Category: Exploring Church Ministry Blog

Warfare Prayer, Part 2

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment

Being assailed with negative thoughts eventually leads to discouragement, and discouragement leads to inaction.  In this second half of Victor Matthew’s warfare prayer, it is clear that the antidote to most of the obstacles and problems that we face is through a vigorous prayer life and that biblical prayer is itself an action.  Like the Hulk, we must smash the strongholds of Satan that are formed against us and our churches.    Let this prayer be prayed often, and let its truth seep into the marrow of your spirit:


          Heavenly Father, by faith and in dependence upon You I put off the old person and stand into all the victory of the crucifixion where the Lord Jesus Christ provided cleansing from the sinful nature.  I put on the new person and stand into all the victory of the resurrection and the provision He has made for me to live above sin.

            Today I put off the old nature with its selfishness and I put on the new nature with its love.  I put off the old nature with its fear and I put on the new nature with its courage.  I put off the old nature with all its deceitful lusts and I put on the new nature with its righteousness, purity and honesty.
 
            In every way I stand into the victory of Christ’s ascension and glorification, in which everything was made subject to Him.  I claim my place in Christ as victorious with Him over all the enemies of my soul.  Holy Spirit, I pray that you would fill me.  Come into my life, break down every idol and cast out every enemy of my soul.
 
            I am thankful, Heavenly Father, for the expression of Your will for my daily life as You have shown me in Your Word.  I, therefore, claim all the will of God for my life today.  I am thankful that You have blessed me with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  I am thankful that You have given me new life into a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  I am thankful that You have made provision for me so that today I can live filled in the Holy Spirit with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.  I recognize and affirm that this is Your will for me and so I reject and resist all the attempts of Satan and his demons to rob me of the will of God.  I refuse today to believe my feelings and I hold up the shield of faith against all the accusations, distortions, and insinuations that Satan would put into my mind.  I claim the will of God for my life today.
 
            In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I completely surrender myself to You, Heavenly Father, as a living sacrifice.  I choose not to be conformed to this world.  I choose to be transformed by the renewing of my mind.  I pray that You would show me Your will and help me to walk in Your ways today.
 
            I am thankful, Heavenly Father, the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world, but have divine power to demolish strongholds, arguments, and every pretention that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.  I take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.  Therefore, in my own life today I tear down the strongholds of Satan and smash the plans of Satan that have been formed against me.  I demolish the strongholds of Satan against my mind, and I surrender my mind to You, Holy Spirit.  I affirm, Heavenly Father, You have not given me a spirit of fear but a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline.  I break and smash the strongholds of Satan formed against my emotions today.  I give my will to You.  I choose to make right decisions of faith.  I smash the strongholds of Satan formed against my body today.  I give my body to You and recognize that I am Your temple.  I rejoice in Your mercy and grace.
 
            Heavenly Father, I pray now and through this day You would strengthen and enlighten me.  Show me the ways Satan is hindering, tempting, lying and distorting the truth in my life.  Help me to be the kind of person that would please You.  Help me to be aggressive in prayer and faith.  Help me to think rightly, and actively practice Your Word.  Help me to give You Your rightful place in my life.
 
            I cover myself with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and pray that You, Holy Spirit, would bring all the work of Christ’s crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and all Your work of Pentecost into my life today.  I deliberately surrender myself to You, God.  I refuse to be discouraged.  You are the God of all hope.  You have proven Your power by resurrecting Jesus from the dead, so I claim this victory over all satanic forces in my life.  I pray in the Name and through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ with thanksgiving.  Amen.

Warfare Prayer

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment

This week, as every week, I anticipated coming to my pastor’s study on Tuesday morning intent on crafting a draft of the upcoming Sunday sermon.  Preaching my way through the Gospel of Matthew, the text for this Sunday is one of those healing narratives in which Jesus confronts and rebukes a demonized person.  I was feeling pretty good, and was ready to get the day going.  However, just as I was ready to go to the church building, I was suddenly overcome with nausea and an extreme mental fog.  As I sat down to gather myself, irrational fears and thoughts began to pummel my brain.  “If you preach on that story, they won’t be happy with you.” “How can you even think of preparing a sermon on faith when you are so unfaithful!?”  “You don’t make a difference in this church; why even go to work?”

If this had been the first time I ever had such an encounter, I may have totally freaked out.  But it was not the first time, and probably won’t be the last.  I immediately texted my wife and said, “preaching on a demon-possession on Sunday – let’s cover ourselves in prayer.”  We both knew we were in for a strange week.  Demons are not just something for Christ’s time and place, but are a very real presence in this day and age.

