Helping Pastors Pray

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Pastors can only fulfill their calling as shepherd leaders with the vitalizing power of prayer, and must pray for themselves first. A healthy, prayer-full pastor is an effective pastor. My newest book is to help pastors in this vital discipline of prayer.

Amen Indeed fuels growth by providing more than 100 prayers for pastors to pray for their own mental, physical, spiritual, and relational growth. Each is sourced from Scripture and rings with the “Amen” that Jesus promised to add (2 Corinthians 1:20).

Order your copy today!

“There is one assured way for our prayers to be answered: It is to pray the will of God.

“There is one assured way to pray the will of God: It is to pray Scripture.

“As ministers of the Gospel we would be wise then to primarily pray Scripture, for ‘the word of our God stands forever’ (Isaiah 40:8).” —Dick Brogden, Founder of the Live Dead Movement

“When it comes to prayer, we need some help. And in Amen Indeed, help is at hand. Whatever is keeping us from prayer, Craig Owens can help us push through to a more consistent and more consistently joyful and fruitful life of prayer.” —T.M. Moore, Principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe

Check out more Amen Indeed videos here.

L.E.A.N. Into Conversations

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here. 

On a recent episode of The Craig and Greg Show, we talked about the underutilized leadership practice of journaling. Here is one idea I was able to capture and implement because of my commitment to keeping a journal.

Listen … really listen (see James 1:19; Proverbs 18:13)
Empathize … what are they feeling
Ask … at least one question to get clarity
Name … use their name when responding

Check out our full conversation about journaling here. 

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The Danger Of A Leader’s Ignorance

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

…the Lord has a charge to bring against you… (Hosea 4:1) 

Sadly, the charges that God brings against ancient Israel sound eerily similar to charges He could make against us today: 

  • Faithlessness
  • Lovelessness
  • No acknowledgment of God
  • Cursing
  • Lying
  • Murdering
  • Stealing
  • Adultery
  • Deserting God
  • Rampant sexual immorality
  • Idolatry

I believe idolatry is at the root of all these other sins. And this idolatry stems from a lack of knowledge of God’s supremacy (v. 14). But the lack of knowledge of God among the people is due to a rejection of deeper knowledge of God by the religious leaders. God specifically identifies the priests and prophets as those who are stumbling in their sin. 

God says, “You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you. … Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as My priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children” (Hosea 4:5-6). 

God’s leaders set the tone. As the leader goes, so go the people.

A mark of a godly leader is one who is continually and increasingly growing in his knowledge of God.

Leaders must be learners in order to defend those under their care. C.S. Lewis wrote in The Weight of Glory, “To be ignorant and simple now—not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground—would be to throw down our weapons, and to betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen.” 

Leaders, I implore you: learn more of God. Abide intimately with Him. Get to know His heart and mind. Then impart this knowledge to those around you. Lead them into the all-satisfying presence of God, so that they may also know God more intimately. This intimate knowledge will fortify them against the pull if idolatry and the whole list of other charges God has against those who remain willfully ignorant of Him. 

This is part 89 in my series on godly leadership. You can check out all of my posts in this series by clicking here. And you may also want to check out my books for church leaders—Shepherd Leadership and When Sheep Bite. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

6 Quotes From “Above The Line”

Even a Wolverine fan can acknowledge the quality leadership lessons that Urban Meyer (the coach of that football team to the south of us) provides in his book Above the Line. You can check out my book review by clicking here. 

Below are a few quotes that caught my attention. My Patreon supporters have access to all of the quotes from this book. 

“We teach our players, in response to any situation they face, to press pause and ask: What does this situation require of me? Pressing pause gives you time to think. It gets you off autopilot and helps you gain clarity about the outcome you are pursuing, the situation you are experiencing, and the Above the Line action you need to take to achieve the outcome.” 

“Under pressure, we do not rise to the occasion. We rise or fall to the level of our training. When contact is made, it is too late to train and build skill.” 

“Every team faces some kind of adversity. Mediocre teams are destroyed by it. Good teams survive it. Great teams get better because of it.” 

“Resilience is one of life’s most important attributes. Because nobody wants hardship or adversity, but everybody gets it. It’s inevitable. No one escapes pain, fear, or difficulty. In fact, a productive and successful life involves some amount of necessary pain. When it happens, don’t run from it. Learn from it.” 

“Performance cannot be declared. It must be led. Great results are initiated and sustained by great leadership. Not just leaders at the top, but leaders at every level.” 

“Culture is what leads when no one is watching.” 

My Patreon supporters have all of my notes from Above the Line, including the six “R” factors Urban Meyer unpacks in his formula E + R = O. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

Divine Partnership

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here. 

Having worked in and consulted with various businesses, I know there are a variety of configurations of businesses that people will choose for different reasons—there are S-corps and LLCs, and there are several types of partnerships. 

The two most basic partnership arrangements are a general partnership and a limited partnership. In a general partnership, all of the partners share equally in the risk and the reward, and all partners have a say in how the business is run. Typically, partners with more shares of stock have more “voting power” in making decisions, and they will usually benefit more if the company is successful. 

In a limited partnership, one general partner manages all the decisions, with the limited partners being merely passive investors. The limited partners can invest as much or as little as they feel comfortable doing, but they don’t have a say on how the business is run. If the general partner is a savvy operator, everyone will be rewarded handsomely; if the general partner isn’t quite as successful as others had hoped, the limited partners’ losses are limited to only as much as they invested. 

Although these types of business relationships didn’t have these names in the time Peter was writing, he used language that would be very familiar with today’s business attorneys when he wrote that we “may participate in the divine nature.” Participate literally means partnership—it’s the same word Peter knew for his partners in his fishing business (Luke 5:9-10).

(Check out all of the Scriptures in this post by clicking here.)

I believe Peter would call our partnership with Jesus a spiritual limited partnership, with Jesus as the General Partner. He is the One who makes the decisions and calls the shots. 

But what about us as “limited partners”? What investment can we make to this partnership? Only what Jesus has already given us. We saw this last week—HIS divine power has GIVEN US everything we need for life and godliness (see 2 Peter 1:3-4).

This is unheard of in today’s partnerships! The General Partner is giving the limited partners everything they need to invest in the partnership, and then He is allowing the limited partners to reap all of the rewards of His work (see Matthew 19:29)! 

Last week we said Jesus did the work so that we could do the work. We could modify this to say, Jesus gave us everything we need to reap the rewards of this partnership. 

The amazing benefit of this partnership is stated in the next verse: He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature (v. 4). 

Look at some blessings…  

  • recipients of the Holy Spirit—Galatians 3:14; Ephesians 1:13 
  • heirs of His Kingdom—Galatians 3:29 
  • eternal life—Titus 1:2; 1 John 2:25 
  • a perfect Mediator—Hebrews 9:15 AMPC 
  • power to access every single promise in His Word—2 Corinthians 1:20 

Peter says we are participating in His divine nature. Literally, Theios physis. The NLT says, “the promises that enable you to participate in the divine nature.” 

In his first letter, Peter quoted Leviticus, when God said, “Be holy, because I am holy” (see Leviticus 11:44-45; 1 Peter 1:15-16). Investing in this divine partnership releases to us the promises that empower us to participate—to be a partner in—God’s perfect holiness! 

Our participation in this divine partnership allows us to “escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (v. 4b). The word participate or partnership can be used negatively (1 Corinthians 10:18-21). But Peter uses it positively. Prior to salvation our desires aligned with demonic desires, but now a new and infinitely superior power is at work in us. This power changes our desires from temporal things to eternal things (Galatians 5:17 NLT). 

Jesus told a story of a master who gave money to his to invest. The ones called wise were also welcomed into the master’s presence forever. They realized that their best investment was to use what their master had given them in partnership with their master, so they went all in. They invested everything their master had given them. 

Peter tells us essentially the same thing: Be all in with the investment Jesus has given you! Don’t hold anything back—make every effort. Don’t let Jesus be merely your Savior, but let Him be your Lord. Trust Him as the General Partner to do what is best. Give Him complete control of all the great and precious promises He has given you, and then allow the Holy Spirit to make you holy inside and out! 

Check out all of the other messages in our series based on 2 Peter called Friends of the Faith. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

Links & Quote

You are the most effective evangelist in the areas where you already operate everyday. You can tell the story of Jesus better to your family members, coworkers, and friends than an outside can. Keep shining brightly for Jesus! 

I have a lot of new video content on my YouTube channel every week. Please check it out and subscribe so you don’t miss anything.

“They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out that there was really no cheating or no bullying. But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. They keep on replying, ‘But I tell you the man broke a most solemn promise.’ Exactly: that is precisely what you have to forgive. (This doesn’t mean that you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart—every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.) The difference between this situation and the one in which you are asking God’s forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough.” —C.S. Lewis, in The Weight of Glory 

T.M. Moore tells us, “Conversations can build relationships; thus, Christians should be actively involved in seeking to start and maintain conversations with many people, especially those we encounter each week…. But the Christian conversationalist does not engage others merely for the sake of conversation, as though conversation were an end in itself.”

“Information never fights fear. Revelation does.” —Tim Dilena 

“Saints find themselves at home in the next life, not in this one.” —J. Stephen Lang 

“Do not imagine that there is any love to your souls in the heart of the preacher who preaches smooth things, and who flatters you with his ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. No, the highest, deepest, most heaven-inspired love is that which searches and tries the heart that there should be any deception there.” —Charles Spurgeon