Our Pastor Appreciation Celebration

by Lisa
(Trenton, GA)

This is our first year and we have a VERY small church. About 40 total. So we are doing a Luncheon for the Pastor and His family. We are keeping it all a surprise and hoping it stays that way.
We are decorating our Fellowship Hall and putting up a "Money Tree" (this is a cute way to give cash or gift cards) Each person can attach it with a clothes pin to the tree and after the celebration Pastor and His family get to collect all their cash. WE also gathered photos of pasotr and his family and hung them up around the fellowship hall. We wanted to do a slide show, but didn't get it done, but it would be a great idea to add to the service/program upstairs.
We are also doing a special program by allowing pastor to sit back and enjoy the service with his family.
We have called in a special pastor to preach, so this gives our pastor the speical time to sit and be in a pew with his family. WE are presenting them with a beauitful plague that has the "Pastor/Pastors wife poem" on it. We have made beautiful corsages for the Pastors wife and daughther and a boutnier for the pastor. We have the deacons presenting them with a card and monetary gift from the church. A few people will do some of the Pastors/Wife favortie songs, we have two people reading poems, and we are allowing those in the congragation the opportunity to stand and say how they appreciate the Pastor and his family.
WE will conclude the service and have a great felloswhip downstairs and allow them to go first and then after the fellowship time allow them to open any gifts brought in for them.
I know all this may be simple, but as I stated it is our first one and also with a small group it is a little more difficult to go bigger, but hoping each year that goes by we can make it biger.