Prayer Points for Pastors: A Tool for Pastors and Their Intercessors

By Audrey L. Dowling

In November 2013, Pastor Teddy Parker was found dead by his wife, Larrinecia Parker, in the driveway of their home with a "self-inflicted gunshot wound" hours after he had sent her and his two daughters ahead of him to church, then failed to show up. It was later revealed that he had been battling manic depression until his death.

Since that time, over 30more pastors have committed suicide. These men and women of God face many challenges that could potentially affect every aspect of their lives. As the Body of Christ, most of us have not been cultured to automatically pray for our pastors. Pastors dont always ask for prayers and many members may not feel comfortable praying for them. We need a renewed culture where prayer for the pastor is encouraged and taught. Pastors need to have specific, anointed, and focused prayer going on for them regularly. Prayer Points for Pastors: A Tool for Pastors and Their Intercessors will help both pastors and their intercessors alike by offering prayer points that may be important to pray for or about for pastors.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: May 24, 2016
• ISBN: 9781491795491

Audrey L. Dowling

Audrey L. Dowling is the leader of Prayer Walls Prophetic Intercession and Warfare Ministry in Lithonia, Georgia. She is a student of the Word, a prayer warrior, prophetic intercessor, teacher, and preacher. As a child, she developed a very intense fascination with prayer that carried on into adulthood. She has started and led prayer ministries and wrote and taught training programs on prayer and intercession for the churches she has served.

Book preview

Prayer Points

For

Pastors

A Tool For Pastors

and Their Intercessors

Audrey L. Dowling

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Prayer PointsForPastors

Copyright

© 2016 Audrey L. Dowling.

Credits:

Front Cover artwork & Back Cover concept by Divine Image Graphics, Inc. www.digtoons.com

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-9548-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-9549-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016906727

iUniverse rev. date:   06/08/2016

Contents

Dedication

Instructions

Introduction

Chapter ONE

The Importance of Praying for Pastors and Spiritual Leaders

Chapter TWO

Prayer Journey, Birthing a Ministry, and Building Culture

Chapter THREE

Building a Prayer Team for Pastors

Chapter FOUR

How to Use This Book as a Tool

1. For Pastors

2. For the pastor’s intercessors

3. For the congregation

Chapter FIVE

How to Pray for Your Pastor

Chapter SIX

Prayer Points for Pastors

1. Pray About

1.   Right-Standing with God

2.   Relationships

3.   Church/Body of Christ/Lost

4.   Anointing/Gift/Dreams/Visions

5.   Difficult Childhood

6.   Self/Ministry Worth

7.   Past Sin

8.   Weaknesses/Character Flaws

9.   Criminal Behavior- Past or Present

10.   Un-Dealt with or Lingering Guilt/Shame

11.   Un-Dealt with or Lingering Grief/Pain/Heartache

12.   Unfulfilled Needs

13.   Seasons-Changing Times/End Times

14.   Fruits of the Spirit

a.   Love

b.   Joy

c.   Peace

d.   Longsuffering

e.   Kindness

f.   Goodness

g.   Faith

h.   Meekness

i.   Temperance

15.   Health

16.   Finances

17.   Protection

18.   Wisdom

19.   Renewal/Revival

20.   Hope

2. Pray Against

1.   Seven Deadly Sins

a.   Pride

b.   Envy

c.   Gluttony

d.   Lust

e.   Anger

f.   Greed

g.   Sloth

2.   Witchcraft/Criticism

3.   Ungodly Influence

4.   Generational Iniquity

5.   Sexual Sin

6.   Addictive Behaviors

7.   Meanness/Bad Attitude

8.   Loneliness

9.   Depression

10.   Mental Anguish

11.   Vicious Cycles

12.   Fear

13.   Lack

14.   Burnout

15.   Deception

16.   Rebellion/Stubbornness

17.   Unforgiving

Sample agreement

Chapter SEVEN

Prayer Point Assessment

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Helpful Resources

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my late father, Willie James Dowling, my mother, Mary E. Harris, and all of my pastors, spiritual mentors (especially the late Lady Miriam Norwood), family, friends and prayer partners.

Instructions

In places where I talk about the pastor, I use the pronoun he, but I want to make it known that I am also speaking of women pastors as well. It makes things much easier than to keep saying he or she in all locations.

