We had tried developing teams to pray through Sunday services, prayerwalking through our neighborhood, and pastor’s prayer teams, but nothing was running smoothly. Almost every church prayer leader I have ever talked to has had moments like that. Moments where you wonder whether or not you are the one to do this ministry. Fall out among local church prayer leaders is high. A few years ago I was shocked to talk with a national networker of local church prayer leaders, who said almost no one who had been a prayer leader in her network when it started eight years ago was still a prayer leader in his or her church.

Why the Fall-out?
I believe that there are two main reasons for the high fallout rates among prayer leaders.

Constant frustration ranks up there as the culprit. As prayer leaders, we have passion and a vision for what can be. When time passes and reality is not even close to being what we envision, that takes a toll emotionally—and spiritually. Many of us give up because we simply cannot take the “failure,” the constant disappointment, anymore.

The second reason, truth be told, is really a prideful attitude on our parts. Because we come at our ministry with a passion and vision, and we come into the ministry believing our church lacks in prayer, we often fall into the “I know what’s right” mentality. We don’t see our pastors or leadership moving with us; we start to be at odds with others in the church who just “don’t get it.” When this happens, one of three things results: we are constantly at odds with our leaders, and struggle to come under authority; we quit because we don’t see anything changing; we leave the church to go to greener pastures.

Like Ginny, who desired to quit, we need to recognize that God has purposes for why He called us to this ministry. Those purposes may have nothing to do with seeing hundreds of people come out to a weekly corporate prayer meeting! They may in fact be to grow us and shape us more closely into the image of His son. They may be to prepare the church for change. Or, like Ginny, His purposes may not appear for years.

As you read this, many of you may be contemplating quitting or moving on. Let me encourage you to keep at it. Focus for a time on drawing deeply from God. Refix your eyes on Jesus Christ. Become more hungry for God’s presence in your own life.  Let a renewed passion for Him alone, keep you on track.

--Jonathan Graf, president of the Church Prayer Leaders Network, is a popular conference speaker. His prayer weekends are firing up local churches across the country. This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .