Pastor Appreciation Month 2025  

Pastor Appreciation Month is celebrated in October each year. a practice which began in 1992 when initiated by “Focus on the Family” and has since become a widely practiced time when we make special efforts to show how much we appreciate our pastor.  While it has been expanded to include appreciation of all clergy, the primary focus remains on the senior pastor.  I have known many pastors, from my earliest days of growing up with a pastor-father, to my years as a professor of several thousand future pastors.  I have never known one who believed they had no need for prayer support.  One of the greatest gifts you can give your pastor as a token of appreciation, is to be an intercessor, but don’t just pray in generalities.  Here are a few specific needs that may be easily overlooked:

• Pray, that in the midst of a busy schedule, your pastor will make time to be alone with God.  He needs to speak often with God about the people before he speaks to the people about God.
• Sunday is a stress-filled day, so pray that your pastor will get a good night’s sleep on Saturday.
• Since your pastor works on the sabbath, pray that he will be able to find and keep another day to rest and relax.
• Pray for the pastor’s family, who from time to time, may need more prayer support than the pastor.
• My Farther used to say that a pastor had more friends than anyone else in town, but fewer close friends.  Pray that your pastor has close friends.
• Pray that your pastor will have such a support team that vacation time does not have to be interrupted with church needs.  I speak as one who grew up seldom having a full family vacation without some church member dying or needing emergency surgery.

Paul wrote, ”We urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you.”1 Thessalonians 5:12.  As you “recognize” your pastor this month, be a strong prayer supporter.