Series: I Am a Church Member
(based on and adapted from Thom Rainer’s book by the same name)
“I Will Pray for My Church Leaders”
Exodus 17:1-7:
Open
When we are finished this morning, we will be 2/3rdsof the way through our congregational book study and the messages on the themes in Thom Rainer’s book I Am a Church Member. Today, we’re in Chapter 4: “I Will Pray for My Church Leaders.”
I have to confess to you this morning that I was a bit nervous about the subject of this chapter. I felt uncomfortable about preaching on this particular topic because I am intimately part of its scope. But as I studied and prepared, I saw multiple times where the apostle Paul asked for prayer for his needs and the needs of his ministry companions. I realized that if the apostle Paul thought it important enough to do on multiple occasions that I shouldn’t feel awkward about doing it as well.
A short while back, I presented a message based on Jeff Foxworthy’s comedy routines You Might Be a Redneck If. The message we studied was You Might Be a Hypocrite If. Several years ago, Stan Toler and Mark Hollingsworth wrote a little book called You Might Be a Preacher If. Let me share some of their humor with you.
1. You might be a preacher if you’ve ever received an anonymous U-Haul gift certificate.
2. You might be a preacher if you’ve ever dreamed that you were preaching, only to awaken
and discover that you were.
3. You might be a preacher if you find yourself counting people at a sporting event.
4. You might be a preacher if you’re leading the church [into the next decade] but don’t
know what you’re preaching next Sunday.
5. You might be a preacher if you wish that someone would steal some of your sheep.
6. You might be a preacher if you’ve ever walked up to the counter at the Dairy Queen and
ordered a church split.
7. You might be a preacher if instead of getting ticked off, you get “grieved in your spirit.”
8. You might be a preacher if you secretly wanted the worship team to douse you with Gator
Ade after a particularly good sermon.
9. This last one leads us to where we’re going with the message this morning and where
most preachers and church leaders have been at some point. You might be a preacher if
you’ve written a letter of resignation on a Monday.
Leadership in general today is tougher than ever before and church leadership is no different. There is an attitude that resists authority that pervades not only the world but the church as well. Leadership is not an easy job.
People distrust leaders. Over the last 30-40 years, our experience with political, corporate, and even church leaders has put us in a position to be wary. I think that attitude especially applies to church leaders. We have seen some horrendous and truly harmful scandals that have affected the church’s testimony to the world.
We shouldn’t be surprised by these scandals, though. The Bible clearly tells us that there will be people who try to use church leadership for ungodly purposes. Matt. 7:15 – [Jesus says] “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” Paul warns the elders of the church at Ephesus in Acts 20:29-31a – “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard!”
The role and goal of church leadership is to mold the local believers into a biblically functioning team. A team works together to achieve the same goal. Just like any sports team, the church is made up of people with different gifts, different personalities, and different skill levels. A church’s leadership is put into place to shape all of these different members into a body of people who utilize their differences yet work together to accomplish the goal – the furthering of the gospel of Christ.
Most sports teams have one person that is their MVP – their Most Valuable Player. If the local church is seen as a team working together to accomplish the same goals, does the local church then have an MVP?
I think that the church has multiple MVPs. If that idea is correct, who might these people be?
You might think of the ministerial staff or the elders as the MVPs. On a sports team, the coaches are important. They’re the people who get the team in condition, teach them what they need to know and what they’re supposed to do, deal with the difficulties of the team, develop game plans and strategies, and a whole lot more. But coaches are not the MVPs.
You might think an MVP in a church would be “the giver.” There are those people who give sacrificially and you can always count on them when a financial need is presented.
You might say it’s “the encourager.” This group is made up of those people within the congregation who notice when we get down or discouraged and they come alongside us and speak words of encouragement and make us feel loved and supported.
You might say that it’s the “quiet servant.” These people work unobtrusively in the background. These are the team members who are very faithful, day in and day out, discreetly doing what needs to be done.