My favorite theology professor in seminary, the late Victor Matthews, taught me as much about the demonic realm as anyone.  Decades ago he wrote and published in tract form the “warfare prayer.”  In those times when I realize I’m in a spiritual battle, the warfare prayer is my companion throughout the day.  I have edited and updated it for my own purposes, and for the people I counsel.  It is solid theology put into prayer form.  I offer you the first half of it here, and the rest in a later blog.  Use it often in order to remain aggressive in faith and prayer.  I recommend praying it out loud with some flavor:

             Heavenly Father, I bow in worship and praise before You.  I cover myself with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as my protection.  I surrender myself completely in every area of my life to You.  I take a stand against all the work of Satan that would hinder me in my prayer life.  I address myself only to the True and Living God and refuse any involvement of Satan in my prayer.
 
            Satan, I command you, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to leave my presence with all of your demons.  I bring the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ between us.
           Heavenly Father, I worship You and give You praise.  I recognize that You are worthy to receive all glory and honor and praise.  I renew my allegiance to You and pray that the Holy Spirit would enable me in this time of prayer.  I am thankful, Heavenly Father, that You have loved me from eternity past and that You sent the Lord Jesus Christ into the world to die as my substitute.  I am thankful that the Lord Jesus Christ came as my representative and that through Him You have completely forgiven me; You have adopted me into Your family; You have assumed all responsibility for me; You have given me eternal life; You have given me the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ so that I am now justified.  I am thankful that in Christ You have made me complete, and that You have offered Yourself to me to be my daily help and strength.
  
          Heavenly Father, open my eyes that I might see how great You are and how complete Your provision is for this day.  I am thankful that the victory the Lord Jesus Christ won for me on the cross and in His resurrection has been given to me and that I am seated with the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven.  I take my place with Him and recognize by faith that all wicked spirits and Satan himself are under my feet.  I declare that Satan and his demons are subject to me in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
  
          I am thankful for the armor You have provided.  I put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the sandals of peace and the helmet of salvation.  I lift up the shield of faith against all the fiery arrows of the enemy; and I take in my hand the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.  I choose to use Your Word against all the forces of evil in my life.  I put on this armor and live and  pray in complete dependence upon You, Holy Spirit.
   
         I am grateful, Heavenly Father, the Lord Jesus Christ disarmed all power and authorities, triumphing over them by the cross.  I claim all victory for my life today.  I reject all the insinuations, accusations, and temptations of Satan.  I affirm that the Word of God is true and I choose to live today in the light of God’s Word.  Heavenly Father, I choose to live in obedience to You and in fellowship with You.  Open my eyes and show me the areas of my life that do not please You.  Work in me to cleanse me from all ground that would give Satan a foothold against me.  I do in every way stand into all that it means to be Your adopted child and I welcome all the ministry of the Holy Spirit in my life today.  Amen.

Tasks vs. Results

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment

I’ll be the first to say that administration is not my gift.  So, wading out into the ocean of organizational theory might be a bit like a pastoral walking-the-plank for me.  But, on the other hand, I have found myself time and again in leadership situations where significant organizational change is needed.  Maybe God has a sense of humor, or maybe he just wants to use somebody who recognizes he isn’t going to get anything done on the organizational level without a lot of divine intervention.  Because of this, I like the KISS approach to organizing church (Keep It Simple Stupid).  My KISS method is to stick with a results-oriented organization as opposed to a task-oriented organization.

In a task-oriented system, everything lives or dies with the to do list.  The focus is accomplishing a few core functions.  For a Pastor, it might mean preparing sermons, visiting shut-ins, and attending meetings.  For an Elder it could mean serving communion, and listening to complaints from cranky congregants.  A Deacon might focus on simply counting money and making sure the building and grounds are in good order.  Joe Pew-Sitter, in this system, feels good that he attends the worship service every Sunday and puts something in the offering plate.  The problem?  People are unlikely to see a need for change and a transformation of the heart because these few tasks are just what we do.  It is spiritual cruise-control, driving the car of mediocrity.  Meetings and church services, then, tend to be ends in themselves (frustrating and boring!) because the meeting itself is just something that gets scratched off the to do list.  Churches that have a hard time making decisions are probably stuck in the task-oriented mode, because there is no over-arching framework from which to decide anything.  So, people entrench themselves in positions based in personal preferences.  It’s the world of heated conversations and worship wars.  If motivation and morale is dependent on people getting their way, no one is likely to be happy.  The great need for a task-oriented church is a big picture vision that seeks results.

