Owen on How to Serve at Church part 2

How can I serve the church?We have been looking at the way John Owen answers this question. He states it in the form of rules. His first rule was sincere, affectionate love. Once we have seen that, the second rule only follows naturally. How can we serve the church?We must constantly for the spiritual good of the church and God's protection of it.One of the chief ways we show our love to other people is by praying for them. How can we say we love the people in our church if we are not praying for them? And how can we say that we love the people in our church if we are not laboring in prayer for them?When we pray for the people in our church earnestly we are demonstrating that we are part of the same body and as a result what matters to them matters to us, when they are hurting we hurt and when they are rejoicing we are rejoicing. When we pray for the people in our church earnestly we are demonstrating our faith in God and our conviction that all the best things in life come as a result of God's work in a person's life.John Owen is so convinced of the importance of praying for the good of the church that he writes, "He is not worthy of the privileges of the church who continues not in prayer for a defence upon that glory. Prayer then for the good, prosperity, flourishing, peace, increase, edification and protection of the church is a duty required of all the members thereof."Obvious, I know.But that's exactly one of the things I appreciate about reading through Owen's description of a Christian's duties to his church. We can make church and ministry so complicated, so programmatic, require so many hoops to jump through, when at the end of the day real God honoring ministry in the church is much simpler and harder than all of that. It comes down to things like, are we really loving each other like family? And is that love showing up in the way we pray?