Pastor, Pray for Your People
Prayer stands at the heart of a thriving ministry. Long hours for the church, frequent pastoral visiting, vigorous study, and passionate preaching—unless the Lord gives his blessing, all these labors are in vain (Ps 127:1-2). God loves to bless his people in response to their prayers in Jesus’s name. So ministers of the gospel ought to be men who are devoted to prayer.
The New Testament lays down this pattern for ministry. Our Lord Jesus himself prayed earnestly for his sheep (John 17:1-26). In Acts 6, when the apostles appoint seven deacons, it is done in order to free the apostles for their key tasks: “We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (v. 4). As leaders of the church, they could not divorce their work in the Word from their commitment to prayer.
In the same way, Paul fills his letters with intercessory prayers (see e.g., Eph 3:14–19).[1] His prayers are far from general in nature but focus on how God might help specific people in specific ways: granting them a deepened insight, a strengthened love, a firmer hope. Paul reports on how he prays constantly for his churches, such as in 2 Thessalonians 1:11, “To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power.”
These examples show that a pastor should be regularly praying for his congregation. Like Paul, pastors ask God to bless their congregation in many ways: with growth in unity, an increase of wisdom, an attitude of humble service, more courage to share the gospel, steadfastness in the face of temptation, hope in times of sorrow, and much more.
Theologically, of course, we affirm the importance of prayer. We know that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (Jas 5:16). Yet I fear that among pastors there is a prevalent habit of neglecting this holy activity. In ministry, prayer can effortlessly be sidelined by the pressing obligations of the hour: an urgent pastoral visit to make, a sermon to craft, an elders’ meeting to prepare for. The long list of things needing to be accomplished each week leaves little time for intentional and focused prayer. Prayer can seem like such a small thing that it is all but forgotten.
Yet Scripture’s command and example show how right it is for a pastor to spend time praying for those in his care. Prayer demonstrates that you’re depending humbly on God’s blessing for your labors: You simply cannot do anything worthwhile without him. At the same time, prayer reveals a loving heart for the sheep: You care for them enough to remember them often before the throne of God above. This is how Richard Baxter described the centrality of prayer in the life of a minister:
“Prayer must carry on our work as well as preaching. He who does not pray earnestly for his people does not preach wholeheartedly to them. If we do not prevail with God to give them faith and repentance, we will never prevail with them to believe and repent. When our own hearts are so far out of order, and theirs are so far out of order, we are unlikely to be successful if we do not prevail with God to heal and help them.”[2]
Some years ago, God convicted me about my shortcomings in this respect, that I wasn’t really praying for my congregation. Occupied with the visible duties of ministry like preaching and visiting, stretched by the daily demands of life, I realized that my prayers for the congregation amounted to little more than occasional and generalized petitions that they do okay.
I resolved to pray for several members every day. My approach was nothing elaborate or original: I printed a list of the congregation’s entire membership, and I included it in the Bible I use for personal devotions. I broke the list into sections, and then each day I prayed by name for each member in that section. After a few weeks, I had prayed for everyone in my church. Then I started again.
I was praying for them because I wanted to see them live by faith in the Son of God and to walk in his ways.
Praying because for some the hurts ran unspeakably deep.
Praying that God would answer their own prayers: to receive a child, to experience healing, to find a partner, to be reconciled.
Praying because my own help and counsel often seemed so inadequate.
Praying because I knew that God can do immeasurably more than all I ask or imagine (Eph 3:20).
Did anything change as a result of my prayers? We certainly don’t always see how God answers prayer, but we know that He does. So I am confident that He used my prayers to have an effect. They certainly had an effect on me, because praying daily for my people slowly changed how I looked at them, and maybe even how I treated them. As many Christians have said, it’s striking how we begin to treat a person with more love and concern when we’ve been praying for them regularly.
Sometimes I wonder how God might have blessed my ministry differently if it had always been my practice to pray for my people. Our Father is generous and patient, so I know that He prospered my work in spite of my deficiencies. Still, I’m sure there would’ve been a blessing, because that’s what the Father promises to those who pray in Jesus’s name.
So pastor, pray for your people.
Reflection: How can you grow in the practice of praying for your people?
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Excerpt taken from The Ministry of Small Things by Reuben Bredenhof, pages 35-38, P&R Publishing.
Reuben Bredenhof (PhD, St. Mary’s University, Twickenham) is Professor of Ministry and Mission at the Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Ontario. Besides The Ministry of Small Things, his books include Thank God: Becoming More Grateful to the Greatest of Givers (Reformation Heritage, 2023) and Weak Pastor, Strong Christ (Reformation Heritage, 2021). He is husband to Rebecca and father to four daughters. His website is www.reubenbredenhof.com
[1] See the excellent book of D.A. Carson on Paul’s prayers, Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Reformation (Baker, 2015).
[2] Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor (Banner of Truth, 1974),122-23.
