Pray First, Pray Together

An Interview with Franz Wolf, Coordinator of Multiply’s Latin American Expansion Team,
and overseer of mission training programs in Brazil, where he lives with his wife, Doris. 

Nikki: Not that long ago, you were facing burn-out. How did that happen?

Franz: I had been working hard for four years, without really taking time for real rest. I was never offline. The regular, ordinary challenges of everyday ministry began to feel heavy, but I never stopped long enough to recognize what was happening. Then, in January 2024, we had a week full of meetings and I finally realized that I was feeling no joy—no joy in anything I had accomplished, and no joy in anything that I was doing. I looked back over the last four years, and I saw only my failures.

Nikki: How did that impact you personally—your marriage, your ministry?

Franz: For some time, I was completely lost. I had no desire to do anything. I saw my regular responsibilities as impossibly heavy burdens, and I couldn’t pull myself together enough to do any of them. Because of this, I became a lot less productive, a lot less active, which made me feel like a failure. I spent many hours reflecting on that feeling. Doris, my wife, suffered through this with me, because I was absent, even when I was with her. It was awful.

Nikki: What changes were you challenged to make?

Franz: I had already been connecting online with Derek Parenteau, a Multiply co-worker who is a great friend and a blessing to my ministry. During this time, I reached out to him even more. We began to meet every two weeks to worship and pray together, sometimes multiple times in a week when things got really bad! Derek helped me realize that I was going through a process of grief. Being together as brothers in our Father’s presence has been an incredible blessing. Our times of prayer led me to start discovering joy again. Worship and prayer removed the weight of negative emotions and helped me to receive direction from the Holy Spirit. I began to see a clearer path forward.

The healing and freedom I experienced through praying with Derek led me to reassess how I was doing ministry. Since then, our meetings have been completely different. No matter what is on the agenda, we start with a significant time of prayer. We take our time in the presence of God, not focusing on the agenda. At first, when we did this, some people felt the pressure of running short on time, for important decisions that needed to be made that day. But when we removed that sense of urgency, everyone began to enjoy our meetings more.

Nikki: What fruit have you seen as a result of this new emphasis on prayer?

Franz: I used to talk a lot about seeking to be guided by God, but I see now that I didn’t leave much space for us to do this as a team. I was always focused on the agenda. Now, we pray as a team, seeking only his presence. This gives us more unity. After that, decisions are so much easier to make. After these times of prayer, we feel like we are in a common space, with a common voice and a united perspective. It’s like in the Book of Acts! It’s amazing how, even with less time to address the agenda, our meetings have actually become more productive!

Nikki: How did that impact you personally?

Franz: The weight has fallen from my shoulders, and team members are now interacting much more personally than before. There is a community being built, not just an environment of work.

Nikki: What advice do you have for other leaders?

Franz: This is an awkward question, because I don’t feel like I have figured it all out. But what I can say is to repeat the words I once heard from Phillip Serez: “It is all real. Our God is truly real.” As leaders, we often push ourselves to achieve, to be successful, to appear triumphant, to make no mistakes. This may motivate and energize us for a while, but eventually it breaks us. Over time, that performance mentality wears us out.

Also, we must not minister alone, or walk alone. Derek has been a key brother to help me see this. He brings me before the Lord when I am too broken to do that for myself. We must all walk with someone very closely, someone who knows the good, the bad, and the ugly in our life, and who will seek the Lord for us and with us.

The Word is also important. When I was still in the dark, God used the Scriptures to call me out of the cave I was in. One story was 1 Samuel 30. David and his men had been away fighting, when their village was raided, and their children and wives taken. In their profound sorrow, David’s men blamed him. David would have taken that very hard, because of his soft heart. But at this critical moment, he did not rush into action, nor allow himself to dwell in the mud of self-pity. He came into God’s presence to pray. Once God spoke to him, David led his men to recover, to God’s glory, all that had been taken.

When we have the responsibility to lead others, we cannot allow ourselves to dwell in the caves of self-pity or allow urgency to push us into action. Our God is real. We must seek him first, and we must seek him together. Sometimes I even call my teams to fast before we worship and pray—those are real instructions from the Bible, from a real God who wants to answer us in very personal ways.

So, my advice would be: Back to the basics! Pray first, and pray in community, seeking God for who he is, before you seek him about making and implementing decisions. Read Scripture together and seek to understand it, in community. Walk very closely with others, especially people who are different from you. Let them know you, pray for you, and speak into your life. Above all, have faith! Know that the Father loves you dearly, and truly wants to manifest his presence in your life.

GIVE

Consider giving to discipleship resourcing and leadership training in Latin America. To learn more, go to multiply.net/resourcing-latin-america