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“I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.” -Jesus (John 17:9)

Before I begin, let me say that I feel very well supported and encouraged in the congregation where I serve. In other words, this isn’t a desperate plea for prayer as I lie in the bottom of an existential pit—although prayers are, of course, always welcome!

In my context, people often tell me that they pray for me. Many of them do this every day. I cherish that so very much. I remember visiting a devout man who has now passed away. He told me: “I pray for you and your dear wife each morning before my feet hit the floor.” My cup overflows.

Plus, there are good leaders around me and even a Human Resources Team which proactively meets with me a few times a year. I’m well supported.

But when it comes to pastoring in general, reports abound about discouragement, throwing in the towel, and even moral failure.

I’ve been pastoring a church for 17 years. I’ve had many ups and downs. I’ve had exuberant times when I’ve felt like Maria singing “The Hills Are Alive” in The Sound of Music. And I’ve had times when I’ve thought to myself (and to my wife), “I just can’t do this anymore.”

I’ve also come to know many pastors. The list below is a list of needs, not only from my own experience, but from listening to my colleagues who are walking a similar path.

Ultimately, I'm writing because you are supposed to pray for your pastor. In fact, when I joined my congregation (and when other pastors in this tradition joined theirs), the gathered community answered in the affirmative to this question: “Do you pledge yourselves to be co-servants with your minister under Christ, sharing in the worship of the church, offering support through prayers and friendship, announcing the gospel to the world by the power of the Holy Spirit?”[i]

This post is intended to help you do that.

Plus, prayers of the righteous are “powerful and effective” (James 5:16), and God is near to those who call on him in truth (Psalm 145:18). Because of that, how can we not pray?

Let’s begin.

1/ For a personal, vibrant faith

As a religious “professional” it’s easy to start skipping your personal devotionals. This is easy to justify since we spend so much time preparing for sermons, Bible studies, meetings, or pastoral counseling sessions.

But a pastor’s personal, vibrant faith, cultivated through consistent devotional practices, needs to remain at the forefront. 1 John 2:5-6 speaks about “abiding” in Christ. The editors of the NET Study Bible tell us what that means: “a close, intimate (and permanent) relationship between the believer and God.”[ii] As I’ve written elsewhere, there’s a word for when this has become absent in the life of a pastor: an emergency.

2/ For their marriage

Spouses are in a unique position. They are often considered leaders in the church (and sometimes are), and also moral examples. There is a certain amount of mental and emotional weight that a spouse can take on.

For pastors who are married, pray for their spouses and for the health of the marriage itself. Pray for mutual love, appreciation, respect, and friendship. Pray for purity within the relationship. Pray for spouses who bear an invisible load which is beyond the capacity of most humans.

3/ For their family and children

For those with families, pray for the children as well. It is sometimes said that the first mission field is in the home. This is true. It’s so important that, in fact, if children are disobedient and don’t believe it can actually render an elder (including a pastor) unable to lead in a church (Titus 1:6).

Pastor’s kids—affectionally known around the globe as “PK’s”—also have additional pressures: to show up, to serve, to always be “on.” This can wear them down and, if left unaddressed, can build resentment not only toward the church but toward their parents.

Pray that the children of pastors have a healthy relationship with their parents, with the church, and that they develop a faith which even exceeds that of their parents.

4/ For protection against the enemy

Satan is real. A prime target is pastors and their families. We are coming to know more and more about this battle on the local level from people who have come out of the occult, Satanism and witchcraft, and who have converted to Christianity. We hear of hexes, spells, curses and (demonic) prayers in local communities specifically targeted toward the pastors and their families, including children.

All of this is in addition to the temptations and struggles which may already be happening inside the church itself. Throw in the dark elements of an increasingly hostile culture and you’ve got a real Molotov cocktail.

Pray for guardianship. “…and under his wings you will find refuge” (Psalm 91:4).

5/ Against discouragement

I’ve heard that the average pastorate lasts about 5 years, though it’s hard to find exact statistics. I’ve also heard that over half of pastors coming out of seminary quit before the five-year mark. The reasons for that are surely varied. But discouragement isn’t hard to find for a whole host of reasons. Pray for encouragement.

6/ For perspective about criticism and praise

Again, I serve in a context where people are usually very kind, but something I and others always need to be working on is ensuring that we are not knocked too low by criticism and are not puffed up too high by praise. They key is perspective. God opposes the proud but shows grace to the humble (James 4:6).

When I was in seminary I was attending a church in Toronto. After the service, I complimented the pastor on his sermon (which, by the way, is a fine thing to do). He paused for a moment and then shared the following statement knowing that I was in seminary and would one day have to deal with all sorts of comments myself: “They threw rocks at the apostles.” He said it with a smile. His point was that we are striving to please God not people. Take complements (and even complaints) with a grain of salt.

Pray that the pastor is pleasing God first. Otherwise, he would not be a servant of Christ (Galatians 1:10).

7/ For theological integrity

It was Swiss theologian Karl Barth who said: “as far as we know, there is no one who deserves the wrath of God more abundantly than the ministers.”[iii] (He himself was a minister.) Yikes. It was a comment on the impossibility and immensity of the task before us. Are we to proclaim the very Word of God? Are we to be Christlike examples in light of the Word we study so closely? James 3:1 warns: “Teachers will be judged more strictly.”

