community Church represents this type
of congregation.
• Fleshly success will not last (see 1 Cor. 3:11-15).
• Associational leadership need to encourage the “God’s Way”
congregations and encourage change in the “My Way”
congregations.
E. Called to a Corporate Culture of Godliness and
Righteousness.
It is alarming the kind of language and jokes that are told
among believers and professional ministers.
• In Luke 6:45, Jesus said, “A good man out of the good
treasure of his heart brings forth good . . . For out of the
abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (NKJV).
• Ministers must set the standard for godliness and
righteousness. Believers should resemble Christ.
• God calls believers to encourage a corporate culture of
godliness and righteousness.
• In 1 Timothy 6:11, the apostle Paul lists several spiritual
characteristics of walking with Christ.
• Believers should be different through Christ that it would
be obvious to unbelievers.
• Think about the advantages of encouraging an environment
where believers are encouraged and expected to be different.
• The term “corporate culture” describes the accepted
attitudes and behavior in a business setting.
• Encouraging a corporate culture of godliness and
righteousness is important to effective prayer and
spiritual growth.
• Prayer is one of the casualties of secular assimilation.
“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we
ask anything according to His will, He hears us”
(1 John 5:14, NKJV).
Godliness
• Refers to the transformed nature that only comes
through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
• Other extremes are those who teach we are god
or negate or ridicule those who are trying to live
consistent, biblically-based lives.
• Godliness became defined by individuals instead
of by God.
• Biblical godliness is a prayer concern of Paul. In
1 Timothy 2:1-2, Paul encourages Timothy to
“… lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness
and dignity” (NASB).
• “Having a form of godliness but denying its
power” (2 Tim. 3:5, NKJV).
Righteousness “The effective prayer of a righteous man
can accomplish much” (Jas. 5:16, NASB).
• Righteousness is right behavior that flows out of the
godliness that comes from accepting Jesus.
• Righteousness comes from holiness, which only comes
from the Holy Spirit, changing will and behavior.
• The Holy Spirit only comes through accepting Jesus
Christ as Lord.
• Righteousness is essential to effective prayer.
• Godliness and righteousness are difficult to attain and
maintain.
• Focus of the Christian life is to resemble Christ.
• Evangelical believers must not adopt the prevailing
cultural attitude.
III. Responding to the Call to Pray with a
Prayer Ministry Strategy
What do you want to see happen through prayer in
the association, state, or province?
A. Prayer Strategy
A prayer strategy seeks to discover the Holy Spirit’s plan of
action.
• A prayer event is helpful, but is much more effective in the
context of a comprehensive prayer ministry strategy.
B. Prayer Ministry
A prayer ministry helps to saturate everything done in and
through the association and church with prayer.
• Every church and association needs to respond to God’s
call for people to pray.
• Strategy ensures that prayer is a foundational and
functional priority.
C. Intentional Prayer
• Reclaim the church as a house of prayer with a passion
for lost people.
• A strategy is needed to saturate everything with Spiritled prayer.
Pride, self-esteem, and self praise effectively shut the door
to prayer.
IV. Steps to Great Commission Praying
There is a coordinated attempt to present
biblical principles for Spirit-led prayer and
awakening while not creating a program.
A. What is Great Commission Praying
• Prayer is foundational to following Christ’s
commission in Matthew 28:18-20.
B. Seek the Spirit’s plan for a Customized
Prayer Ministry
• This is an intentional Spirit-led prayer
ministry that considers the individual needs
and abilities of each church and association.
C. Six Common Characteristics of a Great
Commission Prayer Ministry
1. Enlist through Prayer the State and Provincial
Prayer Coordinators.
• A list is in Appendix A and online at
www.namb.net/prayer ; other resources www.imb.org/pray
2. Enlist through Prayer Associational and
Church Prayer Coordinators.
• Work with church coordinators to help each church
discover a Spirit-led strategy.
• A job description is in Appendix B.
• Help prioritize a Spirit-led prayer ministry.
