It's hard to believe that many church members are still unsure whether pastors really do need our support and prayers. Most think that because they are God's ordained leaders, they're in good hands while others may think that the job of a pastor is not all that hard and that there's no cause for alarm.

Paul knew for a fact that as a vocational minister, he definitely needed prayers. That's why he wrote to the early Roman church, saying in Romans 15:30, " I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me."

Aside from prayers, pastors also need a huge amount of edifying and encouraging words from their members. As they have encouraged and edified others, a lot of pastors often find that they don't receive a whole lot of spoken encouragement from others. And while God can and does edify their souls through anointing pastors with His presence, we can participate with God in blessing our spiritual leaders who were there for us in the times we needed encouragement.

There is and has always been much need for prayers and encouragement for our spiritual leaders, and we need to start building those prayer chains and prayer groups to get our spiritual leaders covered. Here are some mind-opening data from various studies compiled by Standing Stone Mentors from some very reliable sources that can hopefully compel us to continue praying for our local church pastors.

• 80 percent of pastors claim that the nature of their work in pastoral ministry has negatively affected their families (Life Enrichment Ministries, 1998)
• Only 50 percent of vocational pastors feel that they were given adequate training to be able to carry out their work effectively (George Barna, 2002)
• 25 percent of pastors do not know whom they can turn to when they experience conflict within the family or the church; 33 percent have no established means for resolving conflict (George Barna, 2002)
• 40 percent have no opportunity for outside renewal like a family vacation or continuing education; there is a very clear relationship between the amount of time a pastor takes for personal renewal and his satisfaction in his job (George Barna, 2002)
• At any given time, 75 percent of pastors in the U.S. have thought about and even desired quitting the ministry (Church Resource Ministries, 1998)
• More than 2,000 pastors are leaving the ministry each month (Marble Retreat Center, 2001)
• More than 40 percent of pastors and 47 percent of their spouses report that they are suffering from burnout, frantic schedules and unrealistic expectations (James Dobson, 1998)

While it's true that God can and will take care of His workers whether their members ask Him to or not, God gives us this great opportunity to get involved in lifting our leaders up by praying for, encouraging and supporting our pastors in any way that we can.