Praying for Your Church

I have to give all the credit to this idea to my good friend Nathan Nalley. I've wanted to be more disciplined in praying for my church as a pastor but didn't have a good strategy.  Now I do! Below you'll find a copy of what I use (with names removed) and I don't mind emailing you a .pub file if you'd like to use it for your own church.  Before I get to that though, let me include some quotes on why, as a pastor, you should be praying for your people.

• “We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” Acts 6:4

• “A minister who is not a man of piety and prayer, whatever his other talents may be, cannot be called a servant of God.” - John Smith

• “Shepherd the flock of God that is among you.” 1 Peter 5:2

• “The minister who does not pray for his flock is no minister at all.” Martin Holdt

• “We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” Colossians 1:9-10

I hope those few lines are enough to motivate you as a pastor to pray for your flock.  How does that work practically?  I know Mark Dever suggests praying through your church directory regularly if you have one. My problem is, we don't have one!  So, with this guide we are able to pray for everone in our church in two weeks, praying 4 days a week.  This is a guide I put in every member's hand to encourage their disciplined prayer for every other member of the church.  Once printed, this is easily turned into a trifold pamphlet.