Introduction

Since November 2013, over thirty Christian pastors have committed suicide (see detailed list on pages 10-11). Further, approximately 1500 pastors walk away from their ministries every month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches (Cooke 2016). They are also being targeted and murdered. Is anyone shocked by this? I was shocked and shaken a bit when I first learned of three pastor suicides that had taken place in a short period of time during the months of November and December in 2013 (Teddy Parker, Isaac Hunter, Ed Montgomery). I decided then that I would pray for these pastor’s churches, families, and friends. I then learned that God had a larger plan for me regarding the plight of pastors. I am destined to pray for, encourage prayer for, and train those who want to pray more effectively for pastors.

When pastors make mistakes, are challenged, burdened, worried or in trouble, where do they go? Where can they go? The simple answer is to their mentors. The problem is that many do not have mentors, and the ones that do may find it hard to be opened and transparent about what is going on with them. Is there a safe place for pastors to fall in the Christian world or in this entire world? Most of us know the answer to that is very complicated, but we can conclude that some may not find that safe falling place. If there aren’t many safe places for them to fall, how do they make it? What can be done to help them? At the least, prayer and intercession can be done to help them. Members and intercessors can stand in the gap and vow to never let their pastor fall.

This focus of this book is on intercession for pastors, taking into consideration the need for pastors to have their quiet time in personal prayer for themselves. I must also acknowledge that over the past few years, I have come across several ministries that have flourishing prayer and intercession that goes on for pastors. However, it yet remains an underutilized source of spiritual power in [many of] our churches today (Wagner 2014, 154). The truth of the matter is that the Christian church as a whole is not cultured to automatically pray for their pastors. Praying for the pastor is not a major principle that is addressed or even taught. I have written this book to not only stress the fact that pastors need prayer but to insist that we build a culture of prayer and intercession for our Christian pastors. That means that we all take on the responsibility of emphasizing that pastors need regular, focused and specific prayer.

If what I have already said is not convincing enough, here are some more mind-boggling statistics that reveal the current state of our pastors and emanate need to pray for them:

• 4000 new churches begin each year, but over 7000 churches will close.

• 50% of pastors’ marriages will end in divorce.

• 70% of pastors constantly fight depression.

• 70% of pastors do not have a close friend, confidant, or mentor.

• Almost 40% polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry.

• 80% of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.

• 80% of pastors’ wives feel left out and unappreciated by the church members. (Cooke 2016)

Those statistics are astonishing. It was never God’s intent for the ministry to destroy those who work in it (Grillo 2008, 6). Thank God for those who have already called attention to what was going on in the lives of our pastors. In my research, I learned that few authors have written on the subject. In the 90’s, there was a rash of articles and books on the subject of praying for pastors, including: Preyed on or Prayed For by Terry Teykl, Prayer Shield by C. Peter Wagner, It Only Hurts On Monday by Gary L. McIntosh and Robert L. Edmondson, etc. Then we don’t hear about the subject much in book form again until 2008 when authors like Ted Rose, Bill Purvis, and a few others pick it back up. I am thankful for these and others who have shined the light on this need in our churches. Prayer Points for Pastors: A Tool for Pastors and Their Intercessors is designed to be a tool for pastors and those who intercede or want to learn to intercede for them.

Perhaps some pastors may think that encouraging intercessors and their congregations to pray for them may cause a problem. They may think that those who are interceding for them might not be praying the right things. They may look at it as something that could be more of a problem than something that helps them. I think that is all the more reason to make sure they are trained and skilled in praying for them. Right now, people are praying things over the lives of pastors without their knowledge. Not only can they not control the fact that people are praying, they also cannot control what they are praying. One of the best strategies for this would be for pastors to carefully guide this process and teach those around them how to pray for them.

Think about it; the least prayed for individual in the church is most likely the pastor (Teykl 2000, 26). Pastors are expected to pray for, encourage, advise and counsel the members of his congregation, but rarely does he receive some of those same things. The pastor may never ask for prayer, and in the slight chance that he does, it may not be taken seriously. I believe the pastor has THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB IN THIS PRESENT LIFE. Pastors help people connect to their spiritual side and ultimately map out their eternal path. They help people know that there is a choice to make about where they will spend eternity. This is why I believe that it is important that the church should consider it critically important to pray for their pastors. It is a thing of reciprocity. Reciprocity is the practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit.¹ The intercessors and members bless the pastor by praying for him in order that he will be able to bless them by releasing his gifting in its fullest capacity.

I wrote this book knowing full well that pastors are human and are subject to make bad decisions just like anyone else. They also have bad days. They may have moments of discouragement. If the average lay member is in constant need of prayer, what do we think the need is like for our pastors? Who will take on the responsibility to