Pastor Appreciation Bucket Idea

October is Pastor Appreciation Month...but really, pastors can be appreciated any time. If you've noticed that your pastors need encouragement, this is a great and easy idea to get the entire church involved...and no one says it HAS to happen in October.

*Just to give you context...I'm a member of a small church (about 250-300 members). Sometimes these things are a bit easier to make happen if you attend a small to mid-size church.

For the past 7 years I've been volunteering at our church by leading a Ladies Bible Study. Each October, I've asked the Bible Study Ladies to contribute cards, letters, treats and gift cards to give to our pastors and staff. It was wonderful! The ladies spoiled our church's staff and really encouraged them.  I never thought we should change things up until it occurred to me that we were being exclusive. Those who weren't a part of our Ladies Group weren't given the opportunity to bless our staff....so, we decided to open up the invitation to the whole church.
*I often have friends from other church's that ask me for step-by-step directions...so here's what I did to make this happen.

First, I got permission from our church chair. (Always get permission so you don't mess up anything the church might already have planned!) The Church Chair wanted only the pastors to be honored for October. We will do something similar for the rest of the church staff in March or April.

You know how it's always more fun to give than to receive, right? Well, people love to give, especially in the church, but they need to know exactly how and what to give. So I made it easy for them.
I emailed the pastors to find our their favorite treats.
This is crucial! You don't want people to give them candy or coffee cards if they don't eat sugar or drink coffee--and yes, we have some very health-conscious pastors!

I asked each pastor to tell me their favorite:
-snacks
-treats
-drinks
-gift cards

Then, I took a trip to the Dollar Store to get supplies for the display. I purchased:
3 buckets (for 3 pastors)
1 foam board
1 pack of white mini pails
1 pack of colored popsicle sticks.

I already had:
tissue paper
colored cardstock
light wire
glue
tape

In a Word document, I printed out the pastor's names and their
information to create the poster. I backed everything on colored cardstock and glued it onto the board.

  

The mini pails had metal hangers that I stuck right into the foam board and taped securely on the back.

I made signs for the plastic buckets and taped them onto popsicle sticks to stand up out of the buckets.

After getting approval from our church's chair, I wrote this for the bulletin. It was printed in the bulletin each week for the month of October.
October is Pastor Appreciation Month ~ 

Join us as we show our Pastors appreciation during the month of October by 'filling their buckets'. To participate, please write a note and/or purchase a small gift for our pastors. Labeled buckets are located by the Welcome Counter. Drop your notes and items in the buckets.
Here's a list of our pastor's favorites:
Pastor David: Favorite snacks: kettle corn, nut butter-filled Clif bars. Favorite drinks: English breakfast tea. Favorite gift cards: REI, Amazon.
Pastor Amy: Favorite snacks: Apple Pie Larabars, pistachios, apple chips, seaweed snacks, very, very dark chocolate. Favorite drinks: sparkling water, kombucha, unsweetened ice tea. Favorite gift cards: Amazon, Target.
Pastor Scott: Favorite snacks: RX Bar (coconut and chocolate flavor), figs (or other dried fruit without added sugar). Favorite drinks: coffee & kombucha. Favorite gift cards: iTunes, Goodwill. 

The buckets and poster were put on display every Sunday morning right where everyone would see them. Each week, little gifts and notes started filling up the buckets.
After the Sunday services, I bagged up the pastor's gifts and stuck them on their desks. This gave the pastors little treats and notes to read all month long. In the past, I usually just gave one big gift basket--but little things all month long is even better!

Of course the pastors were overwhelmed! They were delighted and blessed and encouraged. I loved that it wasn't just one group in the church honoring them, but the entire church body.  (Of course not everyone participated, but the invitation to participate was open to all...and there's always next year.)

Our appreciation for our pastors doesn't stop in October.  The Ladies Bible Study loves on them during the year on their birthdays and Valentine's Day. Take a look at these pastor appreciation ideas we've done in the past.

De'LIGHT'ful Gifts
 

REDiculously Awesome Pastor



A BAG-FULL of LOVE



Retirement Party for a Pastor



Pastor Appreciation Table Decor




Tie-Themed Pastor Good-Bye Party



Pastor Appreciation for Valentine's Day



**Does your church do anything for your pastors?
Leave a comment...I'd love to hear.


 

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Pastor Appreciation for Valentine's Day

I'm always dreaming up fun ways to appreciate our pastors and staff.  For Valentine's Day we created a little heart garland or 'love line' to hang in their offices.  Take a look.

Supplies Needed:
Paper Sacks
Paper Hearts
String
Hot Glue

Using our church's die cut machine, I cut out lots of paper hearts.  I asked the Bible Study Ladies to write little 'love and appreciation' notes to our pastors and staff on the paper hearts.
When completed they placed their hearts in each of the labeled sacks.

It was fun having a few different colors to break up all the red...unless you're going for that 'red look'.  
Remember our REDiculously Awesome Pastor Appreciation?

 

Click here for that idea.

I took the completed paper hearts home and heated up my glue gun.

One small drop of hot glue held the string into place.  I measured about 2 inches in between the hearts.

I then took them back to the church and hung them in each person's office.

Such a simple way to show some love.  

