Is your church in transition because your lead pastor is leaving? There are five kinds of prayer that are needed for a successful, church-wide pastoral search process. Each should be incorporated into a prayer strategy for this need.
One kind of prayer that is needed to find and keep a new pastor is intercessory prayer. This kind of prayer is what a dear lady in my first church once called, "serious, down on your knees kind of praying." It goes beyond the "God bless our search for a new pastor" prayer to the prayer for a search for a new, godly shepherd for your church. It comes from deep within your heart and the heart of God. Intercessory prayer for a pastoral search process is modeled by the words of Jesus in these heartfelt groanings for the need of His church:
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. (Matt. 90:36-38)
A second kind of prayer needed for a pastor search process is what is called persevering prayer. When you pray with perseverance you do not give up. You continue to pray no matter what the obstacle, discouragement, or temptations to give up. When the search process seems long and arduous, you keep praying. As the acronym goes, you PUSH in prayer (Pray Until Something Happens).
Persevering prayer is illustrated by a parable given by Jesus when He described a widow who hounded a judge day and night for justice against her adversary until the judge gave in and finally met her need. (Luke 18:1-8)
Another kind or prayer needed when you say farewell to one pastor and seek another is called focused prayer. By using focused prayer, the church search team prays through each stage of the pastoral search process. Use the checklist as a list of specific prayer requests. Focus your prayers on the need for God to help your search team progress through each stage and each task found under each stage. You can see an example of focused prayer in the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples in Matt. 6:9-13.
Still another kind of prayer to use as the church seeks a new pastor is called faith-based prayer. It's true that at the heart of prayer is faith in the Lord to do what is needed according to his character and will. In that sense, all true prayer to God is based on faith. But in any search for a new pastor, the church needs to be reminded that it is ultimately God who prepares and calls someone to be a shepherd at your church. Some of the work of finding a new pastor is seen but most of it is God working behind the scene in ways that we do not know or understand. We acknowledge our desperate need to hear from God as we converse with Him.
The fifth kind of prayer needed by a church in transition between pastors is Kingdom-minded prayer. We are told by our Lord Jesus in His sermon on the Mountain that we are to "seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness." (Matt. 6:33) Kingdom-minded prayer begins and ends with the acknowledgment that The Lord reigns and rules over our lives and His church. In searching for a new pastor, we need to lay aside our desires and preferences, even what we think we need, and instead, seek God for what he wants above all else. Our Kingdom-minded prayers sound like this, "What is God saying to us?" This replaces such questions as, "How do we all feel about this?"
(This blog is adapted from a chapter in my forthcoming book on finding a new pastor for your church in transition.)
Photo by Ismael Paramo on Unsplash