Are You Neglecting This Church Responsibility?

Host: TJ Freeman

Summary: In this episode of Rural Church Renewal, TJ Freeman, a rural pastor, discusses the importance of praying before Sunday sermons. Whether you are the one preaching or not, taking time to pray for the ministry of the word in your church can make a significant impact. TJ shares his experience of arriving at a church where a group of elderly women regularly prayed for the service and its attendees, inspiring him to adopt this practice. He encourages forming a small group to pray for the sermon, the preacher, and the congregation. Additionally, TJ gives practical tips on topics to pray about. Upcoming events and updates from the Brainerd Institute for Rural Ministry are also mentioned, including a Rural Pastors Conference on October 10-11.

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Transcript

It's Sunday morning, somebody's going to the pulpit, and whether that's you or not, there's something really helpful you can do to prepare for that moment. Stay tuned to find out.

Thank you for joining us for another edition of Rural Church Renewal. It's me again, Margaret. My name is TJ Freeman and I am a rural pastor.

That means like you, I am trying to serve Christ by making him known through the presence of a healthy church, even in a town that the rest of the world would think of as the middle of nowhere. And this Sunday at your church, whether you are the preacher or not, someone gonna get up there and they're gonna preach a sermon, and you have a role to play right before that moment.

And you know what that role is? It's praying. It doesn't matter if you're the one going up to preach or if it's somebody else. You need to spend some time on Sunday morning praying for the ministry of the word in your church. And here's my suggestion, it might help you. To develop a small group of people who get together on Sunday morning at the church to pray specifically for the sermon.

And I'll tell you what happened at our church that first put this in my mind when I arrived on the scene. Oh, a baker's dozen year, a baker's dozen years or so ago that didn't come out as smoothly as I thought it would when I had it come across my mind. I walked into my office on the first Sunday morning.

And there were ladies in there, old ladies in my desk, and I thought, what are they doing? I need to get ready. Well, they were getting ready actually. They were sitting there praying, and they had gathered faithfully in that little study long before I came on the scene. And they were praying for the service, and they were praying that the Lord would bring kids to the church.

Those are the two things that they would gather to pray for on the Lord's day. Today we have a group that meets to pray before our sermons. It's usually the person who's preaching as well as any elders and deacons that can make it at that time on Sunday morning. We just get together at eight 30 or something like that.

And you could do the same thing. It doesn't take long. You're not praying, you know, some catechism, you're praying just a few thoughts asking that the Lord will help you and help the congregation during the service. Pray for the preacher that the Lord would give him the right words to say and prevent him from saying the wrong ones.

Let him tell you a few things about what he's about to preach, or if you're preaching, share a few things about what you're going to preach on that day, and pray about the themes of the scripture text that you're walking through, and the application and the life of your church. Pray for the people who will gather to listen.

Pray for something as silly as people not getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the service to distract other people. Pray for kids that they will not see this as their divine coloring time, but that even if they do sit there in color, they're gonna be getting something from God's word out of that sermon. Pray that the people will not see this as an opportunity to take a nice morning nap, but that they will be engaged as expository listeners, because we don't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Pray for the greeters. Pray for the people leading the music. Pray for the people doing prayers. It's really. A blessing to gather together in the morning like that and to pray for what God will do in the hearts of his people during that church service. The church service, you know, it's not all about the gathering, but that gathering is the biggest family meal.

When everyone's together and you're casting a really big net through the sermon and you really wanna see the Lord work, he builds his church through the ministry of His word, and that's what happens as you gather on Sunday mornings together. So why not this Lord's Day? Just take a few moments, gather a couple of people around.

Doesn't have to be formal. Doesn't have to be official. Doesn't have to be a leadership team. Get some people around and pray and trust the Lord with what he wants to do in the life of your church as he renews it for his glory and for the good of your people.

So what have we talked about today? We've talked about the fact that the Lord today is coming and that whether you're preaching or not, you bear some responsibility for the work that's done there and you can carry that responsibility out by praying and that one of the best ways to do that is by praying in a small group of people right before the service.

Hope that's helpful to you. Thanks for everything you're doing out there in places that are easily considered the middle of nowhere, but are actually the heart of the advancement of Christ's kingdom into rural places.

He wants to be glorified in your community. He wants to do it through the renewal of your church. Keep fighting hard for his glory. It really is worth it. Thanks for listening. This podcast is a ministry of the Brainerd Institute for Rural Ministry. If you'd like to follow up with me about anything you've heard on this episode or any other episode of the podcast, just email me tj@brainerdinstitute.com and exciting news.

We just refreshed the website. So if you go over to brainerd institute.com and snoop around a little bit, I think you'll like the facelift. I know I do. You know what you'll find there? You'll find some articles. Find some other podcasts. You'll find pictures of Josh McLaren. I mean, that's worth the price of admission right there.

You'll also find information about our upcoming Rural Pastors Conference. It is October 10th and 11th at the Beautiful first Presbyterian Church of Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, right on the village green with one of two winking blinken and nod fountains in the entire world. That's right. You can come and see it.

Do you have to be a rural pastor to get in? No. We'll judge you fiercely if you're not one, but you're very welcome to come. Actually our speakers are not specifically ministering in rural contexts right now. One is from Alabama, Sean DeMars, so it really doesn't matter where in Alabama you are, you get redneck.

The other is a Pennsylvanian. He's been at all of our conferences. Raymond Johnson, super great teacher, really faithful brother, and he will help us think carefully along with Sean about how we can make Christ known in the middle of nowhere. Guys, this conference is really, really excellent. And I don't say that because I have a part in planning it.

I mean, the teaching is so good and the volunteers take such good care of everyone who comes. If you came last year, you know exactly what I'm talking about. So hey i'd love to have you guys fly in. You don't have to be from Pennsylvania or the Northeast. If you wanna find out more information about all that, you can just email me at the email address I said earlier.

It'll be a great time. Hope you can join us there October 10th and 11th. Mark your calendars. And with that, I'm done. So we'll see you next time here on Rural Church Renewal.