Praying For Pastor and Our Church

By Glenn Mitchell

And I will give you Pastors according to mine own heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

--Jeremiah 3:15

The most valuable asset to any church is its pastor. God has set each pastor in the church as it has pleased Him according to Ephesians 4:11. God uses these men and women of God to teach the saints of God about Himself, His ways, and how to live the life He has purposed for them. It is the pastor whom God has gifted and graced that touches, impacts, and influences the life of the believer on a continual and consistent basis over a spiritual lifetime. It is the pastor whom God uses to lead the church into fulfilling the plan and mission of God for that local body church that division the army of God. Yet many believers rarely, if ever, pray for their pastor.

If you love and thank God for your pastor, if you believe in the vision, mission, and work of your church, if you desire that God use your pastor and his ministry more greatly, then Praying for the Pastor and Our Church is a book just for you. Filled with scripture-saturated prayers, this book is purposed to stir believers to pray effectively for their pastor, church, and the mission God has given them corporately to do. We believe that you, your pastor, and your church will be tremendously blessed through this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886854503

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Praying For Pastor and Our Church

Glenn Mitchell

ISBN 979-8-88685-449-7 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88685-450-3 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Glenn Mitchell

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

How to Use This Book

Section One

The Witness

A Contemporary Witness

The Witness of the Word

One the Greatest Number

The Power Harness, the Light Focused

Pray the Word of God

God's Prescription for Prayer

The Authority of the Intercessor

Prayer Ministry of the Church

Preparing to Intercede

Worship

The Names of God and Their Meanings

Lord You Are the

Section Two

Prayers for the Pastor

A Prayer of Commitment To Pray for Pastor

A General Prayer for Pastor

A Prayer for Pastor's Ministering

Prayer of Encouragement for Pastor

Prayer of Protection For Pastor and His/Her Family

Prayer for Pastor's Focus

Prayer for Favor for Pastor

Prayer for the Pastor Ministering in Other Fellowships

Section Three

Prayers for the Ministry

Prayer for Our Church Services

Prayer for the Ministry of Helps (Auxiliaries)

Prayer for Mass Media Ministries

Prayer for the Performing Arts Ministries

Prayer for the Vision of the Ministry

Prayer for One Hundred Percent Tithers

Prayer for Outreach Ministries

Prayer for Work Being Done for the Church

Section Four

Prayers for the Members

Prayer of Commitment to God

Prayer for the Members of our Church

Prayer for the Men of the Church

Prayer for the Youth of the Ministry

Prayer for the Singles of the Ministry

Prayer for Members Individual Visions and Dreams

Section Five

Prayers for the End-Time Harvest

Prayer for the Nations

Prayer for Our Nation

Prayer to Take This City of (Name of City and State) for Jesus

Prayer for the End-Time Harvest of Lost Souls

Prayer for Salvation for Family Members

About the Author

To the three most influential men that have touched my life. In my eyes, they are both spiritual giants and five-star generals in the army of the Lord. It is because of their unfailing dedication to the Lord and His people. Their tireless efforts to teach, train, minister, and help God's people to rise up and answer God's call. And it is because of these men and men like them throughout the body of Christ that this vision and many other people's visions given to them by the Lord have and are coming to pass. I thank you, men of God, for receiving me into your ministries. Thank You for teaching me, grooming me, and allowing me to grow in the grace of your ministries. I know I speak for many others when I say we have come this far, and we will go much further only because God has strategically stationed all of you along our spiritual journeys. With all my heart, men of God, I thank you for the impact you have and are making on my life.

To the late apostle Ernest Leonard, founder, father, and Apostle of Ernest Leonard Ministries (ELM), a ministry that encompass six church campuses throughout the New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut areas.

To Dr. Bernard Grant, founder and pastor of Showers of Blessing Christian Center, Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Finally, I dedicate this book to Dr. James D. Gailliard, founder and pastor of Word Tabernacle Church, Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

Acknowledgments

I give all glory and honor to God my Father and the lover of my soul for the creation and completion of this book. It was God and God alone that inspired this work in me. He showed me what to do and how to get it done. All the glory belongs to Him, and I bless His holy name.