• Identifying through prayer the lay prayer practitioners
and prayer coordinators in each church.
a. Church Prayer Coordinator
• Church prayer coordinator job
description in Appendix C.
• The church prayer coordinator
has a very difficult job.
• Satan is constantly working to
undermine biblical, fervent,
and specific, Spirit-led prayer.
b. How to identify and enlist associational
and church prayer coordinators.
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Begins with prayer.
Prayer practitioner.
Biblical priority of prayer.
Listen for God’s call to pray.
Publicize the need.
Elect the prayer coordinator and place them in a
position of influence.
• Look to a church prayer coordinator to serve as the
associational prayer coordinator.
• Encourage each prayer practitioner to disciple another
person in biblical, specific, Spirit-led prayer.
3. Enlist through Prayer the Associational and
Church Prayer Councils.
• The prayer council (team or committee) serves to
keep Spirit-led prayer before the congregation.
• The prayer council should not be seen as the ones
who pray like the choir is seen as the ones who
sing.
• Help believers turn to prayer as the first choice
instead of the last resort.
4. Provide Accessible Training for Associational
and Church Prayer Coordinators.
a. Begin with reminding people about the
importance of prayer.
• Focus on prayer in the Sunday School and
Bible study hour.
• Satan encourages anything that delays or
diminishes prayer and relevant Bible study.
• Encourage each person to pray their
requests so all of the prayer time is spent in
prayer.
b. Banish zipper prayers.
• Banish the ritual prayers that often open
and close a meeting.
c. Teach people to take prayer
to the streets in order to cover
the community with prayer.
d. Encourage an ongoing school of
prayer.
• Set a goal to train 75 percent of the entire
membership in prayer.
e. From John 17, Teach people how to pray
for believers, for unbelievers, and for
personal spiritual needs.
1) Praying for believers
• In John 17:9, Jesus prayed, “My followers
belong to you, and I am praying for them”
Missionaries and evangelism leaders around
the globe testify to the effectiveness of praying
for believers involved in evangelism and
missions.
• Acts 13:1-3 church commissioning Paul and
Silas to evangelistic mission work.
2) Praying for unbelievers
• Pray for receptive and repentant hearts
(see Luke 8:5-12).
• Pray for their spiritual eyes and ears to be
opened to the truth of Christ
(see 2 Cor. 4:3-4; Matt. 13:15).
• Pray for them to have God’s attitude toward sin
(see John 16:8).
• Pray for the person to be released to believe
(see 2 Cor. 10:3-4; 2 Tim. 2:25-26).
• Pray for a transforming life (see Rom. 12:1-2).
• Pray for God to send them into His harvest field
(see Matt. 9:35-38).
3) Praying for personal spiritual needs
• In Luke 11:3-4, Jesus instructs believers to
pray for our daily bread, pray that we can
forgive everyone, and that we will not be led
into temptation.
• Personal praying acknowledges that God is
the source to meet all of our physical and
spiritual needs.
• This is very difficult in a culture that so
easily confuses needs with wants.
f. Work with the evangelism committee to
train the church in personal evangelism.
• Too many believers have been intimidated by
the culture to remain silent about their faith
in Christ.
• Lead the church in evangelism training if
there is not an evangelism committee.
• Use several approaches to help the different
personality types in the church.
• Four good approaches:
• People Sharing Jesus, FAITH , The Net
from NAMB, Becoming a Contagious
Christian
5. Seek the Spirit for a Customized Great Commission
Prayer Ministry.
An effective prayer ministry needs to consider the
individual strengths and weaknesses of each
congregation.
a. Vision statement.
• A Great Commission Prayer Ministry begins with a
prayer saturated vision statement.
• Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people
are unrestrained” (NASB).
• Unrestrained people have no focus on priorities.
• A popular vision statement is, “To pray for and share
Jesus with every person in the community of the
church.”
b. Purpose statements.
– What can be done in your association to help
churches pray for and share Jesus with
everyone in that association?
• Discover these purpose statements through
prayer and Bible study.
