Sermon Illustrations

APPRECIATING Your Pastor

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“Appreciating Your Pastor”

by Tim Couch

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How do you say thank you” to the person who taught you as a child. confirmed you into the church, counseled you as a teenager or young adult, performed your marriage, baptized your children, helped keep your marriage together, encouraged your parents
through serious illness, and preached the believer's hope at your dad’s funeral?

"Oh," you say, “we have a new pastor who's only been at our church for a few months," as though that excused you from
expressing proper appreciation to the one who stood by your family in the midst of life’s circumstances. We need to say thank you to the pastors of the past, whether they be one or many. Have you ever thought to take the trouble to find out where these people of God are today, dropping them a letter of kind gratitude for how their life and ministry had meaning and significance for you at a certain time in your life, or in the lives of the ones you love?

Even if you didn’t agree altogether with what a former pastor stood for it is likely that the ministry performed by that person had
SOME positive influence in your life, or in the lives of your friends and relatives. Take time to say a word of genuine appreciation. 
That particular person may very much need to be encouraged and affirmed at a difficult time in their professional life.

 

Pastors are often under attack. They stand as spokespersons for the light of God in the midst of a world that loves the darkness.
Because they are public, visible leaders, they frequently fail under the critical scrutiny of people who disagree. Sometimes these
criticisms are legitimate and sometimes they aren’t but the pastor ALWAYS has to listen to them. These can be very damaging, sapping a pastor's strength to minister effectively.

 

Ministers need to hear the voices of those who are moving ahead under their leadership — words of genuine affection from those who are glad for their presence in the Church and community, and who find their work of worthy benefit. Your expression of thanks could bring a spark of new vigor to your pastor(s) as they approach their God-given task. Do it today!