Prayer Ministry in LCNZ
“Be all things to all men for the sake of the gospel”. As written by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:22 (NIV).
Go anywhere do anything (within reason) to win people to the Gospel. That has been my mantra for most of my church life.
Now I am sitting in my office praying about what I should write about praying.
In the past I have not been a sit down and spend a lot of time praying type of person.
Don’t misunderstand me, I still pray. I seem to do it increasingly as I get older.
As I go about my day, I pray. Thank you, God for the beautiful day as I was mowing my lawn today.
I prayed for the lady whose trailer I helped empty while I was at the transfer station.
But as I have got older and retired, I have had more time to think and ponder about church things or stuff.
In my travels around the churches over the last couple of years I have met many others whom I will call the prayers of our Lutheran church.
Palmerston North, Wellington, Auckland, Hamilton, Botany, Marton, Feilding. Whanganui, Christchurch. When I moved to Kawerau I found we have a church group of prayers that meet every Friday. These are the silent groups of people who have been overseeing the ministries of our church. I know that these groups are praying for our Ministry Teams, our youth groups, our Pastors and the leadership of our church.
This is wonderful. But it goes on in largely a quiet manner, and these people shy away from the recognition they deserve. Many blessings have been received personally from the prayer teams when I have been at conferences and meetings within the church and I am forever grateful to these people.
Over the next year or two we as a church are looking at quite a large focus in our Mission Directions as a church moving into the future.
Council of Synod and others called in with expertise in specific areas have been meeting to get the process ready for a launch. I have asked and been encouraged to try and get all the prayer teams in the wider LCNZ to be working together with a prayer focus on the Mission Directions for the church.
The strategy as presented is quite broad and will require individual church input and I will be involved in this and I look forward to meeting both the prayer people and church members.
In the past I believe that our church has undertaken many initiatives without the specific guidance from God. It was a good idea. God has blessed many of these initiatives. I am not complaining at all.
The idea is to have all the prayer teams to be united with their prayers for the Mission Directions to be rolled out. With specific prayer points and needs. To be able to give us feedback from the answers that are received via the Holy Spirit.
This is an add on to the work that is being done by the teams in their own churches.
Pastor Mark and his prayer team in Christchurch have made a great little video about how their prayer team works in their setting. They have prayer stations in the church with prayer needs put on the wall. (Please check it out). https://drive.google.com/file/d/163-cbbE5-1eXzI6Y0QhhoyZqDImxV27h/view?usp=sharing_eil&ts=69cd8a6f
God has put this on my heart to write and to invite others to give their feedback via the editor.
Your brother in Christ Pastor Phil.
Congregation Life Coordinator
Kawerau
15 June 2026
Philippians 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (NIV)
