I love the church. She’s messy but she’s beautiful. God is painting a beautiful picture—at times it makes little sense what he’s doing. Some years a marked by tragedy. Others by great success. No matter the word that you would use to describe the Church in 2013, one thing is for certain, God is shaping her for her good and His glory.

Here are five things that I pray for the Church in 2014. They aren’t the biggest prayers that one could pray. Obviously, the greatest thing that we could pray for the church in 2014 is that Jesus Christ would return and set all things in order. These are just five things on my heart for the Church (and my own heart) in 2014:

1. That we would be less enthralled with celebrity and more enthralled with Jesus. I don’t blame this on those that we’ve exalted as celebrities. We are the ones that have placed them on a pedestal. We are the ones that feed the machine. We are the ones that have bearded guys that sell duck calls as our Christian heroes instead of pastors jailed in foreign countries. I pray that in 2014 we grow in our enthrallment of Jesus and that we in turn view our celebrities rightly.
2. That we would have less of a desire to be epic and more of a desire to be faithful. This is connected to the first prayer. We like our Christian celebrities because we believe that they can make us epic. Many of our faux internet relationships, the stuff we write, the sermons we preach, the comments that we make, is driven more by a desire to be epic than to be faithful. I pray that in 2014 we are more concerned with being faithful.
3. That we would be less driven by controversy and more driven by substance. This isn’t only an internet phenomenon. Hold a business meeting in your church that’s generated by controversy. Hold another one that is focused on missions. Which will be the better attended? I pray that in 2014 we have less of a concern with controversy and that we are driven by real substantive things.
4. That we would be less concerned with the petty and more concerned with the vital. One of Paul’s prayers for the Philippian church is that they would “approve what is vital”. Without a God-centered vision of the world we’ll flit away our time worried about shirt colors, typos, and a host of other insignificant stuff. I pray that in 2014 the church is known for a single-minded devotion to what is truly vital.
5. That our gatherings would be less of a show and more for the sake of worship and edification. How often is church driven by performance? How often do we get really stressed out because something didn’t “flow right” in our service? Sunday mornings can feel to me like a grand production. If the show went well then I’m excited. If it went poorly then I feel poorly. I pray that 2014 is more driven by worship. Sloppy heart-felt worship.

These are prayers for a reason. Only the Lord can work over our hearts in such a way that we truly desire what is vital. Only in light of the Lord do our celebrities and our self-infatuation grow dim. My over-arching prayer for 2014 is that the Lord would make Himself known in the Church. That he would captivate our hearts over and over again. This isn’t a list of do’s and don’ts. This is a pleading with the Lord to rip “self” out of our hearts and replace it with more of Christ.

These are five prayers I have for the church in 2014. What are yours?