8.

ORGANIZING A PRAYER PARTNER TEAM

For where two are or three come together in my name, there am I with them.
Matthew 18:20

Arthur J. Moore was a Methodist bishop early this century. But before he served in that post, he pastored some of the largest Methodist churches in the South. He was a consistent and successful evangelist, and at least one person was converted every Sunday that he preached.

One day just before a worship service, a friend visited Moore and asked him, "How is it that you're so successful?"

"Come with me," Moore said. He took the visitor to the basement, where a prayer meeting was in progress. There were seventy men praying fervently for him and the worship service that was about to begin.

When the prayer partners were finished, they quietly walked up the stairs into the service. Moore turned to his friend and said, "Notice where they sit."

"What do you mean?" he asked Moore, watching them scatter over the sanctuary.

"See," said Moore. "Where each one of them sits down, he is such a center of divine warmth that anyone frozen in sin who sits near him is liable to thaw out before the service is over."

When a group of people lifts up their church and partners with their leader in prayer, incredible things happen...in Matthew 18:19-20 Jesus said, "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." What an incredible promise--it assures us that there is power in corporate prayer. And as the number of people who pray increases, so does the power of their prayer.

BENEFITS OF A PRAYER PARTNER MINISTRY

I'm guessing that you probably recognize the benefit of bringing a group of people together to pray. But you may still be wondering whether you should go through the steps of forming an actual prayer partner ministry in your church. Let me put to rest any remaining doubts you may have by telling you a few of the specific benefits you'll receive from having such a ministry in your church.'

*IT MAKES PRAYER A TOP PRIORITY IN THE CHURCH: Most churches teach about the importance of prayer and encourage people to pray. But let's face it--most churches do not have an effective, organized prayer ministry. Prayer gets pushed onto the back burner because most people don't see it as vital or exciting. But once a church has a prayer partner ministry, the people begin to understand the importance of prayer and the thrill of witnessing God's answers, especially if the pastor gives the ministry high visibility. As the congregation gets enthusiastic and starts talking to God more and more, prayer goes from a back burner afterthought to a red-hot priority.

• IT CREATES A FARM TEAM FOR SPIRITUAL LEADERS: You learn a lot about people when you pray with them, especially about their spiritual maturity. I found that to be true when I prayed with my prayer partners every week. And I also found that as people prayed with me, they began to develop a heart for God similar to mine. As a result, I often looked to my prayer partners when I wanted to develop people for leadership within the church.
• IT ENHANCES THE LEADER'S PERSONAL MINISTRY: The only leader in history who didn't need others to pray for Him was Jesus. He prayed for Himself, and when God intercedes no one else is necessary. But everyone else can benefit from a prayer partner ministry. A pastor who has others praying for him has the potential to go farther than he could ever go alone.
• IT BLESSES THE PRAYER PARTNERS: People who become a part of a prayer partner ministry grow spiritually and become closer to God. They also develop strong relationships with others. Skyline prayer partner Larry Doyle said, "Through prayer partners, I met people I had never had lunch with, never played golf with, never really done anything with. But in prayer partners, we shared a special love for each other. There is no other way to develop relationships like that so quickly." Partnering in prayer is always a win-win situation.
• IT CREATES AN ATMOSPHERE WHERE GOD CAN WORK: Over the last several years, I've had the privilege of speaking to many thousands of people in conferences, seminars, churches, and even stadiums. Time after time I've seen God do great things. But it's not because of me. The atmosphere of openness to God I witnessed was created by the requests and intercession of my faithful prayer partners. As a result, God was able to do a work. That prayer covering continues even today. Although I no longer have the 120 prayer partners at Skyline Church praying for me, there are now over three hundred prayer partners praying daily for me and INJOY. And the blessings continue.

