As Christ-centered churches and ministries take steps to strengthen their leader care policies and practices, ECFA aims to support them with equipping resources. However, our first step must always be to seek help from the Lord. In Him is life, love, and holy power. Without Him, our efforts are in vain.

Below is a sample prayer your board members may wish to use or adapt at the beginning of your leader care journey and at appropriate points along the way:

Dear God,

Thank you for Your love and care. We on this ministry board stand here today only because You rescued each one of us and gave us new life. Now, in your grace, You have allowed us the opportunity to steward this organization at this time and in this place. Please help us faithfully emulate Your love and care as we carry out this charge.

Lord, You have also called [NAME] to this important work in this season. You have entrusted [HIM/HER] with casting vision for this ministry and leading its daily operations. We pray for your blessing on [NAME]. We ask for Your grace, Your truth, and Your hope to be rooted in and radiant from [HIM/HER]. As [HE/SHE] emulates You as a servant leader, may [NAME] come more and more to truly know and humbly walk in Your love and Your care.

We know that ministry leadership requires great discipline and dependence on You. It is so easy for each of us to allow the torrent of cares this world sends our way to distract us. Even as we wish to serve You, we may allow busyness to become an idol, isolation to become a defense, and ends to justify means. Money may become the fear or focus of our daily walk. We may even come to love power, rather than be empowered by Your love.

Lord, we need You, and we know [NAME] needs You. May none of us ever forget that You warned against following our own worldly ways and said, “In repentance and rest?is your salvation, in quietness and trust?is your strength” (Isaiah 30:15). Help us all to heed this word individually and corporately as a leadership team.

We know that Your relationship with [NAME] is special between the two of you. As a body, we are not [HER/HIS] spiritual director or accountability group. However, we also know You have called all of us to co-labor together in this ministry right here and right now. We believe that we are positioned to do what we can to support the arms of [NAME] in the work of this ministry, just as Aaron and Hur held up the arms of Moses. We believe carrying out this responsibility in submission to You can invite the daily and long-term flourishing of our entire organization.

Please give us wisdom as we work with [NAME] to develop, refine, and execute a leader care plan that will help [HIM/HER] pursue a life “nourished on the truths of the faith” (1 Tim. 4:6) and exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).

May we find ways to encourage [NAME] to take time for holistic health and growth. May [SHE/HE] lean into the power that comes from understanding that neither he/she nor any other leader is superhuman – in fact, You designed us to need sabbath rest.

You also designed us to need daily bread from You. May [NAME] never neglect to devote regular time with You in prayer and the Word, and may we never make [HER/HIM] feel pressured to sideline that relationship in any season.

Lord, we commit to pray for [NAME] as [HE/SHE] leads this ministry. We ask that you help us care for [HER/HIM] well. May ours be an organization that operates with Your love and care at its center.

May we prove worthy of the trust placed in us by givers, congregations, constituents, and a watching world – and, most importantly, by You. Amen.

Be sure to check out more of our practical leader care resources. Not an accredited member of ECFA yet? Visit ECFA.org to find out how we can help you maintain a trusted reputation so you can focus on reaching the world for Christ.

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