Pastor Appreciation Celebration A Month Long

by Janie Brown, Auburn, AL

Pastor Appreciation Rewarding and Successful

Pastor Appreciation Emphasis has been very rewarding emphasis for our church family this year. Several years ago, we had a brief mention of Pastor Appreciation Month but we didn't do all that we wanted to.

Now, we plan on events and activities. For example, one year we broke down the month into weekly themes. We notified as many members as we could and left it open to the congregation to participate. Although everything has gone very well thus far, we of course have learned from the experience.
We have learned that we must start planning sooner and we will post a message in the display board for members who don't have email so that everyone can participate. Overall, this has been a very rewarding experience and we have been a blessing to our pastor.

Pastor Appreciation Month Outline

Following is an outline of our weekly activities over Pastor Appreciation Month.

• WEEK 1 - Gas money gift: Gasoline For Ministry: This gas for the pastor project was open to all church members who were instructed to give their gasoline money gift. They could fund his gasoline purchases by giving him their fuel fund gift in person, or they could mail it to him. This gasoline gift could be even be sent anonymously but the idea was to give the pastor any amount - $25 or $5 or $1, the amount doesn't matter because it should all add up to cover the pastor's car fuel costs for the week.



• WEEK 2 - Pastor Appreciation Gift Baskets: Care basket was filled with favorite food items as well as household items. (Basket contained home baked goods, snacks, juices, cleaning & paper products, etc.)



• WEEK 3 - Pastor Appreciation Greeting Cards: Greeting cards were sent to pastor's home from individuals and from the congregation as a whole. The Youth Sunday School made greeting cards to be given to our pastor on Sunday.



• WEEK 4 - Pastor Appreciation Dinner For Pastor's Family: After our Sunday morning service the pastor and his family (we call them our First Family) was served a hearty meal of all their favorites. Of course, our Pastor invited all the college students to join his family. This was a very rewarding pastor appreciation event and a wonderful chance to serve and minister to others.

Each of these weekly activities were overseen by our Pastor's Aid Ministry and made for a successful month long pastor appreciation emphasis.

I hope our church's month long pastor appreciation celebration will help you have a blessed pastor appreciation empahsis!