Multiply Your Leaders: Pray

In many of our churches across the nation, there is a leadership crisis. Many adults are saying “serve me” rather than following Christ’s example and asking, “How can I serve you?”

In addition, many churches have relaxed (or dropped) expectations for the adult class teacher to enlist a team. There are several negative repercussions:

1. in a busy week, the teacher focuses on the lesson and neglects prayer, member care, outreach, and class growth,
2. disciples and leaders are not developed through giving them class roles and assignments,
3. frequently this leads to an implosion as care and ministry is reduced, and
4. the church suffers because class leaders are not developed and prepared for other church roles.

Focus Your Prayer

To break this negative cycle, prayer is essential. We cannot do this work in our own strength! How can you pray for multiplication which impacts class, church, and the Kingdom? Consider these focus areas for your prayer:

• pray for sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and His stirring in your life and those around you,
• seek God’s perspective,
• pray that God will send workers into the harvest (Matthew 9:38),
• pray for a vision for growth and multiplication of leaders,
• pray for spiritual and numerical growth of disciples,
• pray for others to join you in praying for leader multiplication,
• ask God’s leadership in discovering those you are to apprentice,
• pray about how you can best lead apprentices to be leaders that God can use,
• pray about counsel, training, modeling, and assigning through which you will invest in the leaders, and
• pray for new groups which will be started; the people they will reach and disciple; and leaders they will enlist, apprentice, and mobilize.

Enlarge the Prayer Circle

Regularly invite people to join you in praying for leader multiplication. Ask your class to pray when you gather. Give them prayer assignments, individually and as a group. Set aside special seasons of prayer or prayer times. Focus one or two of the bullets above. When appropriate call for reports of prayer experiences.

Call the Sunday School to prayer for group and leader multiplication. Call the church to join you in prayer. Keep it before the people. Call them to prayer in specific ways.

Pray for More

Join me in praying for more. Pray for more understanding of God and His plan. Pray for more compassion for the people in our class, church, and community. Pray for more teachers/leaders enlisted, apprenticed, and mobilized into service. Pray for more people to accept Jesus as Savior and Lord. Pray for more disciples developed. Pray for more classes started. Pray for more missionaries sent into the world. Join me in praying for more!

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Darryl Wilson serves as Sunday School & Discipleship Consultant for the Kentucky Baptist Convention. He served as Minister of Education in five churches in Kentucky and South Carolina and is the author of The Sunday School Revolutionary!, a blog about life-changing Sunday School and small groups.