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!
|