A Pyramid of Prayer Support

Here's a three level model of prayer support, based on one presented by C Peter Wagner, in his book 'Prayer Shield'.

At the base of the pyramid is general prayer support - often that provided by a congregation for its minister, or by regular supporters of an organisation for its leadership. This support can be encouraged by providing teaching on the value of prayer for leaders and by widely sharing general needs for prayer. This can build into a broad base of prayer support for leaders, although it can be difficult knowing how much effective support is being provided at any point in time. Omar Cabera, the Argentinean pastor, simply asks church members to pray for him and his wife when they say grace at meals. The size of his church means this could lead to around 20,000 prayers a day!

The second level on the pyramid represents those who will undertake to pray regularly for specific leaders. Their commitment to this specific prayer need is greater than that of the base level, and they will be few in number. There will need to be regular two way communication with these people. Prayer letters, telephone calls, periodic conversations are all helpful ways of maintaining the contact. At this level it is perhaps likely that many of them will have a particular leaning towards intercession, rather than simply the prayerfulness to which all Christians are called. A New Zealand Anglican church planter who visited us recently has 15 intercessors who sign up for a year's commitment, which may be renewed, to pray for him daily. In return he and his wife pray for them once each week. Once a month he writes a very open and specific letter to these intercessors, giving answers to prayer, and some topics for prayer for the coming month.

The top level of the pyramid represents the one or two people who are prepared to undertake intercession for a specific leader as a significant part of their ministry. This may be in response to a definite call from God, or presented as a desire to pray for a particular leader and his/her minisry. Peter Wagner suggests it is unlikely that a leader will have more than a couple of these intercessors at any point in time, and most often a single person fulfils this role. The intercessory support described on the preceding pages is an example of such intercession, where over time the intercessor is spending considerable time praying for the leader and his/her ministry. This kind of intercessor will very much need the faith to follow God's agenda, rather than solely presenting their view of the needs of the leader. It is clearly important that an open and trusting relationship is built between leader and intercessor. Wagner's model suggests that this level of intercession is likely to be done by experienced intercessors spending several hours a day in prayer. Our own experience suggests that the Lord can use this ministry to develop the ministry of those He is calling to intercession. In fact, this may need to be so in many cases because there are probably not enough experienced intercessors around to provide sufficient support to the whole leadership of Christ's church...... yet!