Two New Bethlehem Pastors Ask You to Pray

I asked our two newest pastors, elected just yesterday, how they would like people to pray for them.

Vince Johnson

1. I need nothing more than the presence of God—I’m desperate for this! May I be able to say, “I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken” (Psalm 16:8). I’m inadequate apart from this!
2. Pray that God, my family, Campus Crusade for Christ, and Bethlehem Baptist Church would be blessed through the transition this Fall. May God give wisdom for timing with this, emotional strength, and love for God and others. Pray Ephesians 1:11—that I would be trusting his purpose and power to work all things according to the counsel of his will.
3. Pray that I would fear God alone in this role—that I would never shrink back from saying and doing what his Spirit leads me to (Galatians 1:10).

Jon Nowlin

• Please ask God to help me pay careful attention to myself and to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made me an overseer, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood (Acts 20:28).
• Pray that I would love my wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, by his grace washing her with the Word and that I would bring up my children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 5:25–26; 6:4b).
• Pray that as a pastor I would equip well the saints for the work of the ministry for the building up of the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12). Pray that believing students would thrive in their place in the body, unbelieving students would see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4), and that both would seek to be equipped. Pray for parents in their role of teaching their children diligently (Deuteronomy 6:7).