Ideas to Encourage
Your Pastor and their Family
Pray for your pastor every day.
Send an email showing your pastor appreciation to your pastor and all your friends. Don’t use the blind copy email feature so that everyone’s name is listed at the top of the email.
Send your pastor a greeting card with a personal message inside.
Give your pastor a hug.
Stop by the church and wash some windows.
Take their spouse to lunch.
Make yourself available to teach a Sunday School class or work in the nursery during a service. Offer to help fold bulletins.
Mow your pastor’s lawn or shovel the driveway.
Send your pastor’s young children a greeting card with McDonalds gift certificates inside.
Send a letter to your pastor’s son or daughter who is away at college.
Visit someone in the hospital.
Call a home-bound church member.
Call your pastor’s spouse and ask what kind of pizza they like. Order it, pay for it, and have it sent to your pastor’s home.
Smile a little during the sermon.
Call your pastor at an appropriate time and say, “In my bible reading this morning I read that _________. What does that mean?”
Drop off some doughnuts, bagels, or fruit to the church office for the entire staff to enjoy.
Babysit your pastor’s kids so the pastor and spouse can go out.
Rent a billboard and use it to express your pastor appreciation.
After a sermon, don’t tell your pastor it was a great sermon. Pick out something specific from the sermon and comment directly on that. So many people tell your pastor that the sermon was “great” that they realize people don’t really mean it.
Perform a surprise pastor appreciation skit.
Have the 4 – 10 year old children in your church write down their answer to the question,
“What does a pastor do?” Read the responses during a service.
Write an article for the church newsletter about how thankful you are for your pastor.
Support your church financially.
Get a group of people together to fast and pray for your pastor.
Give your pastor a surprise birthday party.
Loan your pastor your boat, four-wheeler, or snowmobile.
Let your pastor’s family use your cottage or timeshare.
Invite your pastor’s kids to go to the beach with your family.
Take your pastor golfing.
Buy your pastor’s entire family tickets to a sporting event.
Write a story about your pastor appreciation and read it during a church service.
Put an ad in the local newspaper expressing your respect for your pastor.
Include a pastor appreciation poem in your Sunday bulletin.
On Sunday, ask your pastor what you can pray about for them this week. Then next Sunday ask your pastor how things went regarding what you prayed for.
If time is given during a service or event for public sharing, talk about something positive your pastor did recently that few people know about.
Defend your pastor against critics.
Ask someone other than the pastor to pray before the next church meal.
"Adopt" one of your pastor’s children as someone you pray for, encourage, and support.
Give your pastor a pastor appreciation gift.
Give your pastor’s spouse a gift.
Give your pastor’s kids gifts.
Write a letter to your church’s leaders expressing your gratitude for your pastor.
Listen openly to your pastor’s ideas for change.
Sing your heart out at your church worship service.
Clean the church restrooms on Saturday night.
Keep track of pastor’s family birthdays as well as your pastor’s wedding anniversary.
Tell your pastor you appreciate them … and why.
Sit closer to the front during a service.
Know the dates of when his parents (or child, sibling, close friend) died. Send him a card on that anniversary.
Write a letter of pastor appreciation to your church’s denominational headquarters.
Never publicly criticize your pastor. If you have a concern or complaint, speak directly to your pastor about it, or better, forgive your pastor and forget it.