I grew up in a pastors home, have served as a pastor for 37 years and now have the joy of leading, listening, loving and lifting up Louisiana Baptist pastors and minsters. Pastors have, they are now and always will be my heroes.

IN OUR WORLD today we have a struggling economy, an ongoing pandemic, sexual identity crisis, defunding and overfunding, religious freedom threats, churches vandalized, protest and boycotts. IN THE CHURCH today we have pastor-less churches, power struggles, budget crisis, buildings needing repairs and overhead cost skyrocketing.

Dig Deeper: Pastors trail other Christians in relational flourishing and many say their ministry challenges their marriages and families.

“Pastors average 67 compared to other Christians’ 85 on a flourishing scale of 1-100 in relationships, and only 28 percent of pastors actively seek help in the area. This means that many congregants in U.S. churches are likely experiencing a greater sense of friendship and community than the pastors leading them.” Baptist Press, State of the Church by George Barna.

Pastors are hurting, pastors are lonely, pastors are depressed, pastors are under stress, pastors are overworked and underpaid, pastors need vacations, pastors need friends, and pastors need loving and supporting church members.

Pastors are heroes.

I’m sure I don’t have to convince you of that truth but I do want to motivate you to express your appreciation for your pastor during the month of October. Every day and every month a church should express their love and appreciation but October has been declared the time to really celebrate them.

We have prepared a list of ways you can express your appreciation. Several of them can be expressed in monetary ways but there are many spiritual ways as well. I pray that always, but especially throughout the month of October you will find many ways, individually and as a church to express your appreciation to your pastor and continue to make him your hero as well.

A Few Ways to Bless your Pastoral and Ministry Staff

• Set aside a brief time in the October worship service(s) to pray publicly for them.
• Organize a daily prayer partner(s) to pray for them every day in October.
• Bless them with a special love gift from the congregation.
• Present them with some time away with all expenses paid by the church.
• Write notes/cards to express your appreciation and honor for their ministry.
• Present them with a basket of gift cards to local restaurants.
• Make a tangible special gift: mow the yard, clean the house, wash the car.

Additionally, download the resources below created specifically to bless our pastors through social media posts during the month of October. A sample of the images, as well as links for download are below.