Pastor Appreciation All Year Long

by Sherry Young
(Slidell, LA)

Pastor Appreciation Weekly Gift Giving Idea

Beginning in October, our church began expressing Pastor Appreciation each week of Pastor Appreciation Month and throughout the year.

We decided to include all of our Ministerial Pastors, which included Minister of Music, Christian Education Pastor, Church Administration Pastor, Youth Pastor, and Pastor Emeritus.

Pastor Appreciation Organized Effort

I had sign-up sheets for each week throughout the year. When signing up, I gave them a list of ideas to consider:

• anything from writing appreciation notes,


• committing to pray for a specific pastor,


• assisting the pastor in some way during their week - at home or in their church responsibility,


• a homemade dinner or dessert,


• inviting a pastor's family to their home for a meal,


• a gift card to a favorite restaurant, car service or place they like to shop.

Pastor Appreciation Questionnaire

I also had each pastor complete a questionnaire with pertinent information -- favorite likes and dislikes, along with info about themselves and their family. Such pastor information would be helpful to pastor appreciation gift givers in making their decisions.

Approximately a week and half before their sign-up week, I e-mailed a copy of the questionnaire. The next week I give a simple reminder call. I did this before the Sunday of their week so that, if desired, they could take their "gift" to the pastor at church services and activities.

They could deliver anytime during their week. Some did it a little early, some were a little late, which was not important. It was good that they had a specific date though, because we all have good intentions, but many of us are procrastinators. This gave them a specific goal.

Doing Something Unique For Each Pastor

This has been very successful and the congregation has really enjoyed getting to do something personally for each pastor.

Some families chose all of the pastors the same week, some chose all pastors for different weeks and some selected only a few of the pastors.

It was totally of their choosing. In fact, after some of our church family did something for a pastor, they would come back to me and sign-up for the other pastors or even a second turn to do something different. We had a phenomenal response!

We have a medium-size church and several of our pastors are new. This gift to our pastors gave them the opportunity to get to know families in the church that they might not have had contact with otherwise.