The power of having a prayer team

One of the best things that ever happened in my pastoral ministry occurred in 1997.  Three men from our church went with me to the Promise Keeper's event in Washington, DC.  As we returned home they asked if they could meet with me once a week for prayer.  When they had returned to the hotel room that night and began to talk about the day each of them felt led to be part of a prayer team who would pray for me, my wife, and our church.  When our bus stopped for breakfast they approached me about the idea, and of course I agreed to it.  They shared what they wanted to do with others in the church, and from that point forward several individuals and I would meet in a Sunday school class room about a half hour before our Sunday evening service where they would pray for me, my wife, and our church.  No matter how difficult a week I might have had, I knew there were people in our church praying for me and that we would gather on Sunday evening for a time of special prayer.  To this day I believe that our small church was able to do some incredible things as a direct result of those times of prayer.

If I returned to pastoral ministry one of the first things I would do is to invite a group of people to become my prayer partners.  Ministry is tough and often feels very lonely.  To know there are individuals committed to praying for you is a great source of encouragement.  It serves as a reminder that you are not alone in what you are doing and that there are people who care very much for you and your family.  It was also a reminder that we were engaged in spiritual warfare, and the Christian has no greater weapon than prayer when doing battle with the enemy.

Many pastors I know feel that they have few people they can turn to when facing challenges in their lives or ministries.  Some are afraid to appear weak to members of their congregation so they don't confide in people when they are struggling.  There were times in my own ministry when I felt like that, but those times ended when we began our prayer team.  One of our leaders would usually begin our time by asking how they could pray for me, and that gave me permission to share the things that might have been going on in my life, in my family, or concerns I had about the church.  Then the people gathered in that classroom would begin to pray one by one.  More than once I would have tears in my eyes as I heard these men and women praying specifically for me and the concerns I had.  Once in a while we would still be praying when the service began in the sanctuary because our time of prayer had been so powerful.

There was another thing that occurred as a result of that prayer team meeting.  They would often pray for my wife as well when we met.  One Sunday morning the person who prayed for our offering mentioned my wife in his prayer.  On our way home I noticed she had tears running down her face.  When I asked what was wrong, she said that was the first time she had ever heard anyone other than me pray out loud for her.  It deeply touched her and reminded her how important she was to our church and to my ministry.

If you don't have a prayer team in your church that meets regularly to pray for the pastor it is important that one is started as soon as possible.  I would never want to pastor again without such a prayer team.  You can read more about this and other ways to ease some of the pressures of ministry in my book The Healthy Pastor: Easing the Pressures of Ministry.