God, help him to hear your voice louder than his most outspoken critic. Help him to laugh inside when people make veiled threats and impertinent demands upon him. Encourage him to be so bold in his message that people will want to cover their ears and chant “lalalala” to drown out the ugly truth he proclaims. Give him a strong wife and intimacy. Being a preacher is not exactly the most romantic vocation so he needs all the help he can get to keep the fire burning. May he have a strong stomach for the task because he will see lots of spiritual afterbirth. Show him what to keep and what to throw away. May he have at least three nights away from church activities. May he feel secure when shadow missions and finances make him feel like he is walking on a tight rope without a net. May he laugh between funerals and may his three suits and four ties look new when he wears them on those special occasions. May he not sound like any other preacher. Show him his voice and give him the grace to feel comfortable in it. May his 15 year old car remind him of Abraham, the one who traveled by faith. Hold him together when the pieces fall apart. May he take his family to the beach even when a conference is not held there. Heal the loneliness that every pastor feels from time to time. Remind him that few understood Jesus and so he shouldn’t assume that everyone will understand him either. I pray that he will not obsess about compliments, numbers, gossip or the pastor down the street whose church is booming. May his baptistry waders not leak and may his wireless microphone be free from ambient noise. May there be more movements in the hearts of people than there are in the nursery. May his Bible look like it’s been through a hurricane because that’s the forecast of our spiritual state in the world.
May Your peace go with him.
May You be everything he needs today.
This work by Matt Tullos is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International