More pastor appreciation ideas for you:

Bags of Love for our Pastors



Delightful Pastor Appreciation
 

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Pastor Appreciation for an Awesome Pastor

October is Pastor Appreciation Month and of course I couldn't let the month slide by without loving our pastors.

This REDiculously idea came from here.  I thought it would be a fun and easy idea to honor the pastors at our church.

(This post contains affiliate links to help you locate products.)

If I had been on my game ahead of time, I would have purchased these notecards and these envelopes ahead of time.

But, I was a little last minute in my planning, and ended up going to Michaels and buying out every red 'enveloped notecard' I could find!  I handed out the notecards and asked everyone to write an appreciation note to our pastors.  Some decided to put gift cards in their notes.  I collected the notes.

I purchased a few red treats to put with the red notecards.

All treats and notecards went into red gift bags.

I made a simple tag and tied it on with red curling ribbon, of course!

And added a bit of red tissue paper.

Then came the fun part...leaving them on the pastor's desks.

Of course they loved them!  We also made bags for our church administrator and administrative assistant.

If you'd like to make your own RED-iculously Awesome gift bags, click HERE.

REDiculously Awesome Pastor
REDiculously Awesome Teacher
REDiculously Awesome Friend
REDiculously Awesome Neighbor

Here's some more Pastor Appreciation gifts.

De'LIGHT'ful Gifts


A BAG-FULL of LOVE


Pastor Appreciation Table Decor

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Pastor Appreciation- Bags of Love

In my humble opinion, church members can never thank their pastors or church staff enough.  Especially at a smaller church, going through lots of changes.
Ministry, is a job that never ends. The pastors and staff are constantly trying to serve the congregation with lots of (not always needed) opinions and suggestions being thrown at them constantly.  They have to somehow find the balance to keep the church's old timers, new timers and everyone in-between...happy.  And do this all with love and grace AND within the church's budget.

As a long-time church member, Bible Study leader and volunteer, I often get an up-close look at the mental state of our church staff.  A 'behind-the-scenes' look that most church members would never see.  My current observation...Exhaustion.  Our workers are tired! Changes in a church are not easy.  Time for a little encouragement.
Since I couldn't give the church staff more sleep or rest, I came up with another cure...A Bag of Love!  
It's a bag filled with their favorite treats, snacks and a bunch of encouraging love notes.  (Now, who wouldn't want a bag like that?)




Here's how we made this happen.

4 weeks ago, I sent the pastors, Administrative Assistant, Facilities Director and Youth Assistant an email titled:  3 Minute Survey of Your Favorite Things

In the email I asked them the following questions:
Favorite color
Favorite drink
Favorite food/meal
Favorite candy
Favorite snack
Favorite gift card to receive
Favorite hobbies
Favorite things they like to receive under $5.

I then assembled their answers onto a sheet of paper and shared them with our Ladies Bible Study members.
I asked the members to look at the lists and pick up an item or two to add to the bags.  They could get something for every pastor, or just one or two.  If they would rather, they could donate money to go towards a gift certificate.  (This was completely optional, there was no pressure to contribute gifts or money.)

For the next 3 weeks of our Bible Study, little treats and money came trickling in.  I encouraged the ladies to write little notes on paper hearts to be added to the bags.  After 3 weeks of collecting, I then assembled the bags and hand delivered them to the desks of the recipients.




Lots of the ladies brought in Twix bars for our Facilities Director. (I'm not sure Twix bars will still be his favorite after eating all of these!)  One member made him his favorite cookies, oatmeal raisin.  We also gifted  him a certificate to his favorite outdoor store, Orvis.  He was thrilled! He told me he was excited to use it to plan for an upcoming camping/fishing trip.







Our Youth and Family Pastor's favorites are chips, popcorn, peppermint tea and smelly soaps.  We needed 2 bags to contain all the chip donations.  She also received her favorite, an Amazon gift card.  She said the bags were just what she needed to help raise her spirits after a long, tough week.

Our Worship Pastor is an artist with love for all things organic and gluten-free.  His favorite meal is salmon, so we gave him a gift certificate to a well-loved nearby fish restaurant.  

Apparently our Worship Pastor saw his bag right before choir practice. My sources tell me that he came out of his office with a big smile on his face, munching on the kale chips.  He was so excited to have a bag filled with all the things he enjoyed eating.

Lots of dark chocolate, Toblerone (his favorite candy), and a gift certificate to his favorite steak house filled up our Senior Pastor's bag.                                             Our Youth Assistant received an Amazon and a Starbucks gift card as well as dark chocolate and kettle chips.
On the survery, many of the staff responded that reading was a favorite hobby.  One Bible Study member gave books to each pastor.

Our Administrative Assistant was the only one in her office early Friday morning, so I got to see her reaction as I handed her the bag.  

She 'oohed' and 'ahhed' as she found colorful socks, her favorite salty snacks and even a toy for her new puppy. 

Taking the time to find out everyone's favorite things was so incredibly helpful.  It made the gifts personal and it was guaranteed that they would love everything inside!  The ladies enjoyed learning everyone's favorites...and I'm sure the list will come in handy the next time we're ready to show some appreciation.

Want to make some bags of love for your church staff?  
Click here to print your own tags.

*A big thank you to all the ladies who contributed to these bags!  Your generosity and love shines Jesus' light to all.  I appreciate you!

Linking up to: MadebyYouMonday,

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