Appreciating Your Pastor Pt.3: Praying for Your Minister on a Monday
Monday mornings are a strange beast for many serving pastors. The services, to which they have pitched and pointed much of the previous week, are now past; their preaching is done and another week beckons. For some pastors this is the time to pull the plug and enjoy a day off; for many others, it is a day to regroup, plan and plug away at admin until the creative juices start flowing again. Whether active or at rest, Mondays can be a bit weird for pastors. The energy spent on a full day’s preaching and the emotional payload that has entailed can leave him feeling what one minister labelled as ‘Mondayish’.
Given the delicate balance that a Monday can carry for your minister, how can church members minister to him and bring encouragement his way? In this article, we suggest two things you can do right now:
1. Pray that he would rejoice in the right things
On the best of Lord’s Days, your pastor will feel fulfilled and enthused by the things God has given him to do. Perhaps his Monday morning is lit up with the afterglow of people who were ministered to through the word of God, of unbelievers who have come to faith, or of a post-service pastoral call that seems to have met the need of a church member. Monday can carry the sweet aftertaste of ministerial usefulness for your pastor, and while this is beneficial, it can also put him in peril.
In Luke 10, Jesus’ disciples return from a particularly successful and powerful period of service for him. The risk they run in this moment is that they might begin to draw their joy from what they have done, rather than from who they are in Christ. Jesus swiftlym, graciously, lovingly disarms this danger and reminds them,
Don’t rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:20 CSBA)
If your pastor has known God’s blessing on his ministry on the day before, it is natural and right that he looks back with fondness on this experience, but you can pray that his deeper source of joy will continually be his identity in Christ, rather than his activity for Christ.
2. Pray that he would be kind to himself
The flip side of rejoicing in a good Lord’s Day is wallowing in a flop Sunday – getting stuck on some things that didn’t work out as your pastor hoped, or that his perspective is skewed on. Sometimes your pastor will feel like his sermons have landed badly, that a cherished truth he was excited to teach didn’t hit home, or that pastoral conversations around the service were awkward or forced. It could be that he has faced antagonism before he entered the pulpit, a feeling of inadequacy in the pulpit, and criticism when he has left it. It is also entirely possible that people have been richly ministered to through his labours on the previous day, but that fatigue and self-reproach won’t allow him to see it. It is even possible that the cumulative load of these things means he is giving hypothetical thought to quitting.
Your prayers as a church member are invaluable here. Pray on Monday morning for the heart, soul and mind of your minister. Pray that he will, to paraphrase the words of singer-songwriter Andrew Peterson, ‘be kind to himself’. Pray that he will not take a tough Sunday as an indicator of his overall ministry success, pray that he will make room to rest, to regroup, to talk to trusted friends, or simply to sleep, exercise and enjoy good food. You could pray that he will be protected from the fiery darts of the evil one, and you could pray that he won’t seek to palliate his pastoral pain through means that are damaging to him or others. Pray for your pastor in the totality of his personality and in the intensity of his need. If he has been faithfully serving Jesus on the Lord’s Day he is vulnerable to discouragement and to Satan’s intrigues. Pray that he will rest in Christ, find fresh joy in Christ, and recharge his batteries for another week of gospel work.
Grace Publications has a deep burden for local churches and pastors. Many of our resources are centred around cultivating church vitality and nourishing pastoral health. You can browse our full range of titles here, and church members concerned to encourage their pastor may be interested in considering our Pastor Appreciation Pack Scheme that will be running in 2027.
