October is Clergy Appreciation Month. Whether it is your senior pastor, music minister, youth minister, singles minister, associate pastor, etc., your ministers have an awesome responsibility, and your encouragement means the world to them! Today’s Friday Five is five ways to encourage your minister during Clergy Appreciation Month!
1) Tell them!
There is nothing that means more to Jason than for someone to come up to him after a service and tell him that the choir sounded great, a song really ministered to them, or they were able to worship through the music. Tell your pastor or other minister what a good job they are doing.
2) Cards or notes
Positive, affirming words are so important to a minister! Jason (and many other ministers I know) has a file where he keeps encouraging cards or notes so he can look back at them when he needs to be uplifted. Your words mean a great deal!
3) Food
You know food speaks to any good Baptist! Seriously, whether you are inviting the minister and his family for a meal, baking a plate of cookies or a cake for him, or giving him a gift card to his favorite restaurant, this is a really thoughtful gesture. Recently Jason helped a choir member practice a solo she planned to sing in a wedding. He loves being able to do things like that, but she gave him a Ruby Tuesdays gift card as a thank you for his help, and it really just made his day. It let him know he had really helped and made a difference!
4) Support his ministry!
Whether it’s joining the choir, volunteering to chaperone a youth trip, helping teach a Sunday School, or simply just showing up for church so the pastor sees your face, it is such an encouragement for ministers to know you support and are behind what they are doing.
5) Pray
There is probably nothing more important than this. PRAY for your ministers – specifically for their ministry, their relationship with God, their relationship with the congregation and church leaders, their family, and that they would clearly know God’s will personally and professionally.
1) Tell them!
There is nothing that means more to Jason than for someone to come up to him after a service and tell him that the choir sounded great, a song really ministered to them, or they were able to worship through the music. Tell your pastor or other minister what a good job they are doing.
2) Cards or notes
Positive, affirming words are so important to a minister! Jason (and many other ministers I know) has a file where he keeps encouraging cards or notes so he can look back at them when he needs to be uplifted. Your words mean a great deal!
3) Food
You know food speaks to any good Baptist! Seriously, whether you are inviting the minister and his family for a meal, baking a plate of cookies or a cake for him, or giving him a gift card to his favorite restaurant, this is a really thoughtful gesture. Recently Jason helped a choir member practice a solo she planned to sing in a wedding. He loves being able to do things like that, but she gave him a Ruby Tuesdays gift card as a thank you for his help, and it really just made his day. It let him know he had really helped and made a difference!
4) Support his ministry!
Whether it’s joining the choir, volunteering to chaperone a youth trip, helping teach a Sunday School, or simply just showing up for church so the pastor sees your face, it is such an encouragement for ministers to know you support and are behind what they are doing.
5) Pray
There is probably nothing more important than this. PRAY for your ministers – specifically for their ministry, their relationship with God, their relationship with the congregation and church leaders, their family, and that they would clearly know God’s will personally and professionally.
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