• Humans need to follow God’s plan instead of
trying to impose our plans on God.
1) Renew a personal passion to pray
unceasingly (see 1 Thess. 5:17).
• Importance of a personal prayer life.
• Not vain repetition (see Matt. 6:5-7)
2) Reclaim the church as a house of prayer
with a passion for lost people (see Matt.
21:13; Luke 19:10).
• Importance of a corporate dimension to
prayer.
3) Link believers in focused prayer for
evangelization and awakening
(see Matt. 28:18-20; 2 Chron. 7:14).
• Importance of a kingdom perspective to
prayer.
c. Prayer Events.
• The next step is to seek the Lord for prayer events
to help complete the purpose statements.
• Reflect the needs and ethnicity of each church and
community.
• No single approach works in every situation.
• Use whatever approach fits in your cultural or
geographic area.
“Praying always with all prayer and supplication. . .
for all the saints”
(Eph. 6:18, NKJV).
1) Prayer Triplets
2) Concerts of Prayer
3) Prayer Revivals/Retreats
4) Solemn Assemblies
5) Pastor/Staff Prayer Networks
6) Lighthouses of Prayer
7) Outreach Prayer Surveys
8) Prayer Journeys
9) Prayer Groups
d. Fifteen prayer-saturated steps for
churches.
1) Select a prayer
coordinator for the
church
2) Select a prayer
council
3) Ask the pastor to
take the lead by
preparing a sermon
series on prayer
4) Encourage individual
prayer through any of
the resources available
5) Launch new prayer
groups
6) Provide a prayer room
7) Refocus the Wednesday
night prayer meeting
into a time of prayer
8) Create praying
affinity groups
12) Create Lighthouses of
Prayer
9) Develop prayer lists
13) Include Prayer Journeys
10) Participate in North
American and
International annual
weeks of prayer for
missions
14) Plan a mission trip that
includes prayer
11) Schedule a prayer
time during worship
services
15) Work with the
associational prayer
coordinator
6. Involve Ethnic Congregations in the
Association.
• Many associations may need to enlist an
additional prayer coordinator for each ethnic
group.
• Many ethnic congregations are models of
prayer.
Effective prayer replaces our agenda with God’s agenda,
our will with God’s will.
V. Organizational Options for Prayer
Coordinators
A. The Most Effective Prayer Coordinators have the
Complete Support of the DOM, Pastor, and Staff.
1. The prayer leader needs to have an influential position
that has access to the decision making and budgeting
process.
2. The prayer ministry needs to have a priority budget.
3. It will usually require someone to devote primary
leadership to creating and expanding a prayer ministry.
4. Strive to keep prayer a priority for everything done in
and through the association and congregation.
5. Prayer ministry form descriptions in Appendix E.
B. Involve and Inform as Many People as
Possible.
1. Use and develop every possible communication
network.
2. Discover and report on what’s happening in prayer.
• When we agree with God, we always get a “yes” answer.
• Encourage believers to share examples of when it was
good that God answered their prayer “no” or “wait.”
3. Discover and report different prayer strategies.
C. Be Careful Not to Make Prayer a Program.
D. Reject “Trick or Treat” Prayer.
• A pastor shared, “ I discovered that prayer to me
had become a habit of running to the door of
heaven asking for a treat.”
• Satan enjoys keeping prayer as obscure as possible.
If Satan cannot persuade us to fail in the flesh, he will
convince us to succeed in the flesh.
VI. Conclusion and Commitment
• Hearing and responding to God’s call to prayer is an
important process in every association and congregation.
• A comprehensive prayer ministry will only occur with
intentional planning and application.
• Pause for a time of prayer to determine how you will
respond to this information. Have you been challenged to
renew a personal passion to pray unceasingly?
• Will you serve to reclaim the convention, association, or
church to be a house of prayer with a passion for lost
people?
The spiritual condition of a church can be determined by its
prayer meetings.
VII. Four Examples of Associational Prayer
Strategies
Many associations have found satisfaction
in training and encouraging their
churches in prayer.
