Pastor appreciation

Appreciate Your Pastors This Month

Excerpt:

Congregations across the country are encouraged to honor their pastors in celebration of Clergy Appreciation Month.

Every year, October is set aside to show gratitude for the hard work, sacrificial dedication and blessings provided year round by ministers and pastors.

"As a pastor myself for over three decades, I know firsthand both how difficult and how rewarding it can be to serve a congregation," said H.B. London, vice president of church and clergy ministries at Focus on the Family. "I've discovered that one of the most important things a pastor needs is encouragement and affirmation from his congregation."

Pastors and their families live under constant pressure especially as their congregation watch their every move and expect them to be close-to-perfect people. Clergy are expected to always be available, on call 24/7 with all the answers and never down.

"Those are unrealistic expectations to place on anyone, yet most of us are disappointed when a pastor becomes overwhelmed, seems depressed, lets us down or completely burns out," according to The Parsonage, the pastoral ministries of Focus on the Family.

Clergy Appreciation Month calls congregants to recognize their pastors – leaders who have been entrusted to tend to the spiritual well-being of believers.


Comments:

1. Having been there (I pastored for 16 years), I know how hard the Pastorate is! And sadly how little positive feedback one receives!
   
2. The best way to appreiciate a Pastor is to:
   
   
   
   1. Support the ministry by faithful attendance and service
      
   2. Daily prayer for your Pastor(s)
      
   3. Really listening to the message with an eye on personal application
      
   4. A kind word and warm greeting
      
   
   
3. It doesn't hurt to do something special for your Pastor as well. More below.
   

When I was a Pastor at Haddon Heights Baptist, a business man in the church gave each Pastor a turkey at Thanksgiving and a ham at Christmas. This really ministered to Kathee and me!