WAYS TO PRAY FOR OUR CHURCH

Recently a friend and I finished going through the book How to Build a Healthy Church by Mark Dever and Paul Alexander. At the end of one of the chapters, they provide a great general, biblical list of prayers that we can pray for our church (Dever and Alexander 230-231). Maybe sometimes you wish you knew of more specific ways you can pray for other members and for our church corporately. If so, I hope you’ll find what’s listed below helpful. I’d encourage you to pray through a few of these a day and ask the Lord to be working among us.

• Pray that we would preserve our unity even in our diversity as a witness to the gospel’s uniting power (Eph. 4:2)
• Pray for a local revival of godly sorrow, conviction, and spiritual interest in the Bible.
• Pray that God would create a new local appetite for expositional preaching of the Bible.
• Pray for good fruit from the regular preaching of God’s Word in the local church.
• Pray that all members would look out for each other’s interests (Phil. 2:5-7).
• Pray that the elders would equip the saints for the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:11-12).
• Pray that members would be faithful to make disciples, to build a culture of discipleship, and to see disciple making as part of what it means to be a Christian (Matt. 28:18-20; 2 Tim. 2:2).
• Pray for growth in the church’s ability to encourage and counsel one another from Scripture.
• Pray that established members would be hospitable to newer members, visitors, and those different from themselves.
• Pray that the congregation would welcome political, economic, social, and racial diversity as God gives it.
• Pray for growth in personal holiness, love, and faithfulness.
• Pray for Christ to be honored in our work and that we would commend the gospel to others in our words and conduct during the week.
• Pray that the congregation would grow in prioritizing attendance at the public meetings of the church.
• Pray for growing maturity in giving and receiving godly criticism and encouragement.
• Pray for the children of members to become obedient to their parents in the Lord.
• Pray that the church’s reach for the gospel would broaden to more people and places.
• Pray for growth in a gracious and patient attitude toward those who disagree with us.
• Pray that God would give the congregation more good purposes to spread the gospel and do good (2 Thess. 1:11).
• Pray for growing faithfulness and fruitfulness in private Bible reading.
• Pray for growing faithfulness in private prayer for each other.
• Pray for God to deepen the congregation’s relationships with each other to center on encouragement, confession, and gospel ministry.
• Pray for maturity in being slow to take offense and quick to receive correction.
• Pray that the elders would watch their life and doctrine closely (1 Tim. 4:16)
• Pray that the congregation would bear fruit in every way and increase in the knowledge of God with gratitude (Col. 1:9-12).
• Pray for growth in a shared heart for personal, local evangelism (Acts 8:4)
• Pray for growth in a shared heart for international missions and that the Lord would raise up more workers for his harvest (Matt. 9:38; Acts 1:8).
• Pray for fruitful Bible-reading friendships between us and our non-Christian friends.
• Pray that God would raise up additional qualified elders, preachers, evangelists, and deacons among us (Acts 13:1-3).
• Pray for good fruit from the ministries of the elders and deacons.
• Pray for good fruit from the men’s and women’s discipling relationships in the church.