Of all the elements that once made up traditional Protestant worship, there is probably none that has fallen on harder times than prayer. It is not unusual to visit a church today and find that prayer is perfunctory, rare, or absent altogether. If that is true of prayer in general, it is particularly true of the pastoral prayer.
The pastoral prayer is an opportunity for a pastor to intercede on behalf of his congregation and bring their concerns before the Lord—to pray for his people with his people. This means it is often a comparatively lengthy prayer, which is why it is sometimes known as the “long prayer.” It may include each of the standard elements of a well-rounded prayer—Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication—but it may also leave some out if they have already been included in the service in other ways. It will usually bring to God the particular cares of specific members of the church, the general concerns of the whole congregation, and the wider concerns of God’s Kingdom.
By way of counsel:
- Because a pastoral prayer is a lengthy and intentional form of prayer, most pastors will need to put effort into preparing it in advance. Some will write out their whole prayer while others will simply prepare an outline or a list of bullet points. Few will find they have the ability to pray skillfully or serve their congregation adequately when they do so entirely spontaneously and without any preparation.
- It is often best to frame the prayer around a particular theme (e.g. God’s love, God’s mercy, God’s patience) or around a particular passage, perhaps echoing some of the themes of the key verses.
- A prayer of around 5 minutes or 800-1,000 words is a reasonable length in most settings.
- Pastors will want to consider whether they pray in the first person plural or third personal plural (i.e. “I bring our petitions before you” or “I bring their petitions before you.”). They will generally want to avoid the first person singular (i.e. “I bring my petitions before you.”).
- Pastors should understand that, while their prayers are directed to God, they are also quietly teaching the congregation to pray. There is a responsibility to not only pray, but also to teach. Thus, they will want to model the kind of prayer they’d like to hear the people praying.
- Consider keeping a copy of your prayers, returning to them a couple of years into the future, and freshening them up to make use of them a second time.
I am convinced that the neglect of the pastoral prayer, often because it is regarded as boring and irrelevant to unbelievers, has been detrimental to the church. I am always blessed to visit a congregation for which it continues to be a key element of worship and I encourage every church to integrate it into every service.
Inspiration & Examples
Over the years, I have shared a collection of pastoral prayers that were prayed by one of the elders at Grace Fellowship Church. These are not meant to be textbook examples, but rather real-world examples from normal pastors in a normal church. While I would not recommend simply duplicating one of these prayers and praying it at your own church, I do think there is value in reading examples, being inspired by them, and even adopting some of their structure or elements. You are free to do that with any of these:
- Example 1
- Example 2
- Example 3
- Example 4
- Example 5
- Example 6
- Example 7
- Example 8
- Example 9
- Example 10
- Example 11
- Example 12
Here are a few other resources on the pastoral prayer you may find helpful. Their relative scarcity is probably proof that the pastoral prayer has indeed fallen on hard times and would benefit from greater attention.
- Article: Tony Merida on Why I Look Forward to the Pastoral Prayer at Church
- Article: Josh Buice on Pastoral Prayer as Worship
- Article: Putting the Pastoral Prayer Into Practice by Justin Deeter
- Article: A Plea for the Pastoral Prayer by Jesse Johnson
- Book: The Pastor in Prayer by Charles Spurgeon is full of examples of Spurgeon’s prayers
- Book: The Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges provides a robust defense of the pastor’s ministry of prayer
- Journal: The Church Praying by 9Marks
- Additional resources might include The Valley of Vision or Into His Presence by Tim Chester. While the prayers are generally too complex and the language too antiquated to pray verbatim, they can provide ideas, structures, and other forms of inspiration.
However, like so much of life and ministry, the best way to learn to prepare and deliver a pastoral prayer is through experimentation, experience, and feedback.
