Dedication Prayer

African Christian Leadership Book Launch Prayer of Dedication

By Pastor Janet Mutinda

Our Father we thank You because leadership is Your idea. We thank You that it is You who calls, it is You who equips leaders. And we thank You for the many tools that You gave us as leaders even here in Africa.  And this morning we want to celebrate this work, this good work. We thank You for the many hours, the many people, the hard work, the many prayers that have come to put this thing to being today. And we want to give You all praise, and we give You all honour. And we recognize that true to Your word, apart from You we can do nothing. And so Lord we acknowledge You, that this is Your work, this was your idea, and it is You who will continue to breathe life into this work.

We are reminded of when You created man in the beginning. It was not until You put Your breath of life in him that he became a living being. And this morning we ask, breathe of God, may you put life in this work. Your word says to us unless the Lord builds the house, they who labour will labour in vain. We pray that this work would not be in vain. We pray that You would take this work and indeed do exceedingly, abundantly more than we could ever imagine, of what You could do, how this book would find reach even beyond this continent. Father we pray that You would use it for so much good. We dedicate this work to You.

We thank You for the seventeen insights that have been laid out for us through this book. We celebrate this continent of Africa, and what the seventeen insights mean for us. We celebrate the work of the Church. Truly Lord, Your Church continues to stand strong, albeit all the challenges and all the murkiness of what has surrounded your Church. Father the gates of hell will not prevail against your Church. And we thank You for the recognition that indeed has come through that your Church, the clergy, even non-clergy, have a very crucial and central role in the lives of Your people. And we pray that Lord You would continue to stir us, and indeed give us back the prophetic voice to be able to speak with clarity, with power, with conviction, and truly be the voice of God in this continent and beyond.

Father we thank You for the many women that are serving You this morning, and despite the many stereotypes that have continued to shroud women in leadership, women continue to have a special place in Your heart. And we thank You for the many who are serving today, without title, without recognition, but faithfully doing that which you have imparted in their heart. Encourage them Lord, may they know it is the Lord Christ that they are serving. May they go beyond the barriers, and indeed when they come to that final day, may they hear the powerful voice of God saying “Well done, good faithful servant.”

We thank You for the youth of this continent. These are the majority population. And Lord what an awesome, awesome privilege and mandate You’ve given to us as leaders on this other side of the youth, to mentor them, to train them, to sharpen them. Father may it be true of us, and especially those of us sitting in this room this morning, those who would get a hold of this book. Father may we be found faithful to mentor and to desire that the younger ones would even be greater than us, that they would do greater works than us, that we would give them every opportunity, that we would be able to advise and say, “Do not go that way, we’ve tried it, but it’s a dangerous path.” May we give the precious gift of time to your youth. We pray as they read this book, that Lord they would be sharpened, and may their leadership be accelerated even to greater heights. The things we struggled with in our youth, the things we were challenged about, Father may they find a clean path, that they can walk straight, they can walk faster and be able to do great exploits for You.

We think of the words of 2 Timothy 2:2, that these things that you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust this to reliable men who will be able to continue to do that. May that be the clarion call of every leader. As we leave this room today, that we would ask ourselves, “Who am I mentoring, who am I equipping, who is it that I’m going to just pour out my life into?” Find us faithful.

So this morning Lord, we celebrate this good work, we dedicate it to you and ask that Lord You would use it to continue to build, to strengthen, to challenge leadership. Find us faithful, and may everything we do bring great glory and honour to Your name. We pray for many who are sitting here this morning who Lord You’ve already given ideas, and there’s a book sitting in their hearts, there’s a work that is yet to be published. Father stir us to stand and to be that voice that will outlive us. So we commit ourselves to You, we commit this work to You. Thank You for the men and women who’ve worked so hard to ensure that this can come to the hands of many leaders. So Lord may this work go before You, may it be a tool to be used for so much good. We dedicate it to You with joy, with every humility, in Jesus’ name. Amen.