HOW TO GET A PRAYERR PARTNER MINISTRY STARTED

Because the prayer partner ministries that have supported me have been large and powerful, you may feel that starting a prayer partner ministry in your church is too big a job. It's not; if you believe in the power of prayer, you can do it. Here are some guidelines to get you started:

1. Get the Pastor on Board

The first critical step in creating a prayer partners ministry is to get your pastor on board. You saw what happened to Doug Bennet when he approached pastors who didn't want a prayer partner ministry (see chapter 7). God later answered Doug's prayer, but he had to move him to another church to do it. It may be possible to start a prayer partner ministry without the pastor's blessing, but I've never yet seen that happen.

If you are a layman, begin by asking God to show your pastor his need for prayer and make him receptive to a prayer partner ministry. Then, when you believe the time is right, approach your pastor about it. If you are a pastor, then search your heart: Are you willing to let the laypeople of your church come alongside you and partner with you in prayer? If you are willing, you and your church have great days ahead of you.

2. Develop a Pastor-Layman Personal Prayer Partnership

For a prayer partner ministry to develop, there is one relationship that first needs to be established--a partnership between the pastor and a committed layperson who will become his personal intercessor and accountability partner. This critical relationship can be initiated by the layperson (as it was with Bill Klassen for me and Doug Bennet for Bill Rudd) or it can be initiated by the pastor. Most effective prayer partner ministries begin with a personal partnership between these two people and then grow slowly from there.

The layperson who partners with the pastor should desire to do three things for him faithfully and cheerfully:

• SUPPORT THE PASTOR AND CHURCH: The person must have a vision for the pastor's ministry, be devoted to his leadership, be supportive of him personally, and have a heart for the church.
• INTERCEDE FOR THE PASTOR: He must feel a strong desire to intercede for the pastor and pray for him on a daily basis.
• KEEP THE PASTOR ACCOUNTABLE: He must be willing to develop a relationship of mutual accountability where the two can tell each other anything in confidence, with honesty. This kind of relationship takes time to develop, but the seeds of trust must be there in the beginning. And of course, the pastor and the layperson must be of the same gender. You should never allow an intimate prayer relationship to develop between members of the opposite sex--unless, of course, they're married to each other.

Accountability is an important part of the relationship between the pastor and the personal prayer partner. When Bill Klassen and I met while I was still pastor at Skyline, he always asked me these five questions:

• Do you have a fresh word from the Lord (from personal time with God)?
• Are you walking in obedience to every word of God?
• Are you misusing your authority in the church?
• Is your thought life pure?
• Have you lied about any of the above?

As you develop your own relationship, develop your own set of questions which address the areas where the two of you most need accountability and prayer. You'll find that accountability not only strengthens you for ministry, but it builds your relationship and desire to pray for one another.

3. Recruit Additional Prayer Partners

Once a firm relationship has been established between the pastor and his personal prayer and accountability partner, it's time to begin looking for others to join the prayer team. It's all right to start slow. If you have a very small church, you might find two or three others who desire to pray. Or you may be able to find seven, so that they can each have a day of the week to intercede. No matter where you start, as the prayer partner ministry grows and becomes more visible in the church, additional people will be encouraged to participate.

I used to do a number of things to make prayer partners highly visible at Skyline. For example, I talked about them frequently from the pulpit, thanking and praising them for their dedication. And every Sunday one of them prayed for the offering, so they were always in front of the congregation.

I found that the best way to establish a core of people to pray is to schedule a prayer partner retreat once a year and invite people with potential to attend. (See appendix A for information on how to plan a prayer partner retreat. [which is part of the book, but not part of these excerpts].) When deciding who to invite to the retreat, my personal prayer partner and I targeted four different types of people:

