Pastoral Prayers: 15 Models for Praying on Behalf of a Congregation

1. Adoration — name who God is, using an attribute from the day's scripture. 2. Thanksgiving — for creation, for Christ, and for two or three specific things from this week in this church. 3. Confession — brief, corporate, honest. 4. Intercession for the world — war, disaster, the suffering that is in the news. 5. Intercession for the church — this congregation, its leaders, the wider church. 6. Intercession for the hurting — the sick, the grieving, the unemployed, named where you have permission. 7. Petition for ourselves — that we would be the answer to some of what we just prayed. 8. Close in the name of Jesus, into the Lord's Prayer.

— Original

Eternal God, you were God before there was anyone to say so, and you will be God when we have all fallen silent. We praise you. We thank you for this week — for ordinary mercies we forgot to notice, for work and rest, for bread, for the people who love us anyway. We confess we have lived as though this were all ours. Forgive us. We pray for a world in trouble: for places at war, for people fleeing homes they will not see again, for those making decisions today that will cost other people their lives. Have mercy. We pray for your church — for this congregation, for the ones we disagree with, for pastors who are close to quitting. Hold them. We pray for our own: for those in hospital beds this morning; for those waiting on results; for those grieving someone whose absence still has a shape; for those who came in this morning with a face that gives nothing away. You know their names. We ask you to be near. And make us useful. Do not let us pray for the hungry and go home full and unbothered. We ask all of it in the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray: Our Father, who art in heaven…

— Original

God, we do not have words this morning, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. We hold before you what has happened. We hold before you the families whose lives divided this week into before and after. We hold before you the first responders, the doctors, the ones who will not sleep well again. We do not ask you to explain. We ask you to be there — in the hospital corridor, in the kitchen at 3am, in the silence where an answer will not come. And we confess that we grow used to this. Do not let us grow used to this. Come quickly, Lord. Amen.

— Original

Generous God, everything we have was given, and most of it we did not ask for. We thank you for this ground and this harvest, for the people at our tables and the empty chairs that mean we loved someone. We thank you for the year that has not gone how we planned, and for what you have done in it anyway. Make us grateful in a way that shows up in our calendars and our giving, and not only in our prayers. Amen.

— Original

Leader: For the church throughout the world, for its unity and its witness, let us pray. People: Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Leader: For this nation and for all who hold authority, that they would govern with justice, let us pray. People: Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Leader: For places at war, for the hungry, for the displaced, and for everyone whose home is no longer safe, let us pray. People: Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Leader: For the sick, the anxious, and the dying, and for all who care for them, let us pray. People: Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Leader: For this congregation, for what we are carrying and cannot say out loud, let us pray. People: Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Leader: For the dead, and for all who grieve them, let us pray. People: Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. All: Accept these prayers, O God, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

— Original

God, we thank you for this week: for the ordinary good in it, and for your patience with us in the rest. We pray for a world in trouble, for a church that is not always helping, and for people in this room who came in hurting and said nothing about it. Be near them. Make us useful. And keep us until Sunday. In the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray: Our Father, who art in heaven...

— Original

God of the promise, you kept your word to Israel over centuries, and most of the people who waited for it died still waiting. We confess we are not good at waiting even a week. We thank you for coming at all, and for coming as you did: quietly, at the wrong end of the empire, to people nobody was watching. We pray for everyone this December who is not merry. For those dreading a family table. For those setting one fewer place this year. For those who have run out of hope and are tired of being told to have some. Come to them first. And keep us watching, Lord, in a season that would rather we shopped. We ask it in the name of the one who is coming. Amen.

— Original

Almighty God, you led your people through a wilderness for forty years and did not abandon them there. We thank you that you have not required us to be impressive. We confess that we have built lives designed to keep us from ever being still enough to hear you. We pray for those in a wilderness they did not choose: the newly unemployed, the recently diagnosed, the ones whose marriage went quiet this year. We pray for your church, that these weeks would make us honest rather than merely disciplined. And we pray for ourselves: take away whatever we have been using to avoid you. Through Jesus Christ, who went into the wilderness first. Amen.