Maybe you think that the MVP is “the talented person.” Maybe it’s a singer or teacher or someone in another venue where their talent is enjoyed by many.
You might even think the MVP is “the worker.” The workers are those people who give of their time and effort anytime something needs to be accomplished for the church. You can always count on them to roll up their sleeves and do whatever needs to be done.
None of those people are MVPs. While their gifts, talents, and efforts are necessary for the work of the gospel to thrive, there are many important and crucial team members and they’re all valuable.
Have you ever noticed that successful sports teams have one person who serves as a catalyst to make the team function better? The strange thing is that it is not always the smartest or most talented person on the team. But when this person is in the game, the team gets together and puts forth their best effort.
But you see, in the church, the MVP is not the Most Valuable Player but the Most Valuable Prayer. The church’s MVPs are those people who consistently lift up the congregation in prayer and especially pray for the leaders of their church. Church leaders need prayer.
The Leadership Challenge
You may not know it but leaders do more than most people ever imagine. Your church leaders are not just leaders when they’re in this building. They are servant leaders who serve all week long.
Just this past week, one of our elders and one of our deacons physically assisted one of the people who are affiliated with our congregation as they moved residences. These particular men didn’t know until just now that I even knew what they had done. Another elder was here at 7:00 p.m. last night to check on the baptistery. He came back sometime later to make sure things were working right. Those are just two of many cases where the leaders in this congregation do things that hardly anybody sees. I’m thankful for our leaders who give unselfishly of themselves.
If you’ve never been a church leader, there a lots of things that happen that very few people know about – visits to people struggling physically and spiritually, money given out of pocket to aid someone in need, and tasks done that no one else wants to do.
Leaders go through more than most people ever imagine. Spiritual leadership can be a very grueling experience. I have seen ministers chewed up and spit out by congregations who had no thought for anything but they’re own enrichment. Some of these men stayed with the ministry. Many have quit the ministry because of people who are supposed to be Christ-like have been anything but and the toll on their spirits, emotions, and families have been too much to continue. Like me, some of these men have quit for a while and then returned to professional ministry but most have quit forever. They were talented, loving, and humble but the pressures were too much.
It’s not just ministry staff who struggle through tough times. I’ve known good men in church leadership who have quit their positions and even church because of how much the pressure of leadership has caused problems in their homes and businesses. Church leaders face the same struggles that everyone else faces. They have worries about family members, financial struggles, health issues, and all kinds of concerns that they have to take care of along with everyone else’s problems.
Leaders do things that are unpopular, difficult, and many times draining – physically, emotionally, and spiritually. There are times when biblical standards must be upheld but those standards aren’t popular and people become critical in speech and caustic in behavior toward the leaders who stay the course of scriptural guidelines.
Someone said that church leadership is a lot like herding cats. Try it sometime. You’ll see how difficult that is. Church leadership can be pleasant and agreeable but it can also be unpleasant and challenging.
Leaders are held to a higher standard than most people. That’s not just true in the eyes of people but also in the eyes of God. James 3:1 – Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. Every Christian should be held to a high standard because we all represent Jesus Christ. But leaders are called to be examples to the flock.
Reasons to Pray for My Church Leaders
We shouldn’t necessarily need specific reasons to pray for one another but here are some reasons to pray for church leaders. The first reason is because leaders are likely to be attacked. Satan watches for the right time to attack a leader. Usually his attacks come immediately following a victory or when a leader is physically and/or emotionally tired. The attacks can come from within the camp and from without and usually on both fronts at once.
Ex. 17:1-7 – The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”
Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”
3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”
4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
Moses was a great leader. But he was tired and weary from leading these people through the wilderness. They were a quarrelsome and critical bunch, never satisfied with what God or Moses did for them.
That sets us up to see what happens next. Ex. 17:8 – The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. When did the attack happen? At a time of quarreling and contention.