I also would like to thank my family for patiently allowing me the time I needed to complete this project. And a special thanks to my personal intercessor, best friend, most beautiful woman in the world, and best wife possible, Marilyn. Thank you for putting up with me these thirty-plus years. Thank you for your prayers, your encouragement, and for pushing me past hindrances and delays. Thank you for believing in me, even in times when I doubted myself. You are an essential part of my life. You are spirit and life for me, and I thank God for giving me you.

Introduction

I recently had an opportunity to talk with a brother in Christ. We were glorifying God and exalting the goodness of God in our lives. How God has blessed us and our families and kept us through so many trials and hard times when I soon realized that the brother's countenance had changed. His enthusiasm had faded, and a much more somber look came over his face.

I asked him, What's wrong?

He replied that his pastor had recently walked away from the church. His pastor had decided, without giving a reason, that he had enough and quit the ministry. The brother told me how this devastated the members of the church. They could not understand why or how this could have happened. They were left shocked and dismayed. I took the brother's hand in mine and began to pray. We prayed for the pastor, the pastor's family, the church, and its members.

Another brother in Christ told me that his pastor was caught driving while intoxicated. The man of God had been set up by the devil and caught in his snare. This caused a rift in the church as some wanted to run him out of town on a rail, while others wanted to send him away on a retreat to have him ministered to and restored in the Lord. Again, another church suffers the devastating loss of their man of God.

While this is the extreme and not the norm, it is still tragic to admit that far too many pastors eventually walk away from or get set up by Satan and have to walk away from the work and calling that God almighty Himself gave them to do.

Every day pastors are faced with challenges, decisions, pressures, spiritual wounds, and heartaches that the likes of the average believer do not comprehend. Many pastors are sorely wounded by the betrayal or shipwreck of the very people whom these pastors have poured out of themselves and given so much of themselves for.

Pastors are the most valuable asset to the church. The five-fold ministry gifts of the church found in Ephesians 4:11 are all critical and necessary for the church. But the gift of the pastor (in my opinion) is the most critical of all. Some leaders of the church have a combination of gifts, such as pastor/prophet or pastor/teacher; however, the primary gift will be pastor; why? Because the pastor is gifted and graced by God to affect the life of the believer on a continual and consistent basis over a spiritual lifetime. It is the pastor whom God uses to guide and lead the church into fulfilling the mission and plan of God for that local body church that division of the army of God. He or she spends hours or even days in prayer, fasting, and studying the Word of God to minister a fresh word from God, manna from on high, and fresh oil from heaven to the people of God. It is the pastor who God uses to bring out the potential that He has placed in His people and help them fulfill their God-given destiny and purpose.

The ministry gift of the pastor carries with it a high level of responsibility. He is responsible to teach, guide, guard, govern, and grow up a large body of people, not just any people but God's people, the sons and daughters that He gave His only begotten Son's life for.

To understand what some pastors go through, the Holy Spirit had me think back on one of the most difficult trials that I've been through as a believer. To remember the kind of pressure I felt, I remembered the unrelenting pressure and emotional feelings that I wasn't going to make it this time. That God wasn't going to come through for me this time, and I just needed to throw up my hands, give up, and just quit. The Spirit had me multiply that pressure that I felt times four to understand the pressure and assaults the enemy attacks our pastors with.

Understand that a pastor's faith must far exceed believing God for the mortgage, rent, or a car note. Many pastors are responsible for hundreds and thousands, even millions and multi-million-dollar budgets. Bills have to be paid, and payrolls have to be met, no matter what may come. In more recent times, this has included being in the midst of a pandemic, decreased giving, and people leaving the church, among other things. The pastor carries the weight of this burden and must believe in God, no matter what.

The type or size of the church doesn't matter, whether the church is a storefront church, soup kitchen, multifaceted, multilingual worldwide ministry or any other kind of church. What does matter is that God has set the pastor to lead the church, and the devil targets the pastor to take down the church. The devil will unleash attacks against the pastor