The Day a Pastor asked for Prayer

Lessons for the Church

At my local church, I serve on the hospitality team and love to engage people with a warm greeting and just making people feel welcome. Professionally I work in sales and love to meet people so its a suitable fit for me to serve on the hospitality side. I make it a point to introduce myself and ask a person what is there name and if they have been to our church before. I actually keep a digital notebook on my phone as I meet people so I remember who they are when they return again. Remembering names is important so writing them down helps me.

“A person's name is to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language.” - Dale Carnegie

One Sunday morning, my wife and I after dropping off our kids in the children’s program, we walked into the sanctuary and there was a middle aged man alone who seemed somewhat distraught. I decided to reach out, he was attending the 1st worship service and I was entering in to the 2nd worship service. I was not on duty for hospitality for the weekend. I asked him if he was okay, and he was not able to get any words out just tears. I told him I can pray with you so I asked him to move into one of our classroom locations nearby.

Photo by Daniel Tseng on Unsplash

Sitting down in the classroom just the two of us, man to man, I asked what I could pray for him about? I wanted to know his story first. He shared he had visited my church a few times when he has the weekend off as he was a Pastor at another church, different denomination for over 15 years. I asked what was bothering him and he opened up a lot. I won’t share the details out of respect to a person’s privacy but I did ask him if at his own church he had any other men he could open with and share his burdens with. He said no.

Many people in our culture including Pastors and Ministry leaders do not ask for help or prayer perhaps they think it’s a sign of weakness.

When being faced with this perspective, remind yourself of this verse:

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” - 2nd Corinthians 12:9

The Pastor did not feel he could be vulnerable with believers in his church even though he was was shepherding them for over a decade. We agreed to pray, he wanted to pray on his knees so I joined him, placed my hands on his shoulders and prayed for his life concerns. I also gave him a hug and thanked him for opening up. Later that that day he messaged me to thank me and said he felt a burden released from him that afternoon. We would exchange a few messages back and forth. I also shared this with several men, just his first name and that he needed unspecified prayer requests. I have several men who I keep on open chat channel we share prayer requests regularly, it’s sort of band of brothers type of channel.

We should pray for Pastors, Elders, and Ministry Leaders. Often they may not share struggles. In the media we have seen a number of high-profile ministry leaders and pastors who have hidden sins for years and not have outlet to pray and confess struggles.

Examples include:

• Tony Cammarota, Associate Pastor of mega-church Stonebriar Community Church.

• Tony Evans, longtime Pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship.

• Robert Morris, founder of Gateway Church.

• Ravi Zacharias, well known Evangelist who has since past but kept hidden from his family and ministry partners his struggles with relationships with various woman.

Those who do ministry for a living often place themselves in a very vulnerable position and the work itself can have challenges with isolation and spiritual warfare. They even over time feel unappreciated and not encouraged with their work.

^“Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their way of life, imitate their faith.” - Hebrews 13:7

What are some practical steps you can take to encourage and prayer over leaders within your own church?

If your a Pastor or Ministry Leader who would to have some dialog for encouragement, feel free to email me at thesaltandlightdaily@gmail.com.

Look for a way to encourage ministry leaders whether they are volunteer or paid staff. Thank them for what they do.

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In closing, my daughter and I reviewing this story in Luke 17:11-18.

¹¹ Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance ¹³ and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

¹⁴ When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. ¹⁵ One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. ¹⁶ He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷ Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸ Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”

My daughter was surprised only one (1) person thanked Jesus for healing them. Perhaps those who are engaged in ministry, you might be that one person who thanks them for all that they are trying to do in building up the church and the Kingdom. Look for someone to encourage when you see them making attempts at living by faith and serving others.

Some other resources on this topic:

Lifeway Research: Why Every Pastor should invest in friendships outside of the church.

Desiring God: Why Loneliness limits Ministry.

Barna Research Group: A Rapid Decline in Pastoral Security.

Barna Research Group: 7-Year Trends: Pastors feel more loneliness & less support.

Practical Concerns in the Local Church: An Interview with John MacArthur