A Blessing to Any Church

One of my first remembrances of the prayer ministry of the church comes out of my pastorate to the Zoar Church.  Zoar was one of three churches on the Stapleton Charge, my first appointment.  There were two older women who were such saints that it was often said that they would surely find heaven's gate opened wide for them.  About that I cannot speak, but what I do know is that they were what we back then called "prayer warriors."  I learned early on in my pastorate that they did more than talk about praying.  They prayed and they prayed for their pastor.  They were not the only ones, but they were clearly the spiritual leaders of that church.  

I said often in the years to come that every young preacher should be so blessed!   Zoar was not the last church I served that had people dedicated to prayer.  As I remember the churches served, I remember a few in most every church who believed in prayer and prayed.  At the Vidalia Church there was a widow who kept pictures of the staff of the church taped on a mirror as a way of praying for the church each day.  At my last appointment there was a man who sat on the steps just beyond the door leading from the pulpit to the outside hall while I was preaching and prayed for me.    

Folks who are committed to prayer are worth far more to the Kingdom's work than any organized prayer ministry.  Prayer ministries tend to come and go with the enthusiasm of the moment, but people who are the "prayer warriors" "...do not grow weary in well doing..." (Galatians 6:9) and they can only be characterized as those who "...pray without ceasing..."  (I Thessalonians 5:16)  Any church blessed with a few such folks is blessed indeed!