9 Ways to Appreciate and Honor Your Pastor

Does your pastor go out of their way to help you, counsel you, or otherwise support you and the rest of your church or community? They deserve to be recognized and honored for their contributions.

Here are 9 pastor appreciation gift ideas sure to be a big hit.

1. Get your pastor a church appreciation plaque

Who doesn’t love plaques? Plaques are a sophisticated way to show appreciation and recognition for someone you care about. Your pastor would love to be the recipient of a church appreciation plaque.

Get your whole congregation in on this gift. Look through the different options we have to find the style of plaque you think your pastor would appreciate most. There are so many shapes to choose from, and some plaques are made to sit on a flat surface, while others are meant to be hung on the wall.

Customize the plaque with your pastor’s favorite scriptural passage and a custom message from everyone to show your appreciation. They’ll keep the plaque forever.

2. Gift your pastor and his wife a dual appreciation plaque

Another wonderful way to show appreciation for your pastor is to recognize him and his wife in the same plaque. This dual recognition plaque is the perfect personalized gift for pastor and first lady.

This plaque is shaped like an open book and each page holds a spot for a custom inscription. You can choose a special design for the top of each “page” and then customize the inscription below each of their names.

3. Gift your pastor’s family a vacation

Pastors work tirelessly, sometimes juggling multiple jobs outside of serving their congregation. When was the last time your pastor took a real vacation? If it’s been a while, they’ll really appreciate being gifted a getaway weekend.

If you can, gift your pastor and their family a getaway weekend at their favorite vacation spot. If that’s not available or they don’t have a favorite spot, find out what they’d like best. They might want to camp out in the woods, go fishing at the lake, or rent a hotel in an art town.

4. Get your church to help out with your pastor’s chores

Doing chores for your pastor might sound insignificant, but imagine how you’d feel if a bunch of people showed up at your house ready to mow your lawn, rake your leaves, clean your gutters, haul away project scraps, and clean your kitchen.

There is nothing small about helping your pastor with small household chores. With a group of people, it will all get done quickly and your pastor’s entire family will be amazed.

5. Present your pastor with a personalized plaque for their anniversary

Plaques are great gifts to show appreciation even without a reason. However, a personalized plaque also makes a fantastic pastor anniversary gift.

If your pastor has an anniversary coming up, whether it’s their marriage anniversary or their anniversary serving the church, present the plaque on their special day. If possible, get your entire church together to present the plaque; it will be more meaningful when everyone is involved.

6. Create a jar stuffed with “thank-you” notes

Ask all of your church members to write thank-you notes to your pastor and stuff them into a decorative jar. Let people know they can write more than one note. The more notes, the better.

Gift the jar to your pastor and tell them to pick one note out of the jar each morning for inspiration. If you can get 365 notes, they’ll have a year’s worth of daily appreciation.

To make it more fun, include some jokes, riddles, or funny facts. Like the fact that cows have identifiable dialectical variations. In other words, cows have accents.

7. Offer to babysit for their kids or pets

If your pastor has small children or pets, offer to babysit when they need time away. This simple offer will mean the world to them because it’s not always easy to get a sitter for children or pets.

You could make a little coupon book filled with vouchers for babysitting and pet sitting, all signed by individual people from your church. Whoever is willing to volunteer their services can create a voucher and you can bind them all together.

If everyone contributed just one voucher, your pastor won’t need to search for a sitter for quite some time. They could probably take an extra vacation.

8. Have your church record video messages of appreciation

Ask each person in your church to record a message of appreciation between 1-3 minutes long. Specifically, ask that each person share what they appreciate about your pastor and the difference they’ve made in their lives.

Collect the footage and edit each video into a montage where one acknowledgment leads to another. You don’t need to make it fancy, but if you can’t do basic video editing, hire someone on Fiverr to create it for you. Add some royalty-free music for an intro and outro, and a custom intro if you can.

Put the video file on a DVD for your pastor and upload the final video to YouTube for all to see.

9. Start serving in your church

There are ways to show appreciation for your pastor that go beyond their personal benefit. Serving in your church is one of those ways.

Nothing will make your pastor happier than if you start serving in your church. It will make your pastor’s job easier and it will show that you’re committed to service.

Gifting a pastor appreciation plaque will be appreciated

There are countless ways to appreciate your pastor. All of your gifts and efforts will be greatly appreciated, no matter how small they seem.

However you choose to honor your pastor, don’t forget the plaque. Get your pastor a plaque that can be displayed somewhere in the church for people to see how loved and appreciated they are.

For more plaque ideas, browse our custom recognition plaques to find the perfect plaque for your pastor.