Although I wasn't raised in a church that paid much attention to the church calendar, the past few years I've found richness and meaning in observing Lent, Advent, and other Christian holidays. When I take 40 days before Easter or four weeks before Christmas to go deep with Jesus--why He came, why He died, what it means for me--I'm so much more engaged when Easter and Christmas actually arrive. So, although my ways of observing may sometimes be unconventional, I nevertheless try to observe.

For Advent this year, for instance, I am practicing receiving from God. He gives so many good gifts--the best of all being Jesus--but I so rarely take time to unwrap them and really enjoy them. So that's what I'm trying to do this year. I wrote about it in my column for Pray! Online News (you can subscribe for free on the Pray! homepage). If you haven't seen it already, here's a link to it:  http://www.navpress.com/pray/content.aspx?id=3100.

Yesterday was the first day of Advent. I unwrapped "unconditional love." Today I opened up "Peace." I'm not sure what God will have for me tomorrow, but I'm eager to find out. Wouldn't you like to join me in unwrapping some of God's good gifts to you? Let us know how it goes.

Every once in a while I like to ask people to talk about the books that have changed their lives. It's a good conversation starter--try it sometime! Since it's the gift-giving season and many of you are thinking about what to give others, or perhaps others are asking for suggestion on what to give you, I thought I'd share with you some of the prayer books that have had the biggest impact on me. Here they are, with my comments, in no particular order:

Can You Hear Me? Tuning In to the God Who Speaks by Brad Jersak. A great book for people who want to hear from God and not just talk at Him.

Children Can You Hear Me: How to Hear and See God, also by Brad Jersak. This is the best children's book on prayer I know of. It's the kids' version of Can You Hear Me--but some adults I know say they like the children's book even more than the adult one.

Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home by Richard Foster. Acquaints readers to the breadth and depth of prayer, offering approaches that go after the heart. Celebrates both the diversity  and tradition of various streams of Christendom and their contributions to the contemplative life of prayer.

The Prayer-Saturated Church with CD: A Comprehensive Handbook for Prayer Leaders by Cheryl Sacks. Great for your prayer leader or prayer team. Hundreds of churches have used this invaluable resource to start, refresh, grow, and maintain their church prayer ministries.

Prayer-Saturated Kids: Equipping and Empowering Children in Prayer by Cheryl Sacks and Arlyn Lawrence. Wonderful for parents, Sunday school teachers, and children's leaders who want to get children started on the right foot in prayer.

Fresh Encounters: Experiencing Transformation Through United Worship-Based Prayer by Daniel Henderson. This is the book for anyone who leads corporate prayer times. If you follow the suggestions in this book, you won't have people bored and falling asleep in prayer meeting--instead, they'll be encountering the Living God.

Sacred Listening: Discovering the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola by James L. Wakefield. Introduces the reader to lectio divina, a centuries-old, tried-and-true method of praying Scripture. Through daily prayer-meditations on the life of Jesus and principles of discernment, readers are challenged to become transformed into the likeness of Jesus. Best if used in a partnership with another person.

Giving Ourselves to Prayer: An Acts 6:4 Primer for Ministry by Dan R. Crawford. Great for pastors, Bible college and seminary students, missionaries, and others who are called to lead in prayer. Written by 80 prayer leaders (including yours truly) with the aim of providing a broad and comprehensive overview of what it means to pray and lead others in prayer.

So, there you have my list. But what about you? What books have changed your prayer life? Let us hear from you!

Recently Lewis from Maryland sent Pray! a question about how to encourage pastors in their prayer lives. He asked,

I wonder if anyone has thoughts about encouraging pastors in their prayer lives. From my studies of seminaries, I have found that only a few offer prayer courses. Most have none. The result is many pastors have a limited understanding on prayer. We need to find a way to encourage them!

I invited Phil Miglioratti, a former Pray! author and blogger for the Pastor's Prayer Network (among many other prayer-leader roles) to be serve as guest blogger to respond to this excellent question.

***

Lewis, your comments are sadly correct. Few pastors have had training in prayer, and most who preach on prayer focus exclusively on improving an individual's personal prayer life, which is vital, but ignores the need to identify intercessors and develop a vibrant prayer culture throughout the congregation.

