The Pastor’s Most Valuable Player

• I want to pause and enjoy this moment
• it’s a unique moment never to be repeated
• so far I haven’t preached a boring sermon as your pastor – although that could change within the hour
• I haven’t made any grievous mistakes yet as your pastor
• in short, I’m really enjoying this moment, because there won’t be many more like it
• I want to tell you how overjoyed we are to be here
• we trust that God will develop within our hearts a unique love for each other, and that he will do great things by his power in and through Richview Baptist Church
• Stan Toler recently wrote a little book entitled, You Might Be a Preacher If…
• and I thought I would read a few of them for you
• You might be a preacher if you’ve ever received an anonymous U-Haul gift certificate.
• You might be a preacher if you’ve ever dreamed that you were preaching, only to awaken and discover you were.
• You might be a preacher if you find yourself counting people at a sporting event.
• You might be a preacher if you’re leading the church into the 21^st century, but don’t know what you’re preaching on Sunday.
• You might be a preacher if you ever wanted to wish people Merry Christmas at Easter, because that’s the next time you’re going to see them.
• You might be a preacher you’ve ever wanted to give the soundman a bit of feedback of your own.
• You might be a preacher if you’ve ever walked up to the counter at the Dairy Queen and ordered a church split.
• and I’ll read one more to you, because it leads us where we’re going, and where most pastors have been at one point
• You might be a preacher if you’ve written a letter of resignation on Monday morning.
• leadership today is tougher than ever before, and it’s no different in the ministry
• an anti-authoritarian atmosphere pervades the world and the church
• people distrust leaders
• on top of that, we’re exposed to tapes, books, seminars, and television productions of pastors who are all better than we are
• and not only that, consumerism has entered the church
• if we don’t like what we find in one church, we just bail out and go to another
• I don’t think any pastor is going to find it easy in the ministry
• I need your help, and I need it desperately
• I began to ask myself this past week, who is the pastor’s most valuable player?
• what type of help do I need?
• I began to list people
• I thought, “Maybe it’s the giver”
• I can think of times in my ministry when the church faced enormous financial pressure, and certain people could always be counted on to come forward and give sacrificially, beyond anyone’s expectation
• and then I thought, “No, maybe it’s someone like Bill – a man who became my friend, and influenced my last congregation to support the pastor, and to get behind me and encourage me”
• in every church, there’s an influencer, and I began to think that this could be the pastor’s most valuable player
• and then I began to think about the supporters I had in my church
• those who extended encouragement and support
• then I thought, maybe it’s not these people, but the person who you don’t see a lot, but they’re faithful
• day in and day out, they’re there, quietly behind the scenes doing what needs to be done
• and then I thought, no, maybe the most valuable person is the gifted person
• someone who could use their spiritual gifts to bless the entire body
• they have the gift of teaching, or music, and their gifts are enjoyed by many
• and then I thought, no, maybe it’s the worker
• that person who every week rolls up their sleeves and teaches their Sunday School class, or ushers, or who serves on that committee year after year
• I began to go through this list
• and as I thought of all the players on the team, I feel blessed
• there are many important and crucial members of the team, and all of them are valuable
• but I’ve come to the conclusion that the most valuable player for the pastor is not any of these people
• but the pastor’s most valuable player is the man or woman who comes alongside the pastor and becomes the pastor’s prayer partner
• the year: 30 AD
• the city: Jerusalem
• the evangelist: an untutored fisherman: Peter
• yet the secret of that day of 3,000 people being converted was that they had spent time in prayer
• you see, in Acts 2, they prayed for 10 days, he preached for 10 minutes, and 3,000 people were saved
• today, churches pray for 10 minutes, preach for 10 days, and 3 people get saved
• the year: the 1700’s
• the place: India
• the missionary: William Carey
• a shoe-repair man; a cobbler
• he looked at a map, and under great opposition left England for India
• he translated the Bible into 25 different Indian translations, and became the father of modern missions
• what was the secret of his great work?
• he had a sister; a crippled, bedridden sister, and everyday he wrote to her and shared his prayer concerns and heartbreaks, and she interceded on his behalf
• that was the secret of his great work
• the year: 1830
• the place: Rochester, New York
• the preacher: Charles Finney
• the place: Rochester, New York
• in one year, out of 10,000 people, 10% or 1,000 people were saved
• the secret? Finney’s prayer partner, Abel Clary
• “Mr. Clary continued as long as I did,” Finney wrote, “and did not leave until after I had left. He never appeared in public, but gave himself wholly to prayer”
• the year: 1872
• the evangelist: an obscure YMCA worker named D.L. Moody
• in just ten days, 400 new converts came into the church where he was preaching
• the secret? in London, a bedridden girl, Marianne Adlard, had read a clipping about Moody’s ministry in Chicago, and prayed that God would send him to her church, and interceded for him while he was there
• they year: 1934
• the place: Charlotte, North Carolina
• many people in Charlotte were deeply moved, including a farmer’s son named Billy Graham, who was converted
• the secret: several businessmen, along with Billy Graham’s father, had spent a day at the Graham farm praying that God would touch their city, their state, and their world
• little did they know that Billy would be saved, and it would literally change the world
• the year: 1949
• the place: Los Angeles, California
• the evangelist now: Billy Graham
• the results: an extended campaign that resulted in a change to mass evangelism
• Graham had held many similar events with smaller results
• the only difference between the L.A. crusade and all the others that had gone before it had been the amount of prayer he and his people had given it
• somebody has said that leadership determines the direction of the church
• structure determines the size of the church
• relationships determine the moral
• the personnel determine the potential of the church
• but prayer determines the effectiveness of the church
• I want to share with you four reasons why leaders need prayer
• the setting is Exodus 17
• it’s the story of Moses and the battle against the Amalekites
• REASON NUMBER ONE WHY LEADERS NEED PRAYER: GODLY LEADERS COME UNDER ATTACK
• we all understand that
• Satan watches for the right time to attack leaders
• and usually he attacks them after a victory, or when they get physically tired
• the story in Exodus 17, if you recall, is the wandering of the children of Israel in the wilderness
• and they began to get thirsty, and complained to Moses
• (Exodus 17:1) The whole Israelite com munity set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.
