A Time of Prayer...Won't You Join Us?

On Wednesday night, the elders of CVC along with our Co-Teaching Pastor Search Team and the Leadership Team met for an extended time of prayer. We were led in worship by Brian Howell an Bryan Karas. We read scripture together. And we prayed. I made some notes as we prayed. And below are some of the prayers expressed to God as we search for the man God has for us. Please use these prayers as inspiration for your own as you join us in praying for God’s man for this important role in our church.

***

Elders, Search Team, Leadership Prayer for the co-teaching pastor - 6/16/10

O Lord, sympathize with us in our weaknesses. Teach us to wait on You, Lord. Clear the clutter from our minds to clearly sense your direction, guidance, and will.

May we increasingly be truly Your church. Enlarge our borders. May we pray about each decision we make. May we see souls saved, lives changed, and countenances lifted. Draw people so their lives will be changed by Your Word. May we have a humble and contrite spirit. Help us understand what it means to fear You, Lord.

Rescue hearts and lives in this city. May we be a beacon on this hill. Make us one. We surrender our will to You. Please give us a supernatural, Christ-like humility – a Christ-like submission to the will of the Father. Send Your reviving power to us as individuals and to our church and to NE Ohio. Have mercy on the lost in this city.

We so desperately need You. We ask for wisdom that will be way beyond ourselves. Grant us a sovereign protection from great sin. You began a good work in us here at CVC; be faithful to complete it.

Provide direction for us for which candidate we should invite. As we trust in You with all our heart, please guide our paths. We want Your choice. Build the unity we need to find the man to be the leader of CVC, Your church. Make our pastor known – that CVC as a church and the pastoral candidate will both know Your perfect will. May there be no confusion or dissension as we seek God’s man for this position. May we know that we know that You have given us the man for CVC. Teach us not to rely on any man’s gift sets, on anyone’s human abilities. Help us find a man who fears You.

May You help the search committee, the Leadership Team, the Elders, the staff and the congregation discern the heart of this man. Make it obvious for us, Lord. We don’t want to rely on the wisdom of the world. We aren’t looking for the best looking, the one with the most degrees, or the best orator. We ask for wisdom that is not worldly. May we know a supernatural unity because You are not a God of confusion, but of peace. We call on You because we don’t know. So, please make Your will unmistakably clear.

May we make a call to the leader that would be used by You to help bring about a revival in NE Ohio. Help us find a man who seeks You, knows You, and will push others to do the same. And give this leader Your heart. Raise the man up who has Your heart. May the man You are calling to CVC be a man who knows Your Word inside and out, that it is etched in his heart. Give us a man who will be seeking Your will for the church. Speak to him clearly. Please put the desire to serve here in NE Ohio into his heart, too.

Bring us someone who is passionate for You, who will walk closely with Jesus, who has You as most important thing in his life, and who is a man after Your own heart. Give us a pastor who will boast in You so that many would come to know You. 1Timothy 3:1-8 and Titus 1:7-9 convict us; put the characteristics found there in the heart of our overseers, pastors, and elders. May these character qualities be in our next pastor with humility – that he not seek to accomplish ministry on his own but that he values community since iron sharpens iron. May this man seek after You.

May his wife have a heart to serve with him here and may his children know You and live a life worthy of the gospel. May his wife blend into church. May the kids blend into the church. May the move go quickly. May they find the right house in the right neighborhood. May we all experience an easy transition for the man, our staff, and the church.

Help us walk in faith. Show us. Lead us. Be our Pastor in this process, Lord. Let us hear Your voice.