When you are spiritually, emotionally, or physically drained, the devil sees it as the opportune time to attack. He did it to Jesus in the wilderness. He came to tempt Jesus after had been fasting for 40 days. Jesus remained sinless but Luke gives important note concerning the devil’s plans for later. Lk. 4:13 – When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
1 Pet. 5:8 warns – Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. The devil wants to attack church leaders because he knows that if he can pull down a leader, he can do more damage than he can with anyone else. Church leaders are susceptible to all the temptations that everyone else faces. If they aren’t held up in prayer, they eventually get so worn out that they can stumble, falter, and fail.
The second reason to pray for your church leaders is because these leaders exist to inspire and guide. In order to do that well and do it on a consistent basis, you need others to come along and support you.
Ex. 17:9 – Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.” Moses guided Joshua and the fighting men to where they needed to be and then moved to his position at the top of the hill.
There are several reason that Moses needed to sit on the hill with the staff of God in his hand. First, he needed to be able to observe the battle. Second, he needed to be where he could be seen by the soldiers on the battlefield. But third and most important, Moses needed to lift his hands in prayer to intercede for the soldiers and the children of Israel for whom they were fighting. His prayers were the inspiration for victory.
Moses understood the importance of leadership. He knew the principle of this maxim: the speed of the leader determines the speed of the team. The people can go no farther than their leaders have gone. If the ministers and elders of the church falter, then the church will falter. If Satan can defeat the leaders, he can defeat the congregation. Leaders need prayer so they can inspire and guide the people.
The third reason that we need prayer is that leaders are human. Ex. 17:10-12 – So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. 11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. 12 When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
It was necessary for everyone to do their part. Joshua and the army of Israel had to fight on the battlefield. Moses had to intercede in prayer to God for their efforts. But notice also that Aaron and Hur played a big role. They assisted Moses because the work of inspiring and guiding was physically taxing.
If you don’t believe what Moses did was physically difficult, hold your arms over your head for an extended period of time. See how long it takes to get to the point where your arms and shoulders are exhausted. Maybe that’s something you ought to try at home. If you do it here at church, somebody might think you’re charismatic.
It shouldn’t be a huge stretch of your intellect to understand that we, as church leaders, are human and therefore have limits. The responsibility of leadership is exceedingly heavy and no one is capable of doing the task on their own.
Heb. 13:17 – Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you. We as leaders are accountable not just to you but also to God. That’s a huge responsibility and a sobering and worrisome obligation for those who take it seriously. As leaders, we can’t stand up under that kind of responsibility and accountability alone.
In all honesty, your leaders are going to fail you at some point. I know that I have done so and will do so again. Why should you be any different than everyone else in my life? I’ve let my parents down at times. I’ve let my wife and children down at times. I’ve let God down at times.
I’m sure that every one of our leaders here at Central Park can say the same thing. But that’s the very reason that we need your prayers. All leaders need prayer support.
I speak from the vantage point of a preacher. I am pastor and teacher. Therefore, I most identify with statistics that effect preachers. Here are some sobering statistics from a few years ago concerning the profession that I practice.
1. 75% of preachers report a significant stress-related crisis at least once in a ministry.
2. 50% feel unable to meet the needs of the job.
3. 70% say that they have a lower self-image than when they started in the ministry.
4. 40% report a serious conflict with a church member at least once a month.
5. 70% of preachers do not have somebody they consider a close friend.
While all of those statistics don’t fit with my ministry here at Central Park, I have been through every one at some point in time. I mention them because I believe they just don’t describe the experiences of preachers but the experiences of all church leaders.
When I consider the issues highlighted in these stats, I wonder what would have happened if these leaders had at least a few prayer partners – people to pray for their moral purity, for their protection and for their spiritual development.
Rainer gives several areas in which we should pray for our church leaders. The first is to pray for their families. Don’t just pray for the leaders. Pray also for their wives and children.