So, how do we avoid cursing the darkness and light candles instead? Here are a few ideas.

 • Pray. Pray for your pastor. Pray for other pastors the Holy Spirit leads you to pray for. Avoid reactive (praying about their weaknesses) prayers; rather, pray proactively (according to God's promises and purposes for their lives).

 • Learn. Get a better understanding of the width and depth of developing a team of people who will shield and support your pastor with prayer. Prayer Shield by C. Peter Wagner (<http://www.gospellight.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10552&storeId=10052&productId=20332&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=23708&top_category=>) is an excellent practical resource.

 • Read. Get your hands on several books that will strengthen your pastor's comprehension of prayer and praying then, after you've read them, pass them on to him or her. Giving Ourselves to Prayer (<http://www.prayershop.org/?Click=968>) is a good one to start with. Written as a textbook for Christian colleges and seminaries, it covers 80 topics related to prayer, from both practical and theological point of view.

 • Model. When appropriate and the Holy Spirit leads you, include a prayer for your pastor when you participate in prayer with your
church, Sunday school class, small group, prayer meeting, committee or council session, choir practice, or anywhere else where you gather corporately and pray.

• Send. Prayer is better caught than taught. Many pastors need to go outside of their congregations to experience new or different ways of praying and to avoid the pressure of being perceived as an expert. The National Pastors' Prayer Summit (<mailto:phil@nppn.org>) is designed precisely for this purpose. Band together with others to pay your pastor's way to an event that will refresh and recalibrate his or her understanding and practice of prayer.

 • Search.  Find out what the Lord is doing in prayer in your community. Investigate the ministries of other congregations, visit citywide houses of prayer, and receive email newsletters (ask your pastor if you can subscribe the church edress to the best ones. Along with Pray! Online News, consider the Church Prayer Leaders Network (<http://prayerleader.com/>) and visit the Praying Pastor Blog (<http://prayingpastorblog.blogspot.com/>).

•Pray (again!). By you are probably tired and may even feel overwhelmed. Cast your cares on the Lord; Jesus is more interested in your pastor becoming a prayer champion than you are. So give thanks, and keep on praying!

***

 Thanks, Phil, for that great response. I invite you readers to share your own experiences and positive ideas about how to encourage pastors in their prayer lives. Talk to us!

I have a confession to make. Praising God "on demand" is hard for me. For me, praise is something that comes spontaneously, a response to the goodness and kindness of God I experience in everyday life. I praise God a lot in those in-the-moment times. However, if I'm in a prayer group where the leader announces that "We're just going to spend some time giving praise to God," I freeze. Somehow, those times feel forced to me. I don't want to offer empty "Hallelujahs," but I don't know what else to say. I'm not proud of this deficiency and I don't make excuses for it--it's just how it is for me. An area for me to grow in, I'm sure. 

So, when I was talking with God the other night and out of the blue I sensed Him saying to me, Praise Me! I froze. Abba, You know I love You, I replied. You are most definitely worthy of all praise! Help me! I'm not unwilling, but I don't want to be mechanical. I don't know how to respond from my heart.

As He always does when I admit my weakness and ask for help, God graciously came alongside me. He reminded me of a situation that He is miraculously unfolding for me and invited me to write a psalm about it. He pointed me to Psalm 30, which we'd studied in church that morning, and suggested I use it as a model for the structure of my praise-prayer.

Encouraged, I opened my Bible--and my heart--and to my surprise, spontaneous praise poured out. I found that I wanted to talk about the amazing things God was doing in my circumstances, and I wanted to make sure He knew--and everyone else did, too--that I was in awe of Him.

So, if, like me, you sometimes freeze when you are asked to offer on-the-spot praise to God, try opening your Bible and using a Psalm as a model to craft praise to God for something He's doing in your life. Let me know what happens.

Also, when you find yourself unable to do something that you know is right and good and would bring pleasure to God, don't give up or beat yourself up. Instead, confess honestly your inadequacy and ask God for help. He is our Helper and loves to be strong in our weakness. I can attest to that!

