A couple of years ago in my prayer time I felt the Lord say, “Mike, I want you to begin to ‘pastor’ the city.” I didn’t know what that meant or how to go about doing it. It was difficult enough just to focus on trying to pastor a church, let alone deal with the entire city. Then, at the beginning of 2005 a couple of pastors I regularly pray with and I learned about a city transformation taking place in Elk River, Minnesota.

We decided to visit with the leadership to see what was happening. Some of the pastors, key businessmen, and even the mayor had been strategically praying over the city and were seeing dramatic changes. The story can be found in the book, The Elk River Story, by Rick Heeren.1 What happened in Elk River is exactly what we had sought for Austin. Rather than merely copying what they were doing in Elk River, we endeavored to apply the same principles and let God decide how He wanted to move in Austin. These principles will fit in most any community:

1) It is God who builds the Church (Matthew 16:18-19).
If we will take the authority we have and do the Kingdom work in the community, He will build the Church, just as He did in the book of Acts. Too often my focus, and the focus of most pastors, is to try to build up our own congregations. We concentrate on “church growth” instead of Kingdom building. We are learning to minister to the city and leave church growth up to the Lord.

2) Blessing is the key to building the Kingdom (Luke 10:1-9). When Jesus sent the 70 disciples out, He gave them four tasks:

• Bless (vs. 5). Don’t criticize or judge people, but learn to be a blessing and learn to pray blessings over them (Matthew 5:43-48; Romans 12:14-21).
• Build relationships (vs. 7). The local church has a tendency to keep everything “in-house” in order to separate us from the world. Our emphasis, then, is on having good programs to attract people to come to us. Instead, our job is to take the kingdom of God to the community. We MUST build relationships with the lost in order to do that.
• Minister to needs (vs. 9). When we build relationships and people learn they can trust us, they will begin to share their needs and concerns. We, then, have an opportunity to pray for them and bless them in tangible ways, by helping meet some of their physical needs.
• Proclaim the good news (vs. 9). Too often we begin here. Instead, we need to earn the right to speak to individuals by ministering to their needs first, showing them the love of God in very real ways.

As we bless people in these ways, Satan’s hold over the city will be broken (vs. 17-18).

3) We need to work in unity.
It is essential that pastors and key businessmen and women join together in prayer and joint worship. Only when the churches of the city begin to operate as one body will the city be transformed (James 4:1-7). When we stop fighting and quarreling amongst each other, when we submit to God as a united Church, then we can resist the devil and cause him to flee from us.

4) Marketplace ministers are vital.
The pastors in Elk River emphasized the importance of the Christian business community understanding their role in city transformation. God has called businessmen and women into their places of employment to “pastor” their coworkers by praying for and blessing them in order to change the spiritual climate of their workplace (1 Timothy 2:1-4). This will open the door for the Holy Spirit to move and provide opportunities to minister (see Luke 10).

Though we’ve just begun applying these principles in Austin, we are seeing changes already. A group meets each Wednesday from noon to 1:00 p.m. in the library to pray over the city. We also ask the mayor to share issues and concerns for which we can pray.

Recently we had a series of prayer events leading up to the National Day of Prayer. We asked several churches to sign up for 24-hour blocks of prayer time from noon Sunday, April 30, to midnight Thursday, May 4. On Sunday evening we held a joint concert of prayer at the local theater; at least 15 pastors attended. On Monday morning people gathered around each school’s flagpole to pray. On Tuesday, we walked downtown Main Street, the mall, and some other shopping areas to pray God’s blessing over the businesses. On Wednesday we encouraged people to walk through and pray over their neighborhoods. On Thursday, the National Day of Prayer, we prayed at the courthouse for our government officials.

It will take some time before people really catch the vision. Nonetheless, as we continue to work together to bless our city, it will be transformed and the kingdom of God will come to Austin, Minnesota. The same thing can happen in your community!

(1)To order The Elk River Story, visit www.harvestevan.org.

Mike and Nancy Juntunen are senior pastors of Open Bible Church in Austin, Minnesota. Mike also serves as the district superintendent for the Northern Iowa/Minnesota District.