Church leaders worry that they’re neglecting their families because of the demands of the church. They worry about their families living in a glass house. They anguish when critics direct barbs at their family members. Few families face the kinds of pressures and expectations as do the families of church leaders. Especially pray for the wives of our leaders. None of us would be able to do what we do without our wives.
Second, pray for protection for our church leaders. 1 Tim. 3:2-7 – Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap. That’s quite a list. It requires that leaders have a reputation of being beyond fault.
No human leader is perfect. But scripture spells out that we need to have reputations above most everyone else. We must maintain good self-control and be sensible, respectable, and hospitable. We have to be gentle and not argumentative. And to add just a bit more pressure, our families have to reflect a healthy, Christian family.
The devil seeks to entrap church leaders. He deliberately looks for ways to subvert church leaders so he can derail the faith of church members and bring the church into disrepute. Satan sees honorable church leaders as threats and works to take them down and out.
When you understand the devil’s schemes, it shouldn’t be too hard to understand why you should uphold your church leaders in your prayers. Rainer says, “The devil is powerful. But God is so much more powerful. And God, in ways we don’t always understand fully, works through the prayers of believers.”
Third, pray for the physical and mental health of your church leaders. Serving and leading a church can expend all of a church leader’s energy. We’re on call every day and every hour. Because the demands are so great on him, a church leader may neglect his own health and well-being. While no one is invulnerable to sickness and accidents, we can still pray for all of our church leaders in this regard.
Don’t just pray for our physical health. Pray for our mental health. Church leaders have to make dozens of decisions on any given day. We need discernment and wisdom. Church leaders feel stress and pressure every day. Pray that God will give us the peace that only He can give.
Leaders +prayer partners = victory. Ex. 17:13 – So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. Let’s do some review.
1. What’s the role and goal of church leadership? It’s to mold the local church into a biblically functioning team.
2. What’s a team? A team is a group of people working together to accomplish the same goal.
3. Here’s a new topic for consideration. What’s the ultimate goal of a team? It’s to be victorious over the obstacles that prevent them from achieving their goal.
Let’s go back to our main scripture passage for this section. What happened? The Israelites seized the moment and together they shared the victory. Each part of the team did their part. Joshua and the soldiers fought on the field. Moses interceded with God. Aaron and Hur stood at Moses’ side and held up his arms to ensure the victory against the Amalekites.
If we want the church to succeed, we need our leaders to succeed. We as leaders need you to hold us up in prayer. We need you to pray for our families, pray for our protection, and pray for our health. Pray that God gives us discernment and wisdom so that we as the church of Christ in our community might accomplish the furtherance of the gospel.
Roles and Outcomes
As we get ready to close out the message this morning, here are five quick roles and outcomes.
1. Leadership determines the direction of the church.
2. Structure determines the size of the church.
3. Relationships determine the morale of the church.
4. Personnel determine the potential of the church.
5. Prayer determines the effectiveness of the church.
Will you be our MVPs? Our Most Valuable Prayers?
Close
It’s time now for us to make the fourth pledge. It’s a pledge that requires discipline but doesn’t necessarily require a lot of time. If you can spend just five minutes a day in pray for your church leaders, you will see a mighty work of God accomplished here at Central Park. John Maxwell: “The ‘detonator’ that churches lack today is prayer. It has the power to ignite the dynamite of the Gospel and powerfully shake the world.”
It doesn’t matter what time of day you pray. You can do it first thing in the morning. You can work it into your work schedules and pray during breaks or lunch. You can even do it in the evening and share this prayer time with your spouse.
As church members, we must be willing to pray for the leaders in our church. Without ongoing intercessory prayer, our church will never be as healthy as it could be with the power of God at work through those prayers.
Let’s say the fourth pledge together:
I will pray for my church leaders every day. I understand that a church leader’s work is never ending. Their days are filled with numerous demands that bring emotional highs and lows. The must deal with critics. They must be good husbands and fathers. Because my church leaders cannot do everything in their own power, I will pray for their strength and wisdom daily.