• (Exodus 17:2) So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?”
• (Exodus 17:3) But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”
• (Exodus 17:4) Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
• Moses was a great leader
• but Moses was tired and weary, leading these people around in circles in the wilderness
• if you study Moses’ life, you see that he often got angry at the people
• we also read that God also became angry with the people
• do you ever wander what would happen if Moses and God got angry on the same day?
• you know the story: Moses struck the rock, and water came gushing out
• (Exodus 17:7) And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
• and when did the Amalekites attack?
• at a time of quarreling and contention
• it reminds me of when Satan attacked our Lord
• (Luke 4:13) When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
• the evil one knows when to attack leaders
• godly leaders come under attack, and that’s why they need your prayer
• REASON NUMBER TWO WHY LEADERS NEED PRAYER: GODLY LEADERS ARE TO INSPIRE AND TO LEAD THE PEOPLE
• in order to do this, you need others to come along and support you
• read verse 9:
• (Exodus 17:9) Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”
• you might ask why Moses had to sit on a hill with the staff in his hand
• two reasons: to see the people, and have insight into the battle
• but also so that he could offer inspiration
• in the middle of the battle, Joshua and the people could look up and see Moses interceding for the people
• Moses understood the importance of leadership
• he understood the maxim: “Speed of the leader; speed of the team”
• the people can go no further than their leader has gone
• and if the pastors and spiritual leaders of a church falter, the church will falter
• if Satan can defeat the leaders of a church, he can often defeat the church itself
• that’s why leaders need prayer, because they set the pace, and inspire and lead the people
• REASON NUMBER THREE WHY LEADERS NEED PRAYER: LEADERS ARE HUMAN
• the Bible teaches us that Moses had to drop his hands because his hands became heavy
• he didn’t have the physical stamina to keep it up
• verse twelve tells us that Moses’ hands became tired, and even though he wanted to hold up his hands to intercede for the people, he lacked the strength to do so
• you already know that pastors are human, and therefore they’re limited
• our responsibilities are exceedingly heavy; no man or woman is capable of the task
• Hebrews 13:17 says of spiritual leaders:
• (Hebrews 13:17 NLT) Their work is to watch over your souls, and they know they are accountable to God.
• no one is equal to this task
• let me be honest and tell you up front that somewhere along the line, I’m going to disappoint you
• why should you be different from everyone else in my life?
• I’ve let my mother down
• I’ve let my wife down
• I’ve let God down
• and as a human being, there are going to be times that I let you down
• which is why I’m asking for your prayer
• listen to some of the struggles that pastors have
• according to a 1991 survey of pastors, 75% of pastors report a significant stress-related crisis at least once in their ministry
• 50% feel unable to meet the needs of the job
• 90% of pastors feel that they were inadequately trained to cope with ministry demands
• 70% say that they have a lower self-image than when they started in the ministry
• 40% report a serious conflict with a parishioner at least once a month
• 33% confess having been involved in some inappropriate sexual behavior with someone in the church
• and 70% of pastors do not have somebody they consider a close friend
• when I read those statistics, I ask what would happen if these pastors had a prayer partner?
• people to pray for their moral purity; for their protection; for their spiritual life
• what would happen in Canada if every pastor had a lay person come alongside of them to pray and intercede on their behalf?
• REASON NUMBER FOUR WHY LEADERS NEED PRAYER: GODLY LEADERS PLUS PRAYER PARTNERS MEAN VICTORY
• (Exodus 17:10) So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill.
• (Exodus 17:11) As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.
• (Exodus 17:12) When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up – one on one side, one on the other – so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
• (Exodus 17:13) So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
• these people seized the moment, and together they shared the victory
• Aaron and Hur stood by Moses’ side and held up his arms to ensure victory against Amalek
• we need to “lift up the hands” of our spiritual leaders as well
• shoulder some responsibility; lend a word of encouragement; offer a prayer for them
• I thank God for this church
• I am asking you to pray for your pastors
• I am humbled and honored to serve you in this way
• but I know that to be effective I need your prayers
• you know my weaknesses; I know my weaknesses; now all we can do is go to God and ask him to bless our church in spite of who I am
• I’m going to close by challenging you with words from a ministry called “Prayer Partner”
• Who is the “MVP”? The pastor’s most valuable player is not the financial giver, the influencer, the worker, the loyal church member or even the most talented singer. The pastor’s MVP is the PASTOR’S PRAYER PARTNER. Knowing that the most valuable influencers in the church are the prayer partners, [we have] committed to seeing over 1,000,000 Pastor’s Prayer Partners raised up all over the world.
• In these final years before the new millennium, a significant spiritual movement is underway – an effort to enlist one million Christians to pray for their pastor. The members of this unique, all-volunteer army agree to pray continually and specifically for those who shepherd God’s flock. This is without question one of the most exciting, important endeavors ever undertaken and its results are certain to be far-reaching.
• Will you be the one? Will you become your pastor’s Most Valuable Player? Would you commit to pray for your pastor for one year? If you will make this exciting, strategic commitment, please let us know of your decision.
• let’s close in prayer

adapted from a message by John Maxwell (www.equiporg.org)