{"id":846041,"date":"2025-02-27T05:00:02","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T11:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=846041"},"modified":"2025-02-26T11:26:13","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T17:26:13","slug":"7-reasons-even-pastors-dont-pray-like-we-should","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/7-reasons-even-pastors-dont-pray-like-we-should\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Reasons Even Pastors Don\u2019t Pray like We Should"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wish I could say that every local church pastor is a great prayer warrior\u2014but multiple studies over the years have shown that\u2019s not the case. Even those of us who lead congregations sometimes struggle with staying on our knees. Here are some reasons why:<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. \n
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    1. Few of us have prayer warrior role models.<\/b> I have had three of them over the years, but I realize I\u2019m incredibly blessed by these men in my life. Most pastors I know can\u2019t point to someone who\u2019s modeled a strong prayer life for them.<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. Most churches tell members to pray, but they don\u2019t teach them to pray.<\/b> In fact, we\u2019re guilty of making that mistake with most spiritual disciplines. When we only tell members what to do without teaching them to do it, we set them up for failure. Many pastors, if we\u2019re honest, must admit that even we have not received much prayer training (as the next item in this list will also show).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. Our seminary training often included little attention to prayer.<\/b> In my own training, I did not take a single class that focused on prayer. More seminaries today at least offer a class that addresses prayer, but the attention given to this critical discipline is often still too surface level.<\/span><\/li>\n
    4. We tend to be \u201cdo-ers\u201d before we are \u201cpray-ers.\u201d<\/b> Few of us quickly and readily do what Jesus did when needs were in front of Him: \u201cvast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases.<\/span> But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer\u201d (Luke 5:15-16). Too many of us would have done ministry first, then prayed second.<\/span><\/li>\n
    5. We\u2019ve learned to pray reactively to a need more than pray proactively because of relationship.<\/b> We <\/span>respond <\/span><\/i>with prayer when we learn of a need; we\u2019re less likely to turn to God simply because we want to <\/span>relate<\/span><\/i> to Him. Our prayer is often more ritualistic than relational\u2014and that approach limits our praying.<\/span><\/li>\n
    6. We can do far too much ministry in our own power.<\/b> We may not want to admit it\u2014and we would seldom verbalize it\u2014but we can go through the motions of ministry, do the work we\u2019re paid to do, and even at times see some ministry \u201csuccess\u201d without praying much. Our ability to do ministry sometimes gets in the way of our praying.<\/span><\/li>\n
    7. We\u2019re not inclined to tell others that we struggle.<\/b> After all, we\u2019re supposed to be the church\u2019s spiritual leader, modeling all that it means to follow Christ. Not only do we often have no one with whom we share our struggles, but we also struggle with admitting this deficiency even if we have an accountability partner.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      If you wrestle with prayer, I encourage you to consider the Church Answers course, \u201c<\/span>The Potential and Power of Prayer<\/span><\/a>\u201d built upon <\/span>my book by the same title<\/span><\/a>. Pastors, let\u2019s keep growing in our praying!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I wish I could say that every local church pastor is a great prayer warrior\u2014but multiple studies over the years have shown that\u2019s not the case. Even those of us who lead congregations sometimes struggle with staying on our knees. Here are some reasons why: Few of us have prayer warrior role models. I have…","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":846043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,183,184,175,192,177,191,14796,180,18470,194],"tags":[20279,19054,114,19586,19036,20280],"class_list":["post-846041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-communications","category-discipleship","category-grow","category-how-to","category-lead","category-mind-body-and-spirit","category-monday-wednesday-featured","category-outreach-and-evangelism","category-prayer-grow","category-preaching","tag-7-reasons-even-pastors-dont-pray-like-we-should","tag-ministry","tag-pastors","tag-pray","tag-prayer","tag-prayer-warrior"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n7 Reasons Even Pastors Don\u2019t Pray like We Should | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I wish I could say that every local church pastor is a great prayer warrior\u2014but multiple studies over the years have shown that\u2019s not the case. 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