Phil Miglioratti interviewed Liberty Professor, Dr. David Earley, author of Prayer: The Timeless Secret of High Impact Leaders.
Q. Dave, what prompted you to write a book on prayer specifically for leaders?
After thirty years of studying, practicing, teaching, and writing about
the subjects of prayer, leadership, and ministry a convergence of
experiences prompted me to write this book. Let me explain. Early last
fall, I was teaching the principles and practices of spiritual
formation to a room full of eager seminarians. I was repeatedly struck
with the notion that if I could help these future pastors develop a
prioritized, passionate prayer life, they would have a foundation for
better navigating through the problems they will encounter in ministry.
Later in the fall, I was training missionaries to Hindus, Muslims, and
Buddhists. We were talking about church planting. We discussed the book
of Acts and the prayer meeting leading up to the first church planted
on Planet Earth. In doing do, I was overwhelmed with the reality that
without a vibrant prayer life, these missionaries were doomed to
frustration and failure.
A few weeks later, a long time friend of mine and a very gifted leader
resigned his ministry because of immorality. A marriage, a family, a
church, and a community were facing terrible turmoil because of his
sin. Neglecting his prayer life played a big role in his costly
downfall.
Early last winter, I taught several dozen veteran pastors the tools
needed to lead healthy, growing, multiplying churches in our changing
culture. Of the thirty separate lectures and discussions we shared, the
majority of the students agreed that the most life-changing session was
the one on the importance of prayer in the life of the leaders. Again I
was overcome with the sense that if these leaders could only master one
leadership skill on which the rest would build, it had to be prayer.
I spent several weeks reviewing the lives of the great leaders of the
Bible to confirm my belief. As expected, I found that a vibrant prayer
life was central in the leadership skill-sets of Jesus, Moses, David,
Daniel, and Paul, among others. Then I cracked open my works of church
history and saw the church fathers and other high impact leaders
through the centuries leading out in the area of prayer. In pulling
down my forty plus biographies of modern day Christian leaders, I again
noted the common denominator of prayer.
Q. What process did you use to identify the "nine prayer disciplines" and what is the connection to "high impact leaders"?
As I studied the lives of these 75 leaders I began to see patterns and
similarities reappearing. I noted several of them and then wrote them
up into chapters of similar lengths. There ended up being nine chapters.
Q. I have discovered many Christian leaders hesitate to become a
champion for prayer because their personal prayer life is weak and, in
some cases, their skill at leading prayer is also undeveloped. What
steps would you recommend for a pastor or leader who struggles in this
department?
Read this book! Seriously, I would suggest investing time doing two
things: First, recognize how little you can truly accomplish in your
own strength. Second, spend time praying with a person or a group of
people who know how to pray. This is why prayer summits are valuable.
Q. You employ a creative juxtaposition of historical and scriptural
examples to explain each principle. Give us a sample of a leader from
scripture and from history that have made an impact on your prayer life.
Scripture, Jesus. Like all spiritual leaders, Jesus found ministry to
sometimes be draining and stress-filled. Mark's Gospel records a sample
twenty-four hour time period in the life of Jesus. It's a day that
nearly rivals one of Jack Bauer's days spent saving the world from
terrorists. In the span of twenty-four hours, Jesus gave an amazing
teaching at the synagogue (Mark 1:21-22), cast a violent, belligerent
demon out of a man (Mark 1:23- 28), healed Simon-Peter's mother so she
can fix Jesus and the disciples lunch (Mark 1:29-31), then spend the
rest of the day and late into the night healing sick people and casting
demons out of the terrorized (Mark 1:32-34).
I cannot imagine a more draining day. If He was like most of us, after
such a draining day of ministry, the next morning would have been spent
sleeping in and chilling out. But Jesus lived and led at a different
level than most. He had a deep capacity for ministry because He
practiced a few holy habits that yielded powerful results.
Was Jesus sleeping in the next day? No. Mark 1:35 is very clear. It
reads, "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got
up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed"
(Mark 1:35).
It strikes me that if Jesus needed to start His day in prayer, how much more must I!
History - Martin Luther. Luther was of course, the very active and
influential pastor, professor, author, and father of the Protestant
Reformation. Like most of the people in my book, he truly understood
the power of prayer to save time and effort. When asked of his plans
for the coming week, Martin Luther mentioned that he generally spent
two hours a day in prayer, but his coming week was extra busy.
Therefore he said, "Work, work from early till late. In fact I have so
much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer."
Q. How did your pastoral experience influence your passion for prayer?
When it comes to our church's prayer ministry, there are several things I am happy about.
1. We used to block out time every year to focus strategically on
prayer. We usually called it Eight Great Days of Prayer and Fasting.
After one such period we concluded with a Bring a Friend and Sunday and
50 adults gave their lives to Christ that morning.
2. When I was a pastor, we saw a definite change in the spiritual
climate of our city when we began to institute several forms of
prayerwalks. First, I began to drive the perimeter of the city several
nights a week, claiming it for God. I would drive by churches and pray
for the pastors, and the schools and pray for the kids. Second, I
organized the evangelical pastors in our town to pray in each other's
churches once a month. We started with only three, but within a few
years, God had moved the theologically liberal, spiritually cold
pastors out of the churches in town, one by one. Within a few years,
twelve pastors were faithfully meeting each month to pray for revival
in our town. A few years later these pastors worked together to deliver
a copy of the Jesus video to every home in our town in one day! Third,
I loaded up our church bus once a month to pray in the parking lot of
every church, school, and bar in town. When we started our late night
prayer drives, our schools were in terrible shake. The new
superintendent, among other things, had been aggressively hiring
lesbians to fill every open principal and teacher position he could.
One Halloween a group of about forty of us got off our church bus, held
hands and began praying at the school board. We fervently prayed that
God would change the superintendent one way or another. We prayed that
God would give us a godly superintendent.
We did not know that at the exact time the school board was meeting to
discuss all of the problems with the new superintendent. The next day,
I discovered that at the very time we were outside praying, that inside
the school board members voted to fire the superintendent. A few months
late they replaced him with a godly Christian man who served as an
elder in his church!
One of our small group leaders prayerwalked her neighborhood daily,
interceding for the salvation of each family. She also served her
neighbors and took an interest in their children. As a result she
spiritually impacted her neighbors. One day she asked if she could use
one of the large classrooms at the church after the next week's worship
service. When asked why she said, "Nearly a dozen of my neighbors and
their children are being baptized here next week. We wanted to throw a
party in their favor."
3. As a pastor, I developed a team of 12 men to pray for me daily. I asked them to make a one-year commitment to:
--Pray for our church, themselves, and their family every day.
--Take a few minutes of extra time to pray for me one day a week.
--Take a few minutes every Saturday night to pray for me.
All twelve agreed! Every two weeks, I met with them for Bible study and
prayer. I would also share my prayer requests for the next two weeks.
We would pray for one another. That year went amazingly well. Our
church grew more and baptized more people than the previous year. My
health improved, as did my marriage and time with God.
The next year, I recruited a team of 50 men to make a one-year
commitment to pray for me daily. Several of them served as teams who
would pray for the worship services every Sunday. The impact the
prayers of those men had on our church was huge.
Q. Recently, in my opinion, you did something extraordinary. You
brought your seminary class to the National Pastors' Prayer Summit; you
even participated with your students! Why did you take this step and
how valuable was their experience?
The simplest and most effective way to teach people to pray is to pray.
Most people are not familiar with worship-based prayer and it is
positively stretching to spend three full days in worship-based prayer.
Also, my students are mostly Millennials who learn more through
experience than through reading or lectures. A prayer summit is a life
changing experience. It also was a good opportunity for our students to
interact with veteran pastors in a positive, spiritual setting.
My students were profoundly impacted by the experience and we are planning on doing it again next summer.
Q. Dave, please offer a prayer for pastors who know they need to live and lead more in prayer.
Lord, I long for you. You are my dearest treasure, greatest advisor,
closest friend, and glorious king. I hunger to know you more and grow
deeper in my relationship with you. I need you. I yearn for all of your
power to impact my ministry.
Forgive me for proudly living as though I can do it myself. Forgive me
for neglecting this most vital aspect of my life and ministry. Please
give me the desire and the discipline to seek you early, often, and
passionately.
As you transform me, revolutionize my prayers. As you rekindle the flame of my prayer life, revitalize my ministry. Amen.
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August 2008 
