What are the responsibilities of our pastor of prayer?
Before I get to the answer let me clear up a common misconception by saying Noah is not the “pastor of prayer.” I don’t like that title because it infers that Noah has some special duty to prayer that we don’t all share. Prayer is an essential discipline for every believer, from ministers to lay members, parents to children. There's no single pastor of prayer because pastors and believers alike must embody a life of prayer. Our prayer lives reflect our beliefs about God, and our relationship with Him. We must all be people of intimate and meaningful prayer.
So what is Noah’s job?
Noah's task for the immediate future is to rebuild our prayer ministry. Just as prayer is vital for every believer, it is a core ministry of any church. One clear mark of a vibrant church is a collective commitment to pray. Our corporate prayer efforts should shape everything we do. The prayers of the church bring wisdom for decisions, open doors for ministry, provision for our needs, and most importantly ensure that God receives all glory for anything good we have or do. Prayer makes our gatherings more than sermons and songs; it invites God's presence into our church. Without prayer we are spiritually dead. That said, prayer should be considered one of the most vital things we do and should be led and cared for well.
Over the years, various people have taken on the task of overseeing our prayer ministry. The most recent official leader was my mom, Colleen Maile, who organized prayer requests and facilitated church-wide prayer activities. She handed off the ministry to a few different people who have helped through a joint effort, but like anything, over time our prayer ministry has come to need revitalization. I especially felt the need for a resurgence of prayer over the past year or so.
During this season, I had so many leadership decisions that required a new level of wisdom. From Trinity and Cole revitalization efforts to the Whosoevers partnership and various open doors in missions (Underground Church in Turkey and Iran, new church plants in Africa, etc.), I was reminded that one of the most important things we need (more important than anything on the list) is to seek God’s will. At the same time Noah was on a sabbatical, to refresh personally and prepare for a new work in our church.
During his sabbatical, I expressed to him my intense need for prayer and renewed desire to see our church commit to praying. As we talked, it became clear that the Lord was instilling in him a hunger and a desire not only to be refreshed in prayer, but also to lead others in prayer. This revelation made his sabbatical make perfect sense. I saw God preparing him in an intense season of intimacy with God so that Noah could lead our church in a new season of intense prayer. I asked Noah to consider helping me rebuild our prayer ministry, dedicating a year to reorganizing, rethinking, and renewing how we invite people into prayer. This is similar to the way he spent many years working with our worship teams to build up leaders to serve our church family, and to be able to send out leaders to bless other churches as well. He is working on a lot of different aspects of prayer ministry, and providing opportunities for more people to be involved in prayer in our church.
I realize that in asking Noah to do this we are breaking the mold of the modern church org chart. Traditionally, churches assign pastors to oversee specific age groups and to teach the Bible. But I couldn’t find an example where someone was tasked with rebuilding or reorganizing a heart of prayer. I knew there would be many questions, and it might not make sense to everyone. This idea didn't come from a blueprint for 21st-century church culture.
Despite potential ridicule or pushback from both the outside world and within the church culture, I believed that if we became a church centered on God's heart and put Him at the center of everything, He would honor us. Some might think Noah's dedication to organizing prayer is a waste of time, money, and effort compared to a more traditional list of daily tasks. Consequently, it’s often at the bottom of the list for many individuals and churches alike.
However counterintuitive it may seem, I aim to place prayer at the top of our church's priorities. Even if this sounds crazy to some, including those within our church, I am committed to making prayer a central focus.
I have officially tasked Noah with overseeing the Prayer Initiative for 2024, aiming to reorganize, rethink, and refresh our prayer culture. This includes our week of fasting and prayer, regular prayer with pastors and leaders, church-wide prayer gatherings, prayer and praise gatherings during the week, teaching prayer from theology to practice, telling stories of breakthroughs in prayer, and much more.
From Noah’s return on January 1st until January 1st, 2025, he will be reorganizing our church's prayer efforts. At the end of the year we will evaluate the state of the prayer ministry and he will pass off the majority of the prayer leadership to leaders or he will continue to build where needed. For now the prayer initiative efforts include:
- Reorganizing prayer with church leaders and pastors
- Extending prayer times during weeks of fasting and prayer
- Structuring church leadership around prayer
- Creating clear entry points for everyone to engage in prayer as a church family
- Rebuilding various prayer teams
- Reinstating prayer retreats
- Offering classes and workshops to teach prayer
Pastor Noah put together a pamphlet to shareopportunities to join our church’s prayer efforts and his vision for the Prayer Initiative. Click here to take a look.
-Pastor Tucker
P.S. In case you missed it, Pastors Tucker and Noah sat down to talk through this earlier this year. You can listen to those conversations at the links below.
