3 Cheers for Pastors!

Our girls enjoying their pastors at work-- Delia being baptised by Pastor Bruce and Ella playing running games with Dave at Youth Group. (Photos by Jeremy Cloud)

While we always feel appreciated and encouraged in this church (people communicate this with regular emails and cards...), October is when we especially feel loved because that is when gifts come out! October is Pastor Appreciation Month. Last year the little kids did a program for the pastors and we had a whole-church pot-luck to honor them. Not needing this kind of attention every year, Dave does value the smaller gestures-- over the past 4 years he's been gifted with dinners, ties, candles, CDs, kind words, generous gift cards, etc.

On Friday night we tried to show our senior pastor, Bruce, and his wife, Joyce, how much we appreciate them. Ella picked out a cool music playing card, decorated it and we had them over for dinner (pita bread with pesto, garden tomato salad and chicken cacciatore-- recipe over to left). There are many things we love about Bruce. He is a totally compatible ministry partner for Dave, from the way they preach to how they view most issues-- very similar. He has set a culture in our church for being caring and friendly. He is such a good model of a generous, time-giving leader, that many people in the church follow his lead, making this one of the most outgoing churches we've ever been in. With this, he is awesome at Pastoral Care. We even cut our night a little early because of a cell phone call he got from people who needed him. Last (and best), he has developed a great relationship with Ella. Ella absolutely adores Bruce and runs to his office whenever we get to church (mostly because she knows she'll get candy...) When he comes over, he'll spend the whole night reading stories to her. He always gets right down on the ground when he sees Ella to have a long conversation with her. I look forward to both my girls having this close friendship with their senior pastor.

So, now a question to you. Do you have a pastor you need to appreciate? On this end of it, let me just remind you how hard a pastor's work is, how much of their hearts and minds go into it, how they constantly sacrifice family and personal time to serve you, how their capacity to love people is so big, how well they model a life like Christ's. October is a nice yearly reminder that we should tell our pastors, "THANK YOU!" And to all our pastor friends and wives, we appreciate you-- your friendship and partnership in building His Kingdom.