Leadership Thought: Did You Ever Consider Prayer as a Form of Encouragement?

Dear Friends,

There are many easy ways to encourage someone. You can write a note, speak a kind word, offer a hug, pay a visit, but one of the most unrecognized and neglected forms of encouragement is prayer.

Paul encouraged Timothy this way: "I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers" (2 Timothy 1-3). 

Again and again the bible encourages us to pray for one another. Praying gets our focus off ourselves and onto the needs of those around us. As we "carry each other burdens," we "fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:2).

It has been said that the church moves forward the fastest when it's on its knees. 

Every Thursday a group from our church gathers before daybreak to spend time with one another in prayer. 

It was Jesus who we are told got up a long time before dawn to go and pray, (Mark 1:35) and what better cue could one take than to follow the pattern of the prayer life of Jesus. This early morning hour is my favorite time of the week, for I look forward to getting together to pray with one another.

Prayer is one of the greatest forms of encouragement, for it encourages both the one who offers it as well as the one who receives it. When I leave that prayer time each Thursday, I am spiritually uplifted and encouraged, and I know I have participated in one of the most important ministries of the church- the ministry of prayer.

Before entering the doors of the church each Sunday, I offer a brief and silent prayer: "O Lord, please lead me to someone to whom I might be able to minister to this morning." When I am led to such a person, I try to listen well as I seek to hear some spoken or unspoken  need. When I conclude our time together, I simply ask "May I pray for you." People seldom refuse the offer.

I don't want to ever miss the opportunity of encouraging someone by offering them the gift of prayer.  If you have the opportunity to pray for someone 'now,' don't ever put it off. Unfortunately, there is nothing quite so neglected as unspoken prayer.

If all of us were to look for opportunities to pray and be used in ministry when we enter the doors of the church, there would be a spiritual tsunami of encouragement sweeping though the congregation. People would no longer hurry out the door to the parking lot, but instead the church would be filled with the sweet fragrance of prayer ascending heavenward.

In a former church I served we had prayer/encouragement cards in the pews. People would take them, write on them a word of prayerful encouragement, indicate the person to whom the encouragement was meant, and then drop the card in one of the offering boxes. Those cards would then be collected and mailed out by our secretaries on Monday morning to the people for whom they were intended. 

Sometimes those notes were unsigned, adding a kind of mystery for the receiver who would try to figure out who it was that was praying for and encouraging them.

Visiting people in the hospital before surgery is a wonderful way of offering encouragement. People undergoing surgery are among the most receptive and appreciative of this encouraging gift.

I frequently call  or e-mail the people for whom we have prayed on Thursday mornings to let them know that they were prayed for. I can't tell you how grateful those people are to learn that the church cares for them and has remembered to pray for them.

In several churches in which I served, there were a group of people who would pray and lay hands on me before I entered the pulpit as well as another group of people praying for me as I delivered the message.

It was said that the boiler room was the source of Charles Spurgeon's pulpit power. Each Sunday there were as many as 300 people on their knees praying that the words of their pastor would reach the hearts of his listeners. Whenever Spurgeon was asked the secret of his power, he would always explain, "it is the boiler room."

Following the close of our services, prayer counselors are always available to pray and offer encouragement to those who have needs.

One of the greatest examples of encouragement for me took place in 2023, shortly before my wife had passed away. All my children had arrived to say their final goodbyes to their mom, and I was scheduled to preach. Although I felt I was well prepared, I was not aware of how physically and emotionally exhausted I was, and suddenly I found myself standing in the pulpit experiencing an emotional meltdown. I couldn't get a word out of my mouth. Speechless and embarrassed, I stood there trying to pull myself together, but the words wouldn't come. I apologized and told our congregation that I just couldn't deliver the message that morning, and then I turned and started off the stage.

One of our pastors suddenly stood up and called the congregation to prayer. He directed us to assemble in small prayer groups all over the church, and for the next 45 minutes those groups  prayed for me, Jean, my family and the church to close the service the groups gathered around me and prayed as they laid hands on me.

To this day I tell the congregation that it was the greatest sermon 'never' preached, and I still hear stories from those present as to how encouraged they were to see and experience the powerful moving of the spirit  amidst our congregation. I will never forget how this powerful expression of prayerful love and encouragement touched and blessed my life.

I close with the words of Spurgeon who writes, "If a church does not pray, it is dead.  Instead of putting united prayer last, put it first. Everything will hinge upon the power of prayer in the church."

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom