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Kent Hughes · Citado em PreceptAustin
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Hughes notes that "today’s average pastor according to a Christianity Today survey, spends only three minutes a day in prayer." H. A. Ironside was asked if he could do his life’s ministry over again would he do anything differently. He answered, “I would pray more.” Prayer (4335) (proseuche from pros = toward or immediately before + euchomai = to pray or vow) is the general word for prayer used only of prayer to God. The prefix preposition pros conveys the sense of being immediately before God and hence congers up pictures of holy reverence, adoration, devotion, and worship. The basic idea of proseuche is to bring something, and in prayer this pertains to bringing up prayer requests. In early Greek culture an offering was brought with a prayer so that it be accepted. With the final sacrificial offering having been made by our Lord Jesus Christ, Great High Priest (Jn 19:30+), now believers can "draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need." (Heb 4:16+). It is worth noting that proseuche is used 37 times in the NT with 9 uses describing the early church! What has happened to us as a church in America? Might this relate to how infrequently we see the power of the Lord at work in our midst? (A rhetorical question)! All uses of proseuche in the NT - Mt. 17:21, 21:13, 21:22; Mk. 9:29, 11:17; Lk. 6:12, 19:46, 22:45; Acts 1:14; Acts 2:42; Acts 3:1; Acts 6:4; Acts 10:4; Acts 10:31; Acts 12:5; Acts 16:13; Acts 16:16; Ro. 1:10; Ro. 12:12; Ro. 15:30; 1 Co. 7:5; Eph. 1:16; Eph. 6:18; Phil. 4:6; Col. 4:2; Col. 4:12; 1 Thess. 1:2; 1 Tim. 2:1; 1 Tim. 5:5; Phlm. 1:4; Phlm. 1:22; Jas. 5:17; 1 Pet. 3:7; 1 Pet. 4:7; Rev. 5:8; Rev. 8:3; Rev. 8:4 The ministry of the Word - They were diligently persevering in serving (see diakonia above) the Word of Life (Php 2:16+), which alone gives supernatural spiritual life. Jesus said "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life." (Jn 6:63) Paul also links the work of the Spirit and the work of the Word writing that "we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord (IN HIS WORD cf James 1:23-25+), are being transformed (metamorphoo present tense, divine passive = by the Spirit = progressive sanctification) into the same image (Christ-likeness, cf Ro 8:29+) from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." (2 Cor 3:18+) Dear pastor, the apostles set the template - priority to prayer and the Word. Does this describe your ministry? Or have you become busy as a "jack of all trades," stealing time from your primary call to pray and preach the Word? The late pastor Jack Arnold notes that "From beginning to end, it should take a pastor fifteen to twenty hours to prepare one sermon. Yet, the average pastor spends two to four hours for sermon preparation....It is sad but true that most ministers have very little time for prayer and the Bible because their members keep them so occupied with secondary things - matters that could be taken care of by ruling elders, deacons, staff and lay members of the church." (Sermon) How long do you spend each week to prepare your message on Sunday? Do you put it off until Saturday to prepare? Here is a summary of sermon prep time for some well-known pastors - John
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Hughes – 20 hours. Tim Keller (big Manhattan church) – 14-16 hours. (Ref) Oliver B. Greene says, “A minister who preaches as many as three sermons a week needs at least forty-eight to sixty hours of that week to be used in preparation for his sermons, and many of those hours should be spent in prayer, seeking not only God's will for the message, but also the enlightening interpretation of the Holy Spirit on the text God would have him use. Any message delivered without preceding prayer and study will not accomplish that which the Word of God is given to accomplish.” C H Spurgeon once said that "If we are weak in communion with God we are weak everywhere." J