The results-oriented organization focuses on achieving some desired outcomes.  Tasks or functions are never ends in themselves, but will continually change in order to accomplish the results we want.  This is a church oriented around mission.  Jesus came to this earth to accomplish the salvation of the world.  He was on a mission – a mission of love that was intent on extending grace to lost sinners.  In this setting, decision-making becomes exciting since a group of people come up with ideas and tasks that will bring about loving people and reaching them with the grace we have received from God.  Personal preferences take a back seat to the great needs of the community.  There is freedom to experiment and imagine together, instead of guilt for not getting that thing crossed off the to do list.

I am really a person who likes to create lists and feels good when I can scratch everything off of it at the end of the day.  But I make sure that those things are means to an end, and not the end itself.  By orienting my ministry around mission (God’s, not mine) I am able to create tasks and functions that contribute to seeing the kingdom of God break into the church and the world.  So, here is the KISS questions for every  church leadership team:  What result(s) would you like to see in your church?  What kind of tasks will help you get the results you want?


          Jesus is building his church, and the gates of hell will not overtake it.  We can participate and change and grow and live and learn without fear of screwing the church up and making it more complicated than what it is because Jesus is the One building it.  All we need is a bit of grace with each other to step out by faith and make a difference.  May it be so.

Just Hanging Out

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry Blog1 Comment

Hang out around any given church on any given Sunday after any given worship service and you are likely to see small groups of people talking with each other.  Those groups typically center around friends according to age.  What is often lacking are intentional interactions between the generations.  The younger generations, particularly teens and college-age persons, need and want to have relationships with older believers in the faith.  They tend, however, to lack the confidence to go after older persons in order to be mentored or influenced by them.  Instead, I believe the onus is on the older generations to go after the younger.  The following is a brief exploration of the nature of relationships of younger generations so that the older generations can feel more equipped in going after them.

Maybe I’m just old, but it really seems like single persons ages 18-29 today have an incredible array of relationships, differing levels of friendship, and a complexity to their interactions that I didn’t have “back in my day.” What I mean is that relationships and friendships for twenty-somethings now seem much more gray, and less black and white. One isn’t always sure whether the relationship is dating, engaged, just friends, or what it exactly is. Because of this nebulous nature of relating, it is quite common for college students to call for the big “DTR” talk (define the relationship) with one another.

One of the reasons for this is the major activity and popularity of “hanging out.” Hanging out is typically sitting around with a group of people eating, watching movies, drinking, doing bible study, even studying. Its doing just about anything, but doing it together with others. Instead of dating, meetings between students often take place in a group, just hanging out. So, not a lot of definition takes place between two different people in the group. They aren’t always sure of whether a relationship is casual, serious, or something in between, where a friendship stands or how to relate and interact with others. Few teens, for example, seem to know when a relationship is romantic or not, or if it is an “open” relationship where two people are seeing other people. If this all seems kind of confusing, you are getting the point.

The DTR (define the relationship) talk, in an attempt to settle the status of the relationship, rarely seems to work well. So, many persons just go along and try to make the best of it by trying to figure out what is going on. Here is an opportunity for ministry, for we can help a younger person make sense of the nature of relationships. One of the things we can do is to really understand the reality of their interactions. For example, when I lived in a university town I used to often just “hang out” with college students, with no agenda other than just being with them. The local Perkins restaurant was at its busiest at midnight, filled with college students just hanging out. There are places in every town where young adults go, especially the bar scene. Bars aren’t just places to drink, but are locations of conviviality where persons have the chance to be around one another in a kind of secular church where fellowship happens, looking for a chance to relate to the opposite sex. All people desire intimacy and knowing that someone else cares about them. However illegitimately a young adult might pursue this, the inner affection is very real, and very much a need.

One of the best ways to minister to the younger generations in the church is to communicate to them that we “have their back”, that we care, love, and like them. No one can sniff out a disingenuous attitude quite like a teenager or college student, so it has to be an authentic desire to be around them. Also, this does not mean we have to pretend to be younger than we are. Instead, one of the greatest needs a young person has is to be in a mentoring relationship with someone older and wiser who can help them navigate life and bring some sort of definition to relationships that they lack. There is also, then, an equal need for adults to be trained in how to mentor others.  The older generations could learn to “hang out” with younger generations and find individuals for whom they can build a solid one on one relationship with. If students, in particular, can have such relationships with adults now, it will serve them for a lifetime once they leave school.

So, how about just hanging out with a younger person sometime? Consider having your own redeemed version of the DTR talk with some of them, and lead by example in how to relate with others. Be a mentor, and walk alongside another with love, grace, and wisdom. If you were a missionary in a country of  teens, college students, and single persons this is what you would do.  Let’s do the work of entering into their lives!