I just got an email from a Christian bookstore reminding me that October is Pastor Appreciate Month.  I’ve just like to say that I’ve never understood why pastors get a whole month.  Doesn’t that seem a little extreme?  We give mothers one day and fathers one day.  We give all of labor one day and we give presidents one day but we give pastors an entire month!

Truthfully, the whole thing is sort of weird to me.  I used to not allow any mention of it at all but then I realize that scripture does say that honor those that work hard among you and if the church wants to honor a pastor they should be allowed to do it, I guess.  Still, it always feels sort of funny to me personally.

On behalf of pastors everywhere, let me just tell everyone what NOT to give a pastor.  Don’t get them anything with the word pastor on it (except a card).  We know we’re pastors.  We don’t need a mug or a wooden pen with pastor engraved on it.  We also don’t need any novelty pastor ties or candles.  Beyond that, we don’t need anything associated with angels or the TV show Touched By an Angel.

What should you give your pastor?  I don’t really know.  I guess that depends on the person.  I will say that for me, the things I treasure most are cards and emails from people telling me what God has done in their lives as a result of the church I pastor.  I keep those things for a long time.

Now, if somebody wants to give me a trip to Italy, a new Hummer or a state-of-the-art church building, that would be nice too, of course!