My office ... is right across that hall. Any monkey business is ill-advised.

Below you will find the prayer John Piper asked his congregation to pray for itself (Bethlehem Baptist Church) while he's away on sabbatical. While he's away, he wants them involved in ministry, not monkey business.

I found it an encouraging way to pray for Providence Church and thought you find it a beneficial way to pray for your own church.

O Lord, as you are often accustomed to do, show your great power in Pastor John’s absence. Send a remarkable awakening that results in…

• hundreds of people coming to Christ,
• old animosities being removed,
• marriages being reconciled and renewed,
• wayward children coming home,
• long-standing slavery to sin being conquered,
• spiritual dullness being replaced by vibrant joy,
• weak faith being replaced by bold witness,
• disinterest in prayer being replaced by fervent intercession,
• boring Bible reading being replaced by passion for the Word,
• disinterest in global missions being replaced by energy for Christ’s name among the nations, and
• lukewarm worship being replaced by zeal for the greatness of God’s glory.

Lord, when Gideon had thousands of men you said, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’” (Judges 7:2). You stripped his army to 300, and with that you conquered the peoples of the East who covered the ground like locusts and whose camels were like the sand of sea (Judges 7:12).

O Lord, take the mighty 300 of Bethlehem and bless this church beyond anything we have ever dreamed. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.