• THE HOT LIST: We always invited people in the church who were hot for God. Many of them were older and had walked with God for many years. I particularly enjoyed including the gray-haired saints; some of them might have lacked physical strength, but they possessed great strength spiritually.
• THE HIT LIST: Learning to pray more effectively can transform a Christian's life. Often when we identified Christians who lacked maturity but in whom we saw a desire to grow, we'd ask them to be a part of the prayer team. Being around some of the more experienced spiritual leaders helped the less mature ones to learn and grow.
• THE HOPE LIST: My hope list consisted of people with tremendous leadership potential who I wanted to give some time to grow. Paul warned Timothy not to put anyone into a leadership position too soon (1 Tim. 3:6). That's good advice. I got to know my people well by spending a year praying with them before asking them to be leaders. By praying with them regularly, I could sense whether their hearts were right with God and if they were ready for a leadership position.
• THE WHOEVER LIST: Finally, besides selecting particular people to invite to the retreat, we also opened up the ministry to anyone in the congregation who wished to participate. And many times God provided faithful prayer warriors that we would have otherwise overlooked. However, if you will be starting with a very small group of prayer partners, you may want to wait until the ministry is firmly established and growing before opening it up to everyone in the congregation. In his book Prayer Shield, my friend C. Peter Wagner points out that prayer and intercession "seems to be a magnet for emotionally disturbed people." So discernment should be used, especially when getting started.

After we determined who we would invite, we held the annual retreat, where everyone spend the day praying and learning about prayer. At the end of the day, we passed out commitment cards and allowed each person to decide whether God was calling him to become a prayer partner for the coming year. (See appendix C for a sample prayer partner commitment form [again, in the book, not these excerpts].) Anyone who did agreed to the following five commitments:

1. Become a member of the church, if your are not already.
2. Attend the quarterly prayer partner breakfasts.
3. Attend the annual prayer partner retreat.
4. Pray daily for the church and its staff. Pray for specific needs on an assigned day of the week or month. (See appendix C for suggestion [again, in the book].)
5. Come to the church on each assigned Sunday to join other prayer partners and pray for the pastor, the church, and the service.

I should note at this point that although my current prayer partners include both men and women, when I was senior pastor at Skyline Church, I invited only men to be my prayer partners. That wasn't because I didn't recognize women's ability to pray. In fact, in most churches, women pray more than men do. My decision was motivated by a couple of reasons: First, because men have often neglected to step forward as spiritual leaders on their own, I wanted to use the prayer partner ministry to help them develop spiritually. Second, I have always taken special care to avoid situations that are likely to tempt me morally. I don't pray, dine, or travel alone with a person of the opposite sex--except for my wife, Margaret. I don't ever want to put myself or my prayer partners in an awkward position or a place where they might become tempted.

As you form a prayer partner ministry, you may not feel it's necessary to restrict the prayer team to all women or all men. But if you do decide to have members of the opposite sex praying together, be very sensitive to these issues.

4. Get the Prayer Partners Organized

Once you have a group of people willing to pray, it's important to organize them so that they can pray most effectively. At Skyline, the person who fulfilled this role was the prayer partner coordinator. He provided administrative leadership to the team and functioned as the primary communication link between the pastor and the prayer partners. For many years Bill Klassen, my personal prayer partner, filled that role. Later, board member and friend, Bill Laugaland (and then Dennis Suchecki) oversaw the ministry.

The logical person to fill this role is usually the pastor's personal prayer partner, but someone else could be chosen to do it. What's important is that the person be a recognized spiritual leader with a consistent prayer life, a heart for the pastor and church, and organizational ability. His primary duties include creating monthly prayer schedules and guidelines that let the prayer partners know when and how to pray, communicating special prayer needs and praises, and assisting the pastor and his staff with quarterly breakfasts and annual retreat. (See appendix C for sample schedules and letters [in the book].)

5. Plan for Prayer Partners to Pray for Every Service

The heart of any prayer partner ministry is the time of prayer before and during each of the church's services. Each Sunday a group should come to the church about forty-five minutes to an hour before the starting time of the service (according to the prayer partner coordinator's schedule). Once there, they should do the following:

• PRAY GEOGRAPHICALLY: For about the first twenty minutes, they should lay hands on everything in the sanctuary--the pulpit, the piano, and the pews--asking God to make everything work according to His plan and to bless and minister to the people who will soon be there.
• PRAY FOR THE PASTOR: About twenty-five minutes or so before the service begins, they should move to a private area with the pastor, possibly his office, to pray for him. Before they begin, the pastor should share any requests he has and tell them about any answers to prayer that he's received.
• PRAY DURING THE CHURCH SERVICE: As the service begins, the prayer partners should retreat to an area near the sanctuary and pray for the service. When my prayer partners first began at Skyline, they had difficulty praying for a full hour. So we began leaving them a prayer agenda. (See the sample Sunday Morning Prayer Guide in appendix C [in the book].) As time went by they gained confidence, and their prayer time became more spontaneous.

6. Keep the Momentum Going

Maintaining a vital prayer partner ministry requires several things: Periodic instruction in prayer, the ongoing development of relationships among prayer partners, and continued motivation for them to pray. At Skyline we accomplished these goals through our annual retreat and quarterly prayer partner breakfasts. (See appendix B for how to plan a quarterly breakfast [in the book].) I taught a new lesson every time we met, and we set aside time for everyone to meet and pray with other prayer partners. We shared answers to prayer and praised everyone for their valuable contributions. Skyline prayer partner Ben Grame said, "I always felt uplifted at the meetings because John gave people credit. His appreciation made me want to move forward in prayer."

Nothing motivates like victory, and when you start a prayer partner ministry in your church, you will experience many victories. I recently asked Doug Bennet to share with me some of the things that have happened since he began a prayer partner ministry with his pastor, Bill Rudd, back in Michigan. He told me about many of the wonderful benefits to the church and the pastor. Doug said, "There is a unity in the church unlike anything we've ever seen before. People are working together as a team. The older and younger generations are coming together and getting to know one another better. And the pastor's life has changed; he no longer feels that he's bearing the burden alone. He's experiencing greater victory over temptation, and he's preaching with greater power and freedom."

"What about the people who are praying?" I asked.

"Oh, their experiences have been wonderful." Doug answered. "The impact that this ministry has had on individual lives--it's something I never expected. When I first talked about starting a prayer partner ministry, I was told, 'You'll get lots of people who are willing to pray, but don't expect any men!" But the men did step forward to pray, and I've seen tremendous changes in marriages and families. They've developed relationships on a much deeper level than just talking ball scores. As a matter of fact, within moths they've built relationships that normally take decades to develop. It's incredible!"

He then shared with me a testimonial he recently received from a prayer partner. Here's what it said:

I've been involved in prayer partners for about a year now, and my life has really changed: my marriage has grown, my financial situation has improved, and my spiritual life has matured. My time praying has brought me back to the realization that God is real, that Jesus is real, and that my former life was not what I really wanted.

I am much happier than I used to be. My prayer life is by far much better than it has ever been. It is so exciting to pray for others in need and watch God work miracles that I never thought possible. The Bible tells us all we need to do is ask and we will receive. The world is full of people who don't even know who to ask, let alone how! It is an honor to be involved in a ministry that we can literally watch change lives.

When I got involved as a prayer partner, I had no idea how powerful prayer could be. The results of my personal prayer have been incredible. I could not have imagined the results in my wildest dreams. I pray that this ministry will reach into every corner of this country so that it can be a God-fearing land once again.

I believe God is beginning to answer that prayer. And you may even be a part of it. If your church and pastor already have a prayer partner ministry, get involved. If not, maybe you should be the one to start a prayer partner ministry in your church. Think about it, and start praying. It may be God's desire to answer the prayer of this brother in Christ by sending you! [These chapter excerpts have been provided for you as pastors to print copies of for handing out in teaching this subject, chapter by chapter, to those interested in joining a prayer partner ministry. The vital information in the appendices and the discussion questions at the back of each chapter must be obtained from the book itself, available online at: http://www.christianbooks.com. You may also want to check out EQUIP'S site http://www.pastorsnet.org where pastors and their families are linked with prayer partners and caregivers.]