how can you serve your pastor & leadership?

Simple is often forgotten, so here I remind you with the reminder I needed when praying for church plants (or churches looking for a pastor):

1. Pray for the Launch Team

Make sure that those who currently exist as the body are constantly lifted up before the throne of grace in prayer. Pray for those who are filling extraordinary needs in the Church by dedicating time, service, effort, and energy to serve the Lord & His people. Be sure to lift the launch team up in fervent, frequent, and faithful prayer.

2. Pray for your Pastor

If your pastor is there on site, or if he has not yet arrived, or if you don't have a pastor and you don't know who he is yet, pray for him! Pray pray pray for the man that God has called to stand in the front lines of culture, postmodernism, Satan & his minions, and every humanistic ideology and faithfully and boldly proclaim the exclusive truth found in God's Word that Christ alone is the Savior who delivers His own from the eternal & divine wrath. Those whom God chooses to be pastors must be prayed over fervently as the Word of God will be proclaimed & he will undoubtedly face persecution—from within the church & from without. Pray for him!

3. Pray for the Churchgoers

Pray for those who currently make up the body of Christ in that particular church. Pray for God's Spirit to energize each of their hearts to serve tangibly in some way, to evangelize faithfully as God provides opportunity, to live holy lives evidencing the change that God has worked in their hearts. Pray that the people in the pew would passionately pursue God's truth. Pray that they would hunger for the proclaimed Word as a newborn longs for—and even vocally expresses the desire!—daily food. Pray that the people in the Church would pray daily on their knees, that repentance would be a daily action, that mortifying sin would be at the forefront of every Christian's mind. Pray that sin would be hated as much as a murderer longing to kill a familymember. Pray for Christ to be glorified in the church corporately! And pray that the knowledge amongst all God's people that in order for Christ to be glorified in His church corporately, he must be exalted as sovereign & supreme in each life individually.

4. Pray for the Unsaved in the Community

Beg God to have mercy on the unsaved. Pray that God would mercifully deliver the unsaved from the coming wrath. Pray that the lost in the community would not fill up the measure of their sins thus leading to God's wrath coming upon them to the utmost. Pray that God would save them! And the only way one is saved is by hearing the Word of God & believing the Word of Christ. Pray that each person in the pew would understand that when a nonbeliever dies he is personally, violently, eternally, consciously, and angrily punished by God Himself for all of eternity. Pray that this gripping truth arrests the hearts & minds of each believer in the Church. Pray that they launch out into their home lives with evangelistic zeal. Pray that they share with their children, parents, siblings, grandchildren, co-workers, bosses that judgment awaits for those who reject Christ. Pray that the believers in the Church would have a passionate pursuit of proclaiming the glorious riches of Christ to sinners. It is the gospel that saves, not moral revolution. It is the gospel that saves, not cultural reformation. It is the gospel that saves, not religious affections. It is the gospel that saves, not church-membership applications. It is the gospel that saves, not man-made & self-promoting religions. Pray that God's people in His Church would proclaim His message to hellbound sinners so God can use His shared Word to save His elect and receive the glory that He alone deserves.


These ideas are adapted & altered from Chris Brauns' When the Word Leads Your Pastoral Search (Moody, 2011), pp.28 - 31.