10 reasons to express your appreciation for your pastor to your pastor …

October is Pastor Appreciation Month. Even though we should have an ongoing appreciation for our spiritual leaders, and routinely express that to them, some people do have in the back of their minds a question of, “Why should I do anything for Pastor Appreciation Month? After all, the pastor is paid to do his job.”

*Sigh*.

Okay, let me give you some basic reasons why:

1. Your pastor has an impossible job for a human being — that of being a guardian of your soul:

“Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls …” Hebrews 13:17a.

Watch over YOUR soul?

That’s intense!

How would YOU like the responsibility of being the guardian of the souls of an entire congregation?

That is sobering stuff!

That is serious stuff!

And that is the high calling of your pastor. For taking up that responsibility, you really should express your sincere appreciation.

2. Your pastor will face a stricter judgment by God for spiritually shepherding you.

Back to Hebrews 13: 17, “Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit.”

Now add a dash of James 3:1, “Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly.”

How would you like to volunteer for a stricter judgment from God?

No thanks?

I didn’t think so.

But your pastor, as your spiritual teacher, will be held accountable to God and to a stricter judgment for his spiritual leadership. He’s willing to take on that accountability and stricter judgment for God’s glory AND for your sake.

3. Doing numbers 1 and 2 requires a sacrificial and disciplined lifelong calling. You’ve likely heard of the “calls in the middle of the night” and how pastors minister to people not just in their greatest moments, but in the darkest and hardest moments. They’re at the hospital, in the rehab unit, in the living room of the out-of-control abuser, and meeting with families at the funeral home. But doing all this requires not just sacrifices from your pastor, but a disciplined life. He always feels like he can’t study enough, he can’t pray long enough — because he really can’t. He’s utterly dependent on God’s wisdom and the power of the Holy Spirit and he must study and pray his entire life in his effort to be the pastor he should be, needs to be … for YOU.

4. In spite of what some headlines might tell you, he doesn’t have any profit motive … and makes very little profit! Of the more than 350,000 churches in America, a hefty majority are made up of 90 people or less. Those churches have small budgets that pay small salaries to their pastor. For an increasing number of pastors, that salary is so small some of them are having to take up second jobs just to be able to provide for their own families so they can have the privilege of being your spiritual shepherd.

5. Your pastor expresses more genuine love for you and yours than you’re able to see. You don’t see your pastor on his knees praying for YOUR children, YOUR spouse, YOUR dysfunctional family, and for YOU, but he does, with great diligence. You don’t see him wrestling with the Holy Spirit to know what best to teach, how to teach, and the hours of searching the scripture to rightly deliver to you the truth of God’s Word. You’re on his mind much more than you ever see because you’re in his heart.

6. Adding up numbers 1-5, you begin to understand your pastor is pouring out his life in service to YOU. The example of the Apostle Paul, as he writes to the Philippians, is very much like what the modern pastor would say form his heart to his congregation:

“Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless. But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share your joy,” Philippians 2:14-18.

7. Your pastor is actively working to protect you. In the ears and minds of your pastor rings the Apostle Paul’s warning to the elders of the church in Ephesus, a warning that is wildly relevant to pastors today:

“So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock — his church, purchased with his own blood — over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders. I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following. Watch out! Remember the three years I was with you — my constant watch and care over you night and day, and my many tears for you,” Acts 20:28-31.

Part of your pastor’s work in keeping watch over your soul is protecting you from vicious wolves who want to feed off the flock God has given him responsibility for. Let your pastor know how much you appreciate his alert protection on your behalf.

8. Your pastor is one of a tiny few committed to your maturity. Any godly pastor could take up the Apostle Paul’s “mission statement” regarding his pastoral work on your behalf:

“So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me,” Colossians 1:28-29.

One of the greatest joys in the entire life of your pastor is evidences of your maturing in Christ.

9. Your pastor strives to be a godly model for you. Your pastor is motivated by scripture to be an example of godly living for you:

“After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, ‘Do you understand what I was doing? You call me “Teacher” and “Lord,” and you are right, because that’s what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them,” John 13:12-17.

“And now, a word to you who are elders in the churches. I, too, am an elder and a witness to the sufferings of Christ. And I, too, will share in his glory when he is revealed to the whole world. As a fellow elder, I appeal to you: Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly — not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. Don’t lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example,” 1 Peter 5:1-3.

“Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity,” 1 Timothy 4:12.

“In the same way, encourage the young men to live wisely. And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching,” Titus 2:6-7.

Do you know that tension you feel when you strive to be a “good example” for your children? Or even for your spouse? Imagine striving to be an example of godly living for an entire congregation! That’s what your pastor is striving to do, through the power of the Holy Spirit, for you.

10. Finally, because the last two years have hurt many pastors, yours might be one. The last last two years have been some of the hardest times — if not the hardest — in the “ministry career” of many pastors. They NEED your empathy and appreciation now more than ever.

Those are just some of the reasons why your pastor actually deserves your sincere and demonstrated appreciation. Let’s make this October a “Pastor Appreciation Month” they will never forget!

Scotty