How To Pray For Your Pastor

Many Christians struggle with prayer. Prayer for their needs or the needs of their family is somewhat simple as they know the needs to pray for, but when praying for others in their church especially their pastor and other spiritual leadership, it can seem a daunting task. “How do I pray for that spiritual giant in my life?” “Would he even want my prayers?” “Would my prayers help at all?” are all questions I’ve heard or even said over the years. The simplest answer is, yes. Your pastor and other spiritual leaders could definitely use the prayer, and let’s all be honest, we all could use the practice. 🙂

I recently saw a photo post on Facebook on How To Pray For Your Pastor. It was s simple six part breakdown into categories. Each category based off of the letters in the word pastor. It didn’t go into much detail, but I thought it made for an excellent jump off point for this lesson.

With this topic in mind, I asked many pastor & minister friends on social media a question. “What kinds of things would you wish the saints of your church would pray for, in regards to you, your family and/or ministry?” I am going to share the results of this poll in efforts to help us all realize some of things that we can pray for for our pastors and other spiritual leaders in our churches.

Before I jump into the six categories of How To Pray for your pastor, let me tell you the answer that caught my attention the most. One pastor stated “Just knowing that they are praying for me is HUGE.”
Knowing that those that watch for our souls and pray for us, in the most inopportune times, covet our prayers, should help us realize we can up our prayers for them.

It truly is my hope and prayer that you are blessed by this today and that it helps improve your prayer life.

Let’s dive into it.

Personal Life The first category you will want to pray for your pastor is in his Personal Life.

Pray for your pastor’s personal walk with God, as well as that of his family.

Pray that your pastor will always rely on God’s timing – trusting Him to open the doors for them to walk through.

Pray for wisdom in all he does. Pray for the wisdom to make good decisions in his personal life as well as his ministry.

Pray for the health, safety, and encouragement of his family members.

Pray for his physical health. Pray that God will keep the pastor & his family in that condition of health that will best glorify Him.

Ask God to help the pastor recognize the need for weekly rest away from ministry responsibilities.

Pray that the the pastor will put on the full armor of God. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against…the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil” (Eph. 6:11–12).

Pray for strong & healthy family relationships. Ministry can cause strain on the relationships in families — husbands & wives, parents & children. Pray that the Lord will strengthen these family bonds & draw them close together.

Pray for the provision of physical needs. Pray that God would supply their every need.

Pray for strength in the “inner man” (Ephesians 3:16). Loneliness, discouragement, despair — these struggles occur in all our lives including pastors and other ministers. Pray that their hearts are encouraged and strengthened.

Pray that your pastor will be filled with the same compassion Jesus had for unbelievers and teach about the Savior who can offer grace, peace, and direction in a chaotic world.

Administration Lets look at the next category, Administration.

Pray that he is able to provide solid Godly counsel with wisdom under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Pray that he provides the utmost example of leadership in both spiritual and personal matters.

Ask God to renew His vision in the heart of the pastor so he can accomplish all that God has planned to touch people’s lives and grow the Kingdom.

Pray that your pastor will be filled with the same compassion Jesus had for unbelievers and teach about the Savior who can offer grace, peace, and direction in a chaotic world.

Pray that God would use him to multiply churches. Pray for the multiplication of churches filled with people who know the Word led by those who teach & preach the Word.

Pray for the ability to communicate accurately. Ask God to cause him to speak with clarity and precision as they declare God’s Word.

Sermon Study The third category to pray for your pastor would be for his Sermon Study & Prep.

Pray that your pastor has sufficient sermon preparation time. Time that would be uninterrupted and allow for the Lord to move upon him to feed you and your family for what God would have for us this week.

Pray for supernatural power to accompany him. Pray that he will speak the Word boldly and that supernatural power accompanies its proclamation.

Pray that the Lord will open up the scriptures to your pastor that he can better impact your family and encourage you & your family to grow deeper in the Word as he preaches & teaches.

Tests & Trials For the T category, pray for the Tests & Trials your pastor and his family will go through while watching for your soul.

Pray for their victory in spiritual warfare. When the man of God carries the Gospel, he is going into a war. The devil is dead set on destroying souls and diverting the mission. The enemy aims to smite the shepherd so the sheep will scatter. He and his family often take arrows meant to destroy you, so again, pray that his family has victory!

Pray for boldness. Ministers are regular people who feel pain and rejection as much as anyone else. They need God’s strength to help them stand firm when faced with opposition.

Pray that the joy of the Lord will sustain your pastor in every trial and setback.

Pray that each trial that he & his family endures brings fresh grace, renewed strength and opportunity for growth; both spiritually for themselves and also for the church.

Oversight For O, we come to Oversight.

Pray for effective ministry. It’s crucial to rely on God for all aspects of ministry — especially during times of great difficulty so that efforts will produce fruit and, ultimately, a harvest will be gathered.

Pray for open doors. Open doors include more than just ministry access to facilities such as jails, nursing homes & schools – hearts must also be receptive to God’s Truth.

Pray for good soil. Pray that the hearts of people would be like good soil — ready to hear the gospel and respond (Matt. 7:1-8, 18-23).

Ask God to set up divine appointments and open doors for ministry that only He can make possible.

Pray that God’s Word will spread rapidly and be honored and effective wherever it goes.

Pray against evil forces that would seek to hinder the spread of the Gospel.

Pray for freedom to evangelize; pray for a favorable climate for the Gospel.

Pray that the ministries that your pastor oversees, either directly or through delegation are blessed for & goaled for the furthering of the Kingdom by individual spiritual growth, growth in unity and numerical growth.

Resources The final category to pray for you pastor would be classified under Resources.

Pray that the light of God will shine through them, lifting darkness & oppression as they share His love.

Pray for your pastor’s emotional, physical, mental and spiritual strength to fulfill not only the Work that God has called him to do for the church, but also his fulfill his duty for his family, as well as the demands of every day life.

Pray for him to be filled with the Holy Ghost and an abundance of the anointing & wisdom; pray that he will be so filled with faith and anointing that he will not be tempted to depend on their own efforts.

Pray for strength and stamina as your pastor encounters antagonistic spiritual forces.

We have already said it, but it is worth mentioning again, pray for the provision of physical needs. Pray that God would supply the pastor & his family’s every need. When the natural resources are more abundant, it is easier to fulfill the mission that God has entrusted to him.

In Closing
Initially the question was specifically for pastors, however, I noticed that the responses could extend to assistant pastors, men’s leaders, ladies leaders, Sunday School department, outreach department, etc. Essentially to anyone in any type of leadership. And honestly, many of these can apply to any believer. So it could be used as a prayer pattern or guide for more than just your spiritual leadership.

It truly is my hope and prayer that you were blessed by this topic and that it helps improve your prayer life, not just with amount of time spent in prayer, but the quality of time spent as well.

Let’s take what we have learned here today to heart as we continue Taking Root, so we can Bear Fruit as we keep Learning To Walk In The Way. May God Richly Bless You Today!