A. Phoenix, Arizona
1. Encourage every church to have a praying and prayedfor pastor.
2. Encourage every church to be a house of prayer.
3. Encourage praying churches to pray together.
4. Create a Prayer Coordinator Network.
5. Cover the area with various media and promotions.
B. Chicagoland, Chicago, Illinois
Our Mission
• To serve the church in the work of the Great
Commission.
Our Vision
• To serve every Chicagoland pastor.
Our Action Plans
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Gathering
Equipping
Resourcing
Communicating
C. Capilano Association, British Columbia,
Canada
• Evangelism
• Church Planting
• Grow and Develop
• Missions
• Leadership
D. Cane Creek Stoddard Baptist Association,
Poplar Bluff, Missouri
The strategy develops opportunities to cover
neighborhoods, businesses, law enforcement and
protection personnel, city and county government
officials, school students and faculty, pastors, churches,
and ministries with prayer.
Appendix B
Associational Prayer Coordinator Job Description
Function
• To raise awareness of the need for a comprehensive
Great Commission Prayer Ministry in the association
and churches.
• To help individuals renew a personal passion to pray
unceasingly (see 1 Thess. 5:17).
• To help reclaim the congregation as a house of prayer
with a passion for lost people (see Matt. 21:13; Luke
19:10).
• To facilitate training opportunities to help the
congregation accomplish these three goals.
Qualifications
• Be identified as called of God to the ministry of prayer.
• Understand biblical prayer and be able to
communicate it.
• Recognize that God makes a difference through prayer
in lives, situations, and nations.
• Be able to work cooperatively with associational and
church leadership.
• Be committed to the total associational program.
• Have skills in planning, organizing, and delegating with
a servant leadership style.
• Be willing to attend an associational prayer
coordinators training conference.
Accountability
• First, to God.
• Then, the pastor.
• Then, the church, especially the prayer coordinators in
each class, program, and ministry area.
Responsibilities
• Pray and lead others to pray.
• Work closely with the pastor and other church
leadership to develop a Great Commission Prayer
Ministry.
• Set up and manage prayer activities, events, small
prayer groups, and a prayer room.
• Build a prayer team ministry with NAMB, WMU, IMB,
and LifeWay.
• Create and maintain a relationship with the
associational prayer coordinator and church prayer
coordinators in other churches.
• Enlist and train prayer coordinators in every class,
program, and ministry.
• Participate in the church newsletter to share prayer
requests and answers to prayer, promote awareness,
and communicate kingdom needs.
• Help the librarian to acquire biblical resources for
church members to use in prayer.
• Facilitate local training conferences for church
members.
• Participate in the budget planning process.
• Calendar all prayer events and training during the
yearly planning process.
• Stay current on state, national, and international
prayer needs and opportunities through NAMB
(1 800 554-PRAY), www.namb.net/prayer, and
IMB (1 800 395-PRAY), www.imb.org/pray, prayerlines.
Appendix E
Sample Prayer Ministry Forms
Here are some suggested forms a prayer
coordinator may create to encourage effective,
specific prayer. Be careful that paperwork
does not replace prayer time!
Information brochure/sheet/card
• Brief overview of the prayer ministry.
• Describe ways for each believer to become involved.
• List the purpose statements, yearly prayer events, and
each prayer and training opportunity.
• Give directions to the prayer room.
• Explain the watchman network and/or include a testimony
from a Prayer Journey.
• Include a tear-off commitment card.
• Include these in new member packets or hand these
out at church meetings.
Commitment card
• Create a simple card to encourage every believer
to participate in the prayer ministry.
Prayer request card
• Create a simple card to list prayer requests.
• Include an area “Pray For,” and include blank spaces for
name, address, phone number, e-mail address, date
requested, dates prayed for, and date answered.
• Provide a lot of space for the prayer request and
updates.
• Include an area “Prayer Requested By.”
Prayer Notes/Prayergram
• Create a post card, note card, or letter system to followup on prayer requests.