In my two most recent articles, I’ve addressed the important issue of stewarding our pastors. (Click on the links to read each):

The JPC Pastoral Compensation Survey: Young Pastors Across the US Weigh In

It’s the Best of Times. It’s the Worst of Times: Being a Young Pastor in the 2020s

In each, I wrote that it is clear we as a church need to do all we can to support pastors of all ages, but especially young pastors. We need to steward God’s gift to every local church. 

Steward defined: to care for as the owner would do if personally present. 

What can a local church do to steward its pastor? For the sake of the pastor? For the sake of the church? For the sake of the kingdom of God? 

Here are five ways your church can steward – take care of – your pastor: 

I. STEWARD YOUR PASTOR’S PERSON 

Take care of them not just as your pastor but as a person.

Pray for your pastor as a person – a child of God, child of parents, spouse, and parent.

Pray with your pastor personally – face-to-face. 

Discover: 

When is your pastor’s birthday?

What are your pastor’s interests outside of ministry?

Where is your pastor from? 

What was life like in their childhood with their parents and siblings?

Give Care: 

Make eye contact and smile at them.

Don’t make them come to you; go to them, greet them, shake their hand.  

Ask them how they are.

Talk church, of course, but talk about the everyday things of life as well. 

Celebrate the significant events in your pastor’s life.      

Individually or as a church gift them a health club membership. 

Send your pastor a card in the mail – yes, an old-school card that shows effort.

“No reason” gifts – sports or city event tickets. 

In one church, a deacon gave me a beautiful set of illustrated Gospels