The good news is that we are saved by God’s grace through faith.

But an additional struggle remains. There is pressure on all fronts to theologically compromise. This is true on both the “liberal” and “conservative” ends of the spectrum. How often do we see passages either twisted or avoided because we don’t want to deal with what they have to say? People-pleasing has a way of making heretics.

2 Timothy 2:15 is Paul’s golden advice to Timothy, his young protégé: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

Rightly handling the word of truth.

Pray that pastors rightly handle the word of truth, and that they uphold their ordination vows.

8/ For leading the church through (increasing) controversy and chaos

There have always been controversies, but they are on the rise. Chaos works a double shift for the lord of darkness. In our highly polarized and digital age, all of this is increasing. As I survey the landscape, I think that there will be some sort of inescapable controversy every five or six months.

There are usually well-meaning people on every side of most debates. Pastors need not only to teach, but to shepherd people who are trying to understand what is going on, discerning truth from error through a growing number of digital sources including Artificial Intelligence, navigate division and hurt in their families, friendships, workplaces, and even churches, all while trying to stay centred in Christ.

Pray for wisdom and discernment in the winds that will most certain accelerate (not decrease).

9/ Support systems

A surprising amount of pastors report that they are lonely, even though they are continually surrounded by lots of people. Just think for a moment about your friend circle, your workplace, and your church. For most people, those are three different spheres. Sure, they overlap a bit, but they are largely separate—friends, work and church.

For pastors, however, they are largely the same. This intensifies the experience. You are a friend, a co-worker, and a fellow servant in the body of Christ. But you are also always different. You’re the pastor. You’re never not responsible. You’re never not supposed to lead.

When a new person joins the fellowship, great! When another person goes, it is often a painful experience, even if the pastor doesn’t admit it. A colleague recently suggested that most pastors have multiple ungrieved loses each year.

This is why friendship and support systems are so vital. Sometimes they can occur within a congregation, but sometimes they also occur on the outside. Pray for healthy support systems.

10/ Keeping the main thing the main thing

Today’s pastors are asked to have more skills than they could ever reasonably have. At a workshop I attended, church consultant John-Peter Smit said: “Thirty years ago there were about nine things you needed to do to grow a church—if you got about five of them right, the church would grow. Now you need to do 11—and your church might still not grow.”

In addition to this there are emergencies to attend to, cultural problems to navigate, hospital visits to make, meetings to lead, computers to fix, prayers to offer, complex relationships to stickhandle, worship services to plan, social media comments to moderate, emails to respond to… The list goes on and on.

Plus, if you're not an expert on public health, vaccines, theologian X's dispensational theory of Israel in the end times, pop culture, and American politics, you're probably a "false teacher." It’s quite literally impossible.

Granted, in some churches there are other people to do some of those things. Some, not many. But the point remains: The pastor needs to continually war against distraction.

Pray that pastors keep the main thing the main thing—Jesus. Pray that they organize their time to focus on using their spiritual gifts, that they delegate and equip others, and that they lead well in the things that matter most.

11/ Rest

This can be surprisingly difficult. We live in a culture that idolizes busyness. Plus, the weekly rhythm of a pastor is different from most people, making it harder to slide into “down times” that might be more natural for other people. Saturdays are often populated with last minute trouble-shooting before Sunday while taking kids to soccer practice and trying to be truly present in the home.

Sundays are intense. Plus, phones ring and ding with emergencies and sicknesses on days off. This isn’t a complaint; it’s simply a comment about reality.

There’s an old saying: “If the Devil can't make you sin, he will make you busy, because either way your soul will shrivel.”

True rest—both physical rest and mental rest—is perhaps one of the biggest areas of pastoral disobedience. But it is also one of the most crucial. Pray for weekly rest. (And respect the pastor’s boundaries.)

12/ Christlikeness—in general, and among the people

Christians are striving to be like Jesus (1 John 2:6). This includes pastors. Pray that your pastor grows in humility and courage; pray they are more loving and truthful with each passing day. Pray that they maintain their fervour. Pray that they bear the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

Congregations can be complicated things. If a pastor is not careful, he can get cynical or uncaring, even toward those in the flock. Pray that the pastor grows in Christlikeness and shepherds the people for whom Jesus died—and that they do so willingly and eagerly (1 Peter 5:2).

13/ Perseverance

Paul fought hard. In 2 Timothy 4:7 he wrote: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” May that be the case for all pastors, including those times when he feels alone, hurt, tired, and like he just can’t do it anymore.

Holy Spirit, give new life for the glory of the Father’s name. Give a church body who runs together as a team. Give a double measure of joy, hope and gospel power. And give it until that day when “the unfading crown of glory” (1 Peter 5:4) is won.

___________________

[i] From the Canadian “Book of Common Worship,” p. 356.

[ii] NET Bible, Full Notes Edition (Thomas Nelson, 2019), 2328.

[iii] Karl Barth, The Word of God and the Word of Man, trans. Douglas Horton (New York: Harper & Row, 1957), 126.