I knew where they were coming from: a pastor is a powerful influence in the church to model, teach, and inspire concerning what's really important in our walks with God. Certainly churches where the pastors are praying and excited about having others join them are generally more likely to see their people growing in prayer than churches whose pastors are apathetic and dull in their own attitudes and practices regarding talking with God.

However—and this is a huge "however": God's hands are never tied. Never. No pastor or leader can ever thwart God's plans or power. Throughout scripture we see people in charge who drag their feet while someone with lesser or even no title or position leads the way to spiritual victory. Think of Joseph in Egypt. Esther in Persia. Daniel in Babylon. Gideon. David in the matter of Goliath. In each case there was someone else "in charge" who "should" have led God's people into His plans and ways. But when those leaders neglected their call, God brought in someone else to do the job.

So, back to one of my prayer-leader friends. God showed her that she was allowing the well-meant statement "Prayer will never rise above the pastor's passion for it" to defeat her. She realized that although the statement had truth to it, it was not a death knell for the church whose pastor hadn't yet caught the vision. So she actually repented of believing that statement and told God that she believed He could stir a people to pray in her church whether the pastor led the way or not. And she asked Him to do that.

Within one week, the pastor came to her and asked her to head up several significant events that would advance prayer in their church--events that the pastor wanted to be involved with personally. As you might imagine, my friend was tremendously encouraged about what God might have in mind for prayer in her church!

So, I share these things not to say that pastors' involvement and support isn't important. It is. However, if your pastor isn't there yet, don't think that God can't work anyhow. He can--and if you trust Him to, I believe He will.

How about other prayer leaders out there? Have you had any experiences of God helping you through different types of discouragement in getting your church motivated to pray? We'd love to hear them.

On the one hand, God is sovereign and still very much on His throne. Our leaders are like watercourse in His hands (Proverbs 21:1). Nothing will take Him by surprise or thwart His holy plans.

On the other hand, He expects us to pray about the welfare of the communities and nations in which we live. When no one would stand in the gap for Jerusalem, the LORD vowed to destroy it (Ezekiel 22:30-31)

Personally I often have a hard time balancing these two perspectives—of trusting God without worrying, while at the same time interceding for the critical events that could radically affect our nation's future. My friend and the president of the National Prayer Committee, David Butts, recently gave me a copy of his newest book which I've found helpful in navigating this dilemma. In Prayer and the End of Days: Praying God's Purposes in Troubled Times, David says it this way:

"All too often, Christians feel powerless and at the mercy of a very big world. Watching or reading of news events can feel like an exercise in futility and even worse, bring a sense of anxiety and worry into our lives. One way to deal with this is to shut yourself off from the world. Turn off the television news and unsubscribe to your daily newspaper. Doing so may provide temporary relief but certainly does nothing to change the situation.

"There is a better way. It involves a commitment to change your world through prayer. You begin to see yourself as a player on the world stage. Rather than passively watching and worrying, or ignoring and hiding, you begin to take significant action to bring God's power to bear on situations going on in the world."

David goes on to offer practical guidelines for praying about biblical prophecies, spiritual warfare issues, the return of the Lord, the future of Israel, and more. I recommend his book for anyone who wants to do more than worry or hide, but to really make a difference through prayer.

 What do you think? How do handle our call to intercede for our world without taking on worry and panic?

Not necessarily. I used to feel that way, but now I realize that the busier I am, the more I need a time-out with God. So I quieted myself and considered when I could schedule some alone-time with God. He will bring peace to these busy days--He always does, if I let Him.

Have you experienced the refreshment of a personal prayer retreat? Need some help knowing how to plan one? Recently I gave a teleseminar on prayer retreats for Church Prayer Leaders Network. If you missed hearing me then, here's another opportunity. The seminar was recorded and is now available for you at http://www.navpress.com/uploadedImages/Pray_Content_Pages/Pray_Home_Page_Content_Blocks/CPLN-TS-10-20-09.mp3 . I hope you can listen in. I also hope that those of you who take prayer retreats will share with the rest of us some of your ideas and experiences. Why are these times special for you?