Beloved,
As a pastor, I am extremely intentional in my public prayers. I realize that I am not merely leading you in prayer when I cry out to God in public worship, but that I am also teaching you how to pray. We learn to pray, after all, by listening to others pray. Just think of your prayer life. The tone. The intensity. The word choice. The subject matter. Most, if not all of it, is not original to you. Whether from parents or pastors or peers, we all learn how to pray by listening to and imitating others.
So when you hear me regularly praying for God to raise up spiritual leaders in our midst and to grant us a numerically and spiritually strong session and diaconate, I’m crying out to God for this in sincerity. But I’m also seeking to encourage you to pray for the same as individuals and families.
Spiritual leaders are not man-made or man-given; they are Christ-made and Christ-given.
It is the risen Lord Jesus, as the head of the church, who gifts His church will men to lead, teach, and care for her. Paul fleshes this out with particular respect to teaching elders in the church in Ephesians 4. Christ has ascended to the heavenly places and from there He has given gifts to His church (vv. 8-10). What are those gifts? Men. “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherd-teachers…” (v. 11). Teaching elders, who in the post-apostolic era consist of evangelists and pastor-teachers, are gifts from heaven, given to equip the body unto her upbuilding and spiritual maturation (vv. 12-16). And what is true of teaching elders is true of ruling elders and deacons as well. Christ gives men the godliness and gifts requisite for the office, and Christ gives those men to the church that she might grow in godliness and the exercise of her gifts. And all of it is unto Christ’s glory!
In March, three men in our congregation began year-long leader internships and training under the session. We don’t know what the Lord has in store for each of them. We don’t know what He has in store for our congregation. But as a presbyterian congregation that prizes God-exalting government and that believes such government flows from the exhaustively authoritative Christ, let us be praying consistently and fervently for the Lord to direct these men and to bless our church with Spirit-filled, wise, godly, and gifted men to serve as elders and deacons unto the honor of our exalted head, Jesus Christ.
I encourage you to daily pray something like this, “Lord, bless our church with a strong, Spirit-filled session and diaconate.”
For at the end of the day, only He can give us shepherds after His own heart. And if we would continue to grow and thrive as a church, there are few things we stand in need of more than a multiplication of such Christ-like leaders.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Nick
