Leadership and prayer

There are lots of books, seminars, courses on church leadership. I've lost count of the amount of training and reading I have received on the subject. Church leadership is a fascinating subject, as the wealth of material attests. But I am very aware that one subject that sometimes is neglected is the interaction between leadership and prayer. Maybe it's just me, but I find prayer can so often be squeezed out or rushed by the demands to do and to prepare. I'm not talking about prayer for myself or the concerns that daily feature in my quiet time, but regular, informed prayer for the people I serve. I find myself on busy days focusing simply on immediate needs and perhaps the newcomers, with a slightly selfish hope that they might stay in "my" church.

But I have recognised recently I need to pray more consistently and more faithfully for the whole people of God. The busy, healthy members of the congregation who lead a full life may not have obvious physical or mental needs, but they are still a long way short of the fullness of Christ, and they still have the challenge of living out the faith they profess. The prayers Paul prayed for the churches to whom he wrote are very different from the kind of prayers I tend to offer for the churches I serve. And I think one of the challenges I need to take up in the coming year is to model my intercessions more on his pattern. His prayers were written down, after all, to provide an example.

Having said all that, there are certain things I do already which help:

- Ever since I arrived I have divided the church members and the streets of the two parishes into a 28 day prayer cycle which is updated each year. This means that at least once a month each church member is prayed for specifically.

- The routine of daily prayer provides an opportunity to stop and think exactly what each member might be doing at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. As their situations come to mind, I often find myself praying that they would know how to be the presence of Christ wherever they might be.

- My inability to drive does at least mean that I have some time and space as I scuttle from one appointment to another. I haven't yet perfected the art of listening to God, rather than concentrating on my own concerns, but I am learning!

It will be good to come back a year later and see how well I have got on with this New Year's resolution. I typed "church leadership and prayer" into Google and found 4 results, none from the UK. For such an important subject, I found that, to say the least, surprising.