Mississippi pastor Kyle Reno opened the Alabama Baptist Pastors Conference on Nov. 10 at Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville by reminding ministers of the gospel that “there is nothing like a praying pastor.”
Reno, pastor of Crossgates Baptist Church in Brandon, Mississippi, addressed “The Preeminence of Christ in Prayer.” He observed that God “has more for your prayer life than you could ever imagine or fathom.”
Basing his message from Luke 11, Reno used Jesus Christ as the perfect example of how to spend time alone with God. “Jesus gave us a window into what it might look like for us to commune with our heavenly Father.”
Reno, who accepted Christ under the leadership of then pastor Steve Gaines at First Baptist Church,Gardendale, Alabama, observed that Jesus often picked a “secret” room or place to find time to be in the presence of His Father.
“Pastors need places of prayer,” he maintained. Places of prayer can range from a special chair, a walking trail in your neighborhood or your back porch. It is anywhere you meet with an all-powerful God, he added.
Reno also reminded pastors that when you’re called to be the pastor of a church, God places you at a vantage post. Learn how to pray from that post, he challenged.
Reno asked the pastors to consider the question, “Are our churches houses of prayer?”
“Every church in every city should be the most prayed in place in that city,” he maintained.
Churches should be places where men and women of God meet with Him and the only way that becomes true is if it is first true in the heart of the pastor,” Reno said.
He observed that pastors should follow the example of Jesus’ disciples who asked Him to teach them how to pray.
The Mississippi pastor led them through the Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11, noting that prayer involves approaching and worshipping God and establishing a relationship and partnership with Him.
“I think God is bored with our generic praying,” Reno said. He recalled meeting with pastors while serving in Conway, Arkansas, to pray. “To be honest, most of us just prayed our sermons to each other, hoping we’d get an amen.” As he was returning home, he felt the Holy Spirit say to him, “Kyle, if I were to answer everything you all just asked, what would change in the city? I have to say, ‘nothing, Lord.’ He said, ‘Let’s not do that again.’ ”
Reno challenged pastors to pray that the Kingdom of God (Luke 11:2) would come to their cities and churches so that the next generation will come to know Christ.
He encouraged pastors to guard against being led astray from a sincere and true devotion to Christ. “Wake up each day knowing that you need to surrender to follow Him today. … and to surrender to His leadership knowing that the enemy wants to deceive and distract you.
“Tell the Father I want to follow and focus on you. If you do that, you’ll make it to the end. I will say it again, there’s nothing like a praying pastor.”
Share with others: