Did you know that October is Pastor Appreciation Month? Pastors do so much beyond what we see on Sunday mornings— they visit the sick and dying, provide counseling, and are leaders for church or school staff, for example. Take a moment to give thanks for your pastor and pray for his ministry.
Lord Jesus, You are my great High Priest, who intercedes with the Father on my behalf. During Your earthly ministry You called men to be Your apostles, and still today You call men to be pastors in Your Church—to proclaim the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins, to baptize, to nourish Your people with Your holy Supper, and to minister in countless ways to Your flock.
Grant to my pastor(s) fidelity to Your Word, wisdom by Your Spirit, and strength from above, that he may carry out his calling faithfully. Make him a fearless confessor of Your truth. Keep him from error in his teaching and from scandal in his life. Give him courage to admonish those who stray, compassion to bind up the brokenhearted, and discernment to apply Law and Gospel to all appropriately. May he protect Your flock from ravaging wolves and shepherd Your lambs into green pastures.
Move the members of my congregation to have proper respect for our pastor(s), to obey him, and to gladly accept the Word preached to us. Keep our pastor(s) and our parishioners faithful until death, that together we may receive the crown of life; in Your name, O Jesus, the only Savior of the world. Amen.
Adapted from Lutheran Book of Prayer, pp. 152–3. Copyright © 2005. Published by Concordia Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Lord Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the sheep, thank You for giving our congregation a pastor. Strengthen him as a faithful undershepherd of Your care for us, and keep him faithful and true to Your Word.
Keep me grateful to him for preaching Your Word in truth, for his fellowship in the Gospel, for his influence in our community, and for the example of his Christian life.
May I always be aware of my obligation to pray for my pastor, to honor him, and to support him in his ministry among us. Bless him and continue to make him a blessing to me and the work of Your kingdom.
Help my pastor and the people of my congregation to be devoted to the faith, and at the last, take us all to the Church Triumphant above. I pray in Your name. Amen.
Adapted from My Prayer Book, pp. 102–3. Copyright © 2021. Published by Concordia Publishing House. All rights reserved.
O almighty God, who by Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, commanded us to pray for laborers in Your harvest and graciously promised to hear us: I beseech You for the sake of the same, Your dear Son, to give Your Church true ministers and preachers of Your Holy Word in great number and multitude. Send us wise men well-versed in Scripture, and grace with Your Holy Spirit those whom You send us. Fill them with true understanding of Your Word, that they may rightly point us the way to life everlasting, expound the Scriptures without distortion, and warn us of improper faith and human inventions together with all things poisonous to the soul, that we may be found in the pure doctrine and faith without adulteration. For how shall we believe in Him of whom we have not heard? And how shall we hear without preachers? And how shall they preach except they be sent? Therefore, O most beloved Father, place in Your Church learned bishops, Christian parsons, pure preachers, faithful shepherds, and godly teachers and curates, who by Your Holy Spirit faithfully feed the congregation which Your dear Son purchased with His own blood, who declare and spread abroad fruitfully and to great profit the Holy Gospel, Your precious and worthy Word, to the glory of Your divine name; who turn sinners to repentance, strengthen the weak in faith, comfort faint consciences against all the temptations of Satan and the wicked world; who are mighty to admonish by holy doctrine and to rebuke those who contradict it, that they may with great force resist their adversaries, beat them back and prevail over them, and destroy and lay waste the devil's kingdom; and who precede the flock and congregation of God with a good example and godly conduct, that all offense may be prevented and no one kept from the faith by an ungodly life. O merciful God, send not into our land a hunger and famine of Your Word, nor let us be deprived of pure preachers. Let us not be repaid for our ingratitude. But from wicked laborers, unfaithful hirelings, and all who run forward of their own accord and are not sent by You, preserve us, dear Father; through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son our Lord. Amen.
Adapted from Lutheran Prayer Companion, p. 142. Copyright © 2018. Published by Concordia Publishing House. All rights reserved.