This past week I have enjoyed conversations with a number of pastors or members of their family. In the process of these conversations, I have been reminded once again of the urgency of asking church people to please pray for their pastors. This week I heard pastors share extensive problems, one even now in the process of divorce. Others in the midst of their own crisis. All of them with significant cares.

As part of their congregations, part of their church family, and part of their burden, please pray for your pastor.

Pressures Abound

In a normal year, pastors face lots of pressure. They serve in a church while functioning as a shepherd of souls, a CEO of a small business, a leader in the community, and a helper of many. These various roles often do not fall within a typical 8:00 – 5:00 day. Days are packed with the normal duties to keep an organization running with meetings, errands, maintenance, legal matters, and general organizational issues. In addition, often those who serve alongside the pastor in a church work as well which means counseling, meetings, and planning must often be done in their “off” time too. Make sure to add to this the study necessary to preach the Word and counsel the Word.

Care for the soul brings a heavy burden for the pastor. As eternity-bound individuals who are in the image of God and need a growing relationship with Christ and the body of Christ, every individual in the church is on the heart of the pastor. This is where the CEO and small business analogies break down; instead, this is all in addition to those concerns. You can run and operate a great business without any concerns for people’s spiritual well-being. However, for the pastor, each and every person both associated with the church and even those in the community at large fall within the care and concern of the pastor. If you are a member of the church or a regular attender, your concerns are even that much more of a concern for your pastor. How you walk through life, handle your pressures, relate to others, and generally live spiritually all become part of your pastor’s burden (a joy-filled burden by choice but a burden nonetheless). Your physical health, financial condition, and mental well-being also play a role. Why? Because your pastor cares about your walk with Christ in the midst of life’s many circumstances, pressures, and responsibilities.

For a few moments, consider how along the way, the pastor strives to serve personal family well too as a spouse and a parent and a pastor. Often pastors’ family members share stories of how they felt neglected or relegated to the side as the needs of the congregants and community were often calling for the “pastor’s” attention. Many, even if they do not feel neglected, often bear the pressure of sharing / splitting their time with everyone else. A pastor’s family shares their family time with individuals in need, church activities, and church priorities. This is true for any family whose spouse or family volunteers in the church but usually in less quantity than the pastor’s family.

All of this together creates perfect opportunities for pastors to struggle, be tempted, be discouraged, discontent, and overwhelmed. Whenever you struggle, whenever there is conflict in the church, when people get discouraged, wherever there is illness, and the list goes on, these individual issues provide small windows of opportunity for temptation. Small windows to grumble, complain, become tired, feel down, and more. When you wonder how a pastor fails, quits, gives up, or gives in to much much greater temptations spiritually, relationally, sexually, or otherwise, just know that the small cracks of temptation just grew greater and larger over time. Not one pastor desires to be unfaithful to God, marriage, family, or the body of Christ, however, many are. You can think of it in similar terms to a dam that breaks – not because of one crack but many that weaken the dam over time.

To all of this, now add the pressures of getting the response to COVID-19 right as they seek to lead, serve, love, and protect their congregations whom they love.

How Should You Pray?

Let me suggest a few key areas:

For your pastor, ask God to…

  • Strengthen your pastor spiritually – providing joy in the journey of serving Christ and others while growing in Christ and walking in the Spirit
  • Help your pastor be courageous – having courage to admit mistakes, confess sin, needing help, and confronting those that need it
  • Provide your pastor wisdom and discernment – the ability to see how the Bible applies to the many circumstances that arise personally, corporately, and with individuals
  • Enlarge your pastor’s vision and sense of direction – pray that God grants your pastor clarity, boldness to step out by faith, focus, and to make the complex simple
  • Bless your pastor – pray that God blesses your pastor in every way – relationally, financially, spiritually, emotionally, and physically
  • Provide deep-seated joy and energy to your pastor – refreshment, relaxation, good rest and sleep, a respite from the burdens, renewed energy, and an awareness of the grace of God in every circumstance
  • Protection from temptation – ask God to protect the heart of your pastor from temptations of every sort, to provide spiritual encouragement, and to strengthen the spiritual resolve of your pastor

For yourself, ask God to…

  • Provide you eyes to see where you can walk alongside your pastor’s cares and burdens
  • Help you take advantage of opportunities to encourage, help, and support your pastor
  • Watch your response to your pastor’s leadership as one whose soul the pastor seeks to protect
  • Help you make the pastor’s life full of joy and not full of grief
  • Give you the courage and energy to do more in your local church as a means of support for the work of Christ and the work of your pastor
  • Help you exercise patience, understanding, and grace toward your pastor – your pastor’s leadership, imperfections, weaknesses, limitations, and mistakes

Thank You!

As a pastor speaking to you on behalf of your pastor, let me thank you. I’m so grateful for all those who pray for me, help make my service to Christ and the church filled with joy, and walk along through life with me. There is nothing sweeter than to dwell with the family of God, growing together in Christ, sharing our days growing older watching children and grandchildren get older, and serving our community together. As a pastor, I am grateful for God allowing me to do these things – in spite of the pressure. So on behalf of your pastor for whom you will pray, thank you.

Image Credit Courtney Chiles

KevinCarson.com | Wisdom for Life in Christ Together

© 2020 KEVINCARSON.COM