I am a little late to the game but when Jim Cymbala’s office sent me a copy of their 2007 DVD series I sat down and watched it all in one setting. I recommend it to you as a good series to take your ministry through. Even if you don’t purchase it his advice at the end of pastors is great advice to leaders to trying to build a culture of prayer in their ministry. Here are 4 things I took away:
Personalize what happens to you and your church.
He used the idea of grades in school. Understanding if your church is in first grade or high school in relationship to prayer will make a difference in what you do with prayer. I always encourage leaders to understand their personality and preferences before adding things with prayer.
[tweetthis]Is your church in first grade or high school in prayer? Lead them accordingly! [/tweetthis]
Strategically model prayer
Of course if you want to have a ministry of prayer you must be a person of prayer. But it is also important to model and mentor it to the leaders specifically and the ministry generally. Think of ways to build into your messages things like, “When I was in prayer the other day…” or “One of the things that I am praying for our group…”
Creatively teach on prayer
He talked about pastors who get excited about prayer and then come back and start a service that the church is not ready. Then they are, “double discouraged”. You may need to teach for a while before they are ready. He offered a great piece of advice to not only teach on the how of prayer but the power that prayer has to make a difference. This will get people ready for more prayer.
Give space for prayer in the service
We may think we need to launch 24-7 prayer or a weekly prayer service but the ministry is not ready. A place to start is during your regular service. Find ways to extend prayer into the life of the service. Maybe it will be to extend prayer for a couple minutes after the singing but before the message or maybe it will be extending your prayer time at the end of your message as a model of prayer.
With these four things hopefully you can think of one practical step you could use this week to help your ministry go to the next level.
(Note this was originally sent as part of our leaders Building A Culture Of Prayer Email. If you want to be part of this growing group you can sign up here)
