Day 5: Praying For Great Commission Church Members

It’s inspiring to watch a great team working together. Though you might assume I’m referring to sports teams, my thoughts are not limited to athletics. Business teams. Community teams. Mission teams. Medical teams. There are many possibilities.

Two prominent characteristics of great teams I have seen are unity and chemistry. Obviously, the two are related. Competency and talent are also important, of course. Most good teams will exhibit those traits. But most of the great teams I’ve seen have great chemistry and work in unity. Some teams with less talent have defeated more gifted teams by working in greater harmony.

Chemistry and unity are of particular importance in the church. The healthiest churches I have seen have members who put the entire body before themselves. They put the good of the gospel before their own preferences.

On this fifth day, the challenge is to pray for your fellow church members, particularly that they would have hearts and passion for the Great Commission. Here are some specific ideas for prayer.

UNITY

As noted above, unity is important for a church to have a Great Commission focus. If you doubt the importance of unity among Christians, remember these words of Jesus: “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me” (John 17:21).

Don’t miss Jesus’ conclusion. If Christians are unified, then the world will believe the gospel. That’s why this day of prayer is so important. That’s why this matter of unity is one key reason we should be praying for our fellow church members.

By the way, before we proceed further, let me remind you to include yourself in your prayers for church members. We’re not simply praying for “those other people.” We need the same prayerful admonitions ourselves.

LOVE OF COMMUNITY

Pray that the members of your church will love the members of your community—their Jerusalem in the example of Acts 1:8. Many church members likely do not know the people in their own neighborhoods, much less the members in the community at large. Wouldn’t it be great if, for example, community leaders knew your church because of the love and support they received from church members? I am familiar with a church with an average worship attendance of fifty-five that sent one thousand notes of encouragement to different community leaders in one year.

These church members told countless stories about how a number of community leaders responded with sincere appreciation. Many of them were accustomed to regular notes and emails of criticism. The positive notes stood out and became a blessing to them.

Pray for your church members to love your community.

LOVE FOR YOUR PASTOR AND STAFF

On Day 4, we guided you to pray for your pastor. Let’s expand that prayer reach a bit. As part of your time praying for your church members, pray that they will love your pastor and staff more than ever. We pointed out earlier that pastors go through many trials and have many challenges. So do other staff members. They all need prayer. They all need as many church members as possible praying for them.

Pray for your church members to love your pastor and staff. It is critical to your church becoming a Great Commission congregation.

A FOCUS ON OTHERS

Many church members today are focused on what the church can do for them. They want their kind of music. They want the sermon to be a certain length (usually shorter). They want services to be on their schedule. They want the facilities to look a certain way or be a certain color. The list of wants is endless.

When the preferences of the church members become greater than their passion for the gospel, the church is dying.

Your prayer for your fellow church members should include prayers for them to become others-focused. Putting Christ before themselves. Putting other members before themselves. Surrendering their own preferences, wants, and desires for the greater good of the church.

I have never seen a divided church that is a Great Commission church. A divided church has members who are more concerned about getting their own way than following Christ’s way. Of course, Christ’s way is to share the gospel with others.

Pray that the members of your church will develop an outward focus that looks toward others. And don’t forget to pray for yourself as one of the members of the church.

THE MIGHTY FEW

Several years ago, I spoke with a pastor whose small church had experienced significant growth over a three-year period. The church had grown from an average attendance of forty to more than one hundred. The pastor, in all humility, said it had nothing to do with his leadership. Though I understood why he said what he did, I wasn’t sure I could fully agree.

Three years earlier, an elder in the church had fallen under conviction that his gospel witness was anemic. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he had told someone how Christ had changed his life. And he could not remember when he had last invited someone to church.

He told another elder about this conviction, and the two men agreed that they would pray for gospel opportunities and would hold each other accountable. Within about two months, seven other people had joined this informal accountability group. Most of the new additions were women, so the group comprised three men and six women.

There was no formal program, no major announcement was made to the church, and no system for gauging progress was established. The nine church members simply prayed for Great Commission opportunities, and they shared with the others in the group, primarily by email, how God was moving them toward a Great Commission focus.

About five months into this new endeavor, two new people joined the church. Both were new Christians and were somehow connected to one of the nine praying church members. Over the next three years, the steady flow of new Christians into the church continued unabated. There never was a massive influx, just a remarkably steady addition of people whose lives had been affected by the gospel.

“We didn’t even realize that our church had more than doubled in size in those three years,” one of the two elders said. “We just made a commitment and stuck with it. It’s amazing what God will do when his people are obedient and committed.”

GREAT COMMISSION MEMBERS

The elder’s statement is both simple and profound: “We just made a commitment and stuck with it.” The results were equally simple and profound: “It’s amazing what God will do when his people are obedient and committed.”

As you have no doubt realized by now, we are emphasizing the power of prayer in these early days of the thirty-day challenge. A church will never become a Great Commission church in its own strength. It takes the power of God. And prayer is not simply a prelude; it is the essential catalyst of a Great Commission church.

Take a few minutes now to pray for the members of your church. You can use some of the suggestions we noted, but don’t feel constrained by any specific list. As the apostle James noted, “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results” (James 5:16).

As you continue to pray throughout the thirty days, your prayers will produce wonderful results, including seeing others in your church become Great Commission Christians.