Among the final essays I wrote in college the following was one that managed to find its way into a filing cabinet full of college-type things. There were notes on the book of Acts (thank you Dr. Julio Vena) and a picture of me in my cheerleading garb. The reason I’ve chosen to reproduce this particular work here, in this format, is because as I sit in my recliner on the long-side of a ministry career I look back at the words I wrote and realize how startlingly accurate I was. It’s startling because I had absolutely zero practical experience in a small church environment but by and large nailed the internal culture point by point. Here’s to research papers.

I’d be more than interested in any feedback on this essay. Consider this was written in 2002, I was 23 years old. That being said, the content:

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If you haven’t read about the $2.4 million study that was recently conducted by leading scientists regarding the effectiveness of third-party or intercessory prayer, here’s the link, it’s an interesting read. The results don’t surprise me.

Those receiving blinded prayer fared the same as those who were not prayed for … Paradoxically, those who were indeed aware that prayer was being provided to them actually fared worse.

Of course, the fact that those patients who knew they were receiving prayer actually faired worse than the others could have been caused by a number of reasons. One of which was summed up by Bethea,

One line we considered in this study was did the patient think ‘am I so sick that they had to call in the prayer team?’ Thus, the fact that some patients actually faired worse means little to me.

Some religious leaders might be discouraged by this study. Still others might be enraged and start trying to poke holes in the credibility of the study; I will do neither. Instead I would like to propose the study simply points out that we as humans (especially Americans) tend to focus on the wrong thing in our prayer: results.

If prayer were simply an attempt for us as humans to somehow twist God’s arm, making Him do as we please, then I dare say we would be in a sorry position. I think about this oftentimes when someone prays that we won’t have any more rain because they need to mow the lawn. Doesn’t that contradict the prayer of the farmer who wants rain for his crops? Who does God answer? Does He answer at all or does He simply let nature “do its thing?”

Prayer’s main purpose is not to get results out of God; its main purpose is to align ourselves with God’s will. The night before Christ was nailed to the cross he prayed. Did He pray that God might change His mind about things? Yeah, Jesus did pray that. But the over arching theme in Jesus’ prayer in the garden was that God’s will be done. Jesus had a burning desire to align His will with God’s will.

Paul had the same desire. When he was given a “thorn in the flesh” he prayed that God would remove it. God did not, instead He told Paul that His grace was sufficient for him.

Of course, I’m not saying that intercessory prayer never gets results. Indeed sometimes it does. I can attest to that assertion first hand. When I was 4 years old my kidneys failed, I was bleeding internally, blood in my feces and urine, etc. I was in the hospital for three months. The doctors told my parents that since my kidneys had already stopped working the best case scenario was lifetime kidney dialysis. That was the BEST case scenario; you can imagine the worst case. My parents asked the elders of the church we were attending to come and pray over me. They did so, anointing me with oil as per the book of James. A couple weeks later I walked out of the hospital, both kidneys intact, never to have a problem like that again. Some would explain it away as a freak coincidence. Too freak, if you ask me. I truly believe that intercessory prayer worked in that instance.

In conclusion, intercessory prayer, while not intended to give us the results we want 100% of the time is indeed still useful. It helps us align ourselves with the will of God, whatever that may be. And after all, isn’t being on the same page as God more important than getting what we want?

I’ve been a minister to students for four years now. Looking back I’ve realized, mostly because hindsight is 20/20, that going into it I was blissfully ignorant of several aspects of serving full-time in a church. For the sake of all the young ministers out there who are about to begin serving in a church I’m writing this list of things you should know as you go into ministry. I hope it helps.

Ministers have a love/hate relationship with their calendar. Without a calendar you are dead (or dying) in the water. On one hand you can’t let it rule your life, on the other hand you can’t live without it. Get one and take it with you everywhere.

Keep it together. Keep all your crap together. Don’t have loose pieces of paper floating around your office with important information on them. Remember Trapper-Keepers back in grade-school? Yeah, the grown up version of those is a legal pad holder like this. Get one, treat it like a lady does her purse.

Receipts are more valuable than gold. Keep every single freakin’ receipt you get. File them away for eternity (actually, about 3 years.) Similarly, always ask for a receipt when you buy something. If you forget to, you can plan on needing that very receipt later. Also, remember that ministers are among the most frequently audited by the IRS. And their inquisitiveness is second only to that of a church board.

Write down everything. Take extensive notes, then put them in your grown up Trapper-Keeper. Never assume that you’ll remember something. In fact, you should assume that you will develop amnesia five minutes from now. Ministers are notorious for forgetting stuff when they don’t write it down.

Shake the hands, kiss the babies. This is just a part of being a public official as well as a minister. Like it or not, people expect you to be a friendly person. I’m not saying you need to be someone else or change who you are. Just be the friendliest version of yourself possible.

Learn to say “no” tactfully. As a minister you’ll get asked to do a lot of things. Some of the requests will make you think, “Do I look like a (insert profession)?” Learn how to say “no” without sounding like a lazy jerk, because you’re not one.

To know you is to love you. The thing is, you have to give people a chance to get to know you. How you go about accomplishing this task is really up to you. Just make sure you take steps to let people in to your life. In effect, one of your goals in ministry should be to “pour” your life into others.

Befriend the pastor/staff. More likely than not, the staff members with whom you serve really do want to be your friends. They want to know you and to spend time talking with you about stuff unrelated to ministry. You should want to be their friend too. Believe me, they’re the best allys or worst enemys you can have. Take steps to make them your allies.

Don’t compare your ministry to others. Your ministry is unique to you and how God has made you. You’re not called to be the next Billy Graham or Rick Warren. You are called to be the best “you” that you can be. By default your ministry will look different than others. Besides, when we compare our ministry to others we typically compare our weaknesses to their strengths. This will always result in a skewed perspective.

Remember your calling. Your calling (probably) is to minister the Word of God to His people. Your calling is (probably) not to overhaul a church’s policies. Play by their rules. If you’re constantly battling over policies chances are you’re hurting your overall effectiveness in the one area that God called you to: feeding His sheep. P.S. – I say “probably” because there are indeed some people who God called to change church policies. However, far too many ministers think they’re called to that when they aren’t.