The Leader and His Praying
What a challenging first sentence is found in "The Leader and His Praying"! Sanders writes, "In nothing should the leader be ahead of his follower more than in the realm of prayer." If I could choose one area of my Christian life where I feel my personal weakness, it is in the area of prayer. I love to read, to visit, and to preach, but each of them is concrete enough to provide some immediate feedback. I can have a quick sense of accomplishment, whether or not I've accomplished what the Lord desires.
While I intellectually agree that I cannot do anything without the power of Christ, and while I acknowledge that His power is released through believing prayer, I pray very inconsistently, especially about the ministry itself. I pray under the pressure of no other option. When all the best advice of leadership books and seminary classes have not worked, then I pour out my heart in prayer, see good results, but soon forget the way they were granted. When conflicts arise in the church and my best counseling skills give no relief, I pray, and God answers. Perhaps there would have been less conflict in the first place if I had given myself to prayer.
Ideas for Improvement of My Prayer Life
First of all, I must begin to pray more about the messages I bring to the church. Since I'm accustomed to preaching series, I don't wrestle much about exactly what I will be preaching about this coming Sunday. I do need to begin seeking the heart of God more about how these truths are to be applied to our church in such a brief window of time. I need to appeal to Him for a clarity, conviction, and power of delivery that will make His message impact the lives of His people. I need to pray over every point to be sure I'm wording it in a way that He wants.
I must pray for the coming worship services and for those the Lord would have to be there. Often, I preach a message, then realize that someone who really needed it wasn't even present to hear. I need to pray about those who are our members who need to be there and also for the prospects we have contacted through the week.
E.M. Bounds wrote a wonderful book devoted to prayer entitled Power Through Prayer. This book encourages the preacher to become a true prayer warrior. E.M. Bounds has written many books on prayer, encouraging Christians to devote their life to prayer. Since the writer is coming from a preacher background himself, one can clearly see the passion he has for prayer in his life. Fellow preachers will hopefully be encouraged by this and want to devote their life to prayer, so that they will better their preaching. Bounds exemplifies through his work that preaching has no power without prayer. He also sets forth the idea that prayer is the life-giving force behind our work for God. In reading this book, it inspires one to pray more and be able to be more effective in their ministry.
The most important task you can do as an ambassador for Christ, is to spend time hanging out with God yourself. Even if it cuts into time that you wanted to spend in "ministry." Spending some time enjoying God's presence, aware that God is enjoying yours at the same time, will do more for those around you, than any words you could work up. If you have a sense of intimacy with Christ, you will be able to do more than just talk about God.
The first part of the prayer includes, Dear God, we thank you for this day and the opportunity to worship, we ask you that you will meet us and fill us fresh with spirits and we will return the love you pour into us as worship to you. Help us set aside whatever detracts. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. After the prayers, Reverend Bob Johnston discussed about the two commandments of several commandments of the lord.
I will practice being patient, and taking time to understand them and not have any kind of frustration. I will learn to pay close attention to them and communicate as best as I can. I will try my hardest and make it a priority to go every week, to be able to build relationships with the people and in doing so, share Gods love and joy with them. When I find out my position and what exactly I will be doing, I will do some research and ask questions, in order to be able to do my best work and understand,
On the other hand, in the book, Spiritual Leadership, Oswald Sanders talks about Christians having reservation to aspire to leadership. Many Christians are not convinced that it is biblical sound to desire a leadership role in the church. They questioned whether their ambitions are noble or honorable. An ambition that is centered on God is noble but those that uplift one’s own desire should be questioned. Although Sanders talks about ambition, he describes the shortage of leader in the church. He speaks about Christian’s talents and how it is imperative for them to glorify God with their talents. Spiritual leaders are regarded as gifted/talented people; however, the talents do not make them leaders. The talents may accent their leadership but God is the one that makes spiritual leaders. Spiritual leadership combines talents and spiritual gifts. Every spiritual leader should be led by the Holy Spirit. Without Him, it is impossible to be a spiritual
" Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God."
Love Yourself as Hearers. Above all, the preachers should consider first the audience or “hearers” when preparing a sermon. As stated in this book, “we need to learn how to introduce, develop, and conclude our subjects in a way that interests hearers” (Galli and Larson, 1994, p. 16). In other words, we need to learn how to modify our words, sentences, paragraphs, stories and illustrations to deliver the message and impact the lives of our audience.
Robert Clinton states “The central task of leadership is influencing God’s people toward God’s purposes” (Clinton, 1988). George Barna defines a Christain Leader as “someone who is called by God to lead; leads with and through Christlike character; and demonstrates the functional competencies that permit effective leadership to take place” (Barna, 1997). It is a shame we as Christians fail to recognize that Christ would have us be leaders in more than the church.
As a Christian the word of God will be in the forefront of every decision or task. Servant leadership emphasizes many biblical principles. As a leader each task should be undertaken
Hello My friends, I have asked each of you to pray for me during this next 1 year period while we prepare to launch and lead a church forward into all that God wants it to be. I appreciate each and every one of you not only for your friendship, but I also recognize your spiritual sensitivity coupled with a gift of intercession. Some I have only known for a few years and others for most of my Christian life but one thing I know about each of you is that you pray! Thank you so much for accepting my call to pray for Teresa and I during this huge step of faith. To introduce you Fred and Valerie Bennett founded Christ The Rock Church in Memphis and although now retired still travel doing Marriage ministry.
The reason for this is when leaders say that God will answer all prayers, they are showing no regards for the spiritual state of their church members. Even more, they ignore most parts of the Bible except for a few verses such as, “ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find” (Luke 11:9~10). With these few verses, these leaders do not look at what is behind and in front of the context, yet they are confident in what prayer is.
Advent is about faith and waiting. Faith is the gift from God that enables us to believe in God, to accept all that he has revealed, and to respond with love for God and others. Faith and waiting go hand-in-hand. Waiting is difficult. We expect everything to be at our fingertips the moment we have the desire for it. It's a world we're growing in and it's addicting. We live in a world of easy downloads, instant email, on demand and food prepared in a few minutes. Yet God finds ways of making us wait. Waiting is the embodiment of faith. I can be a sign of faith this Advent by reading and reflecting on a passage of Scripture once a week or once a day. You can remind yourself of things you have faith God will do for you, your family, and your church in the coming year. Also remind yourself of his promises. Remember the years of silence as God’s people waited for the Messiah. Remember that
It is important for me to remember when preparing a sermon, that it is not about the preacher, but through preaching, God the Holy Spirit does the work of giving God’s
, and what does God command us to pray for? What we should be asking ourselves before we come to God in prayer. Prayer is a very important action for all of us as Christians. We should know why we pray and why it is important. We should also know that prayer cant just come from our mouths, but from our hearts as well.
...st always pray to God with such great and deep belief that everything we ask for, He will give to us and we will receive, of course if it is reasonable. Putting every single ounce of faith and belief that we have installed in our mind, body, and soul into God is the state we should always pray in. Making your requests to God specific and making them known to Him is absolutely crucial.