Praying for this Sunday, Every Sunday and Everyday

"The more I comprehend the full scope of the Gospel, the more I value the role that I value the church, for which Christ died (Ephesians. 5:25).  the more I value the role that I play in the lives of my fellow Christians, and the more I appreciate the role that they must be allowed to play in mine."  The Gospel Primer

A big part of this role of fellow Christians is praying for one another,  which is what we studied this week in Trinity Baptist Church's "Leadership is Influence" adult Bible class.  
The Sunday classes have been broken into several topics:  Personal, Church, Family, Work, Neighborhood, and Politics.  Each topic is divided into two disciplines:  Prayer (dependence upon God) and Productivity (stewardship for God's glory).

This past Sunday, January 26, we looked at Ephesians 4 to see how we could pray for the church.  Our prayers for the church should demonstrate dependence upon God, a supernatural unity, thankfulness for God-given leaders, and ongoing Gospel growth.
It is my prayer that God would use this lesson to help, not only the class but also the whole church to pray for our church family and the pastors, elders, and other leaders.  

Here is a prayer I have prayed for Trinity and shared with the class.

Lord God,

We pray for the members of Trinity Baptist Church, every single member.

As we join together as a local body of believers, we pray for the leadership of TBC.  Thank you for giving them to us.  Help them to grow as disciples and to equip others to grow as disciples.

 Help us continue to build relationships with various missionaries and ministries of TBC in the Grand Rapids area and around the world.  We desire to support them with our prayers, finances, and whenever possible with our presence.

God, we do not want the ministry programs of TBC to become the end goal.  Let each of these provide opportunities to build God-glorifying relationship with others in the church and in the community.

As we live in the communities around the meeting place of TBC, help us see the opportunities you give us to share the hope we have in Christ and his life, death, resurrection.   

We pray all of this in the precious name of Jesus Christ, who gave himself up for his bride, the church.

Amen.

One major part of the pastor's role is the teaching and preaching of God's Word.  With this in mind, I gave the class two sets of prayers for the sermon from Praying for Sunday by Mike Fabarez.  A link to the class lesson page, which includes several other websites with various prayers for the pastor and church leader is right after these sermon prayers.  I very much appreciated the prayers of many different people when I was serving as a pastor at Emmanuel and West Cannon and I have been trying to make it a point to be an encouragement to the pastors of Trinity.

Pray for Sermon Preparation.

1. Pray that the message your pastor is preparing to preach would be an evident part of his own life.
2. Pray for the protection of your pastor’s sermon preparation time.
3. Pray that your pastor will be given grace and illumination to rightly divide God’s word.
4. Pray that the words your pastor chooses to frame the outline would be effective and powerful tools for the Holy Spirit to employ. 
5. Pray that your pastor would have insight into the needs of the congregation as he prepares.

Pray for the Response to the Sermon

1. Pray that all, including yourself, will put the sermon into practice.
2. Pray that the sermon will not be compartmentalized.
3. Pray that the application of the sermon would be contagious.
4. Pray that the sermon itself will be repeatedly delivered.

For more resources go to the Pray for Your Church lesson page.