Jesus Proved Prayer & Leadership Belong Together
Here’s how to overcome 8 obstacles that get in the way.
As a leader, chances are your bookshelves—like ours—are overflowing with leadership books. And as a Christian, you likely have spiritual formation books piled up around your home. But it’s rare when these two genres come together. That’s what has us so excited about the new book Lead with Prayer. The authors, Ryan Skoog, Peter Greer, and Cameron Doolittle, set out to blend the two genres together. They sat down with world-changing leaders like Francis Chan, John Mark Comer, Joni Eareckson Tada, Tim Mackie, Gary Haugen, John Ortberg, Mark Batterson, and global leaders across six continents and asked, “What does your daily prayer life look like?”
The book that emerged is filled with biblical insights, practical prayer tools, and clear action steps anyone can implement to become a leader who prioritizes prayer and multiplies it within any leadership context: from families to Fortune 500 companies.
Every follower of Christ may struggle to prioritize prayer, but for busy leaders, the challenge to pray can be exponentially greater. Read on for six honest takeaways the interviewees from Lead with Prayer shared on how to confront the obstacles to prayer we all face.
Praying leaders:
- Overcome the urge to be busy all the time: Praying leaders make space for silence, solitude, meditation, and retreat. It doesn’t just happen; they rearrange their calendars, say “no” strategically, and create time to abide with God.
- Put influence in its place: Many today define the essence of leadership as influence, yet influence is something to steward for God’s glory if it comes. Praying leaders pursue God’s agenda rather than chasing influence.
- Outsmart distractions: Praying leaders know how to separate themselves from the buzz of the world—phones can be left in other rooms and emails can be answered another time. They recognize nothing is more important and urgent than communing with their Creator.
- Silence the pressure to always seem “okay”: Praying leaders understand the futility of dishonesty with God and recognize that praying through tough times fuels faith-filled dependency. Resting on the truth of Scripture in prayer amid challenging circumstances yields greater intimacy with God.
- Recognize their limits: Praying leaders understand the abundance of Heaven’s resources. They see their daily limitations, emotions, and sin nature as triggers to pray.
- Allocate resources to prayer: One leader shared that investing in prayer simply elevates prayer to the level of accounting or any other organizational function. Through that lens, it would seem odd to not invest in time, money, energy, and resources in prayer.
Becoming a praying leader is a lifelong journey in learning to walk, talk, and listen to God—and helping others do the same. It’s our joy to recommend Lead with Prayer as a step on that journey. As you endeavor to lead yourself and your teams in prayer, we wanted to offer these free downloadable tools from Lead with Prayer. Each tool includes practical action steps to help you prioritize and grow in prayer personally and multiply prayer among those you lead.
Discover the prayer habits of world-changing ministry leaders that will transform your life and your leadership.
Experienced leaders will tell you that you can’t lead on your own. The pressure, the impossible decisions, the high risks, the temptations, the people, the overwhelming schedule—it’s too much. Some leaders seek outside help. They pray.
Looking for help in their own leadership, entrepreneur Ryan Skoog, CEO Peter Greer, and executive advisor Cameron Doolittle set out to investigate how leaders pray. What do they say to God? How often do they pray, and for how long? Where do they pray? And how on earth do they make time for prayer?
Skoog, Greer, and Doolittle spent three years researching. They logged over one hundred hours of interviews with leaders in six continents who collectively serve in over one hundred countries. They researched or spoke with global entrepreneurs and business executives of Fortune 500 companies, as well as some of the most influential pastors and ministry leaders in the world—leaders such as
- Joni Eareckson Tada
- Francis Chan
- John Mark Comer
- Christine Caine
- David Green
- Mark Batterson
- Among countless others.
Here in this book, the authors share the spiritual habits, techniques, and practices of these world-changing leaders, revealing specific details of their prayer lives. In addition, the book includes prayers for leaders to use in their own prayer time as well as tools for how to cultivate a personal and organizational commitment to prayer.
By allowing these men and women to lead us in prayer, we learn not only how to pray but also how to build a culture of prayer wherever we lead. It is only when our businesses, ministries, and churches pray that they will be transformed.
