Over the weekend I finished Mark Dever and Jamie Dunlop’s excellent The Compelling Community: Where God’s Power Makes a Church Attractive. Whereas The Deliberate Church aims to set a foundation for healthy church, The Compelling Community is something like a sequel that tries to let us know—as difficult as it can be—what a healthy church feels like.

The book is stocked with all kinds of wisdom for pastors and church leaders. Once section I found particularly compelling came in the chapter on “Pray[ing] Together as a Community.” Jamie gives a list of elements of a church culture he hopes will increasingly characterize his church (Capitol Hill Baptist Church). I’m sure you’d agree that each one is worth focus in your prayer ministry, both personal and corporate.

11 Things We Want to Characterize Our Church

1. Pray for our witness of unity in diversity.
2. Pray for our daily lives this week at work and at home. Pray that we would do what is good, honor God, and commend the gospel.
3. Pray that we would see relationships in the local church as part of what it means to be a Christian.
4. Pray that we would understand the need to make our relationships at church transparent, to be willing to tell embarrassing things about ourselves and to ask awkward questions when needed.
5. Pray that we would expect conversations with other church members to be deep, and often theological in nature.
6. Prayer that we would think it important to encourage one another with Scripture.
7. Pray that we would see part of being a Christian as being a provider, not a consumer.
8. Pray that we would not see service in the local church as being primarily about meeting our own felt needs by utilizing our giftedness but about bringing God glory.
9. Pray that we would see it as unusual when the local church isn’t the focal point of much of our energy and ambition.
10. Pray that we would see it as unusual when a member’s life seems to keep church on the periphery.
11. Pray that we would see hospitality as an important part of being a Christian.

If you want an enormous amount of practical encouragement for your ministry make sure and grab a copy of The Compelling Church today.