It is wholly appropriate to say that prayer is leadership.

But leading our churches by being men of prayer is not easy. Instead, the expectations of God are easily lost to the expectations of men. “The way of the western church” is not normally built around prayer. Oh, among us prayer will be verbally venerated; just less often does it become our actual practice. In the western church prayer is too often symbolic, spoken of in sacred terms, maybe even “formally incorporated” into a worship service, but still not part of our DNA, nor the DNA of our elders and ministers. No, the things that consume the physical and emotional energy of a leader may well be meetings, activities, decisions, budgets, church management, hirings, firings, crisis counseling, and making sure someone turns out the lights at the end of the day. Other things, lesser things, push hard and clamor for our attention.

There is nothing quite as pristine and clean as a newborn set of standards. There is nothing quite as bruised and battered as the veteran set conscientiously applied. When it comes to marriages, our church is like yours; we realize there are high standards we must take. There is so much at stake: for the sake of the Lord’s good name, for the sake of Godly homes, for the good of adults and children, for this culture and the generations to follow, the church must never compromise her high view of the home. The church, in helping people become Kingdom people, will always find herself at the front door of homes.