Prayer gets our people in touch with us. I want my people to know they have a ministry of prayer to give me. My people know I want them to come into my office and pray for me. I do not want them to feel the only time they can see me is when they have some need or problem. They can come when things are going well. I tell them I love to have them come and give me a booster shot of prayer. It doesn’t need to take more than a few minutes, but it lets them know they count with me and they can help me.
Obviously, there are times when we should not be interrupted, but there are other times when people should know we would be delighted if they would come in and pray.
People need to sense our confidence and spirit of authority, but they also need to know us in our frailty and fear. They need to know that we hurt, too. We need their help. The religion of the stiff upper lip is not the way of Christ. Our Lord knew how to weep. In his hour of greatest trial he sought the comfort and support of the three, and he went through that night in unashamed agony. Many times our stiff-upper-lip religion is not a sign of piety but of arrogance.
Beyond that, it is important to help our people understand the ministry of prayer they can have for and in our worship services. I would meet every Sunday at 8:00 a.m. with all the platform people and remind them that perhaps the main ministry they would be having that morning would be to pray for the people. They were in a unique situation to see people—those who seemed burdened or hurt or angry. They could pray for them; they could pray for me. Sometimes I would have people sit on the platform for no other reason than to pray. One dear brother would sit through both worship services every Sunday bathing the people in prayer, praying for the power of Christ to conquer, praying for truth to prosper. When you know someone is doing that, you can really preach.
Prayer is an essential discipline for preaching because it gets us in touch with God, it helps get us in touch with our people, and it helps people get in touch with us. As John Wesley said: “Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergy or laity; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth. God does nothing but in answer to prayer.”
Copyright © 1995 by Leadership/Christianity Today