— Original

Living God, we praise you for a Sunday morning that changed what Friday means. We thank you that the tomb was empty, that the women were believed eventually, and that death has been given a deadline. We pray for people for whom this morning is hard: those grieving in a room full of lilies, those who want to believe this and cannot get there today. We pray for your church, that we would live like people who actually expect resurrection, and not merely like people who enjoy the music. And we pray for this world, still full of tombs. Come and empty them. In the name of the risen Christ. Amen.

— Original

Holy Spirit, we praise you for the wind and the fire and the languages, and for a church that started with a hundred and twenty frightened people. We thank you that you have never depended on our competence. We confess that we have organized our life together so carefully that there is very little left for you to do. We pray for the church where the gospel is costly today, for believers meeting quietly and at risk. We pray for this congregation: give us gifts we did not ask for and the courage to use them. And give us words this week for someone who needs them. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

— Original

God who heals, we bring you the people in this church who are ill this morning. For those in hospital beds who have lost track of the days. For those at home who are further along than anyone outside their house knows. For those waiting on a scan, a call, a result that will divide the year in two. For the ones doing the caring: the spouse who has not slept properly in months, the daughter driving back and forth, the nurses on their fourth shift. We ask for healing, plainly, because you have healed before. And where healing does not come the way we want it, we ask for your presence in the room, and for grace enough for today only. In the name of Jesus, who touched people. Amen.

— Original

God who goes ahead of us, you have led your people through changes far larger than this one. We thank you for what this church has been, and for the people who built it before most of us arrived. We confess that we are anxious, and that anxious churches are unkind churches. We pray for those who are grieving what is ending, and we ask you not to let them be dismissed as difficult. We pray for those who are impatient for what is next, and we ask you to give them the grace to wait for the whole body. Hold us together. Make us curious rather than defensive. And lead us somewhere we could not have gotten to on purpose. Amen.

— Original

Sovereign God, you are not a citizen of any country, and you are not on anybody's ticket. We thank you for this land, for the freedoms we did not earn, and for neighbors who see it all differently than we do. We confess that we have let our politics form us more than our baptism has, and that we have found it easier to despise people than to pray for them. We pray for those who govern, for those who report, and for those who count the votes: give them integrity, and protect them. We pray for the people this country is hardest on. And we pray for your church: keep us from becoming a chaplaincy to a party. In the name of Jesus, who is Lord and has no rival. Amen.

— Original

God of every beginning, we thank you for a new year of school, for pencils and buses and nervous mornings. We pray for the children in this church: for the one starting somewhere new, for the one who has no one to sit with at lunch, for the one who is bright and bored and difficult. We pray for teachers, who are asked to do far more than teaching, and for the ones who will spend their own money on a classroom this month. We pray for parents holding it together in the drop-off line. Be in the buildings of this town this year. And make this church a place where the young are known by name. Amen.

— Original

God of peace, we come this morning with a map in our hands and no words to go with it. We pray for the civilians: for people in basements, for the ones walking away from home with a bag, for children who will not remember peace. We pray for the soldiers on every side, most of whom are somebody's twenty-year-old. We pray for the people making decisions this week that will cost other people their lives. Give them a conscience they cannot get around. And we confess that we grow used to this, that it slides off the front page and out of our prayers. Do not let us grow used to this. How long, Lord. Come quickly. Amen.

— Original

How long should a pastoral prayer be?

Three to five minutes in most congregations. Under two minutes it cannot do the work; past six, attention collapses unless the congregation is trained to a responsive form.

Should I name specific people?

Only with explicit permission, and be conservative about health details. A good default is naming the situation without naming the person: "for the family in this church waiting on a diagnosis this week."

Is it acceptable to read a pastoral prayer?

Yes, and it is usually better. Most of the prayers Christians have treasured for centuries were written down. Preparation is a form of care for the people you are praying on behalf of.

What is the difference between a pastoral prayer and prayers of the people?

Mostly form. A pastoral prayer is one continuous prayer by one voice; prayers of the people are broken into petitions with a spoken congregational response between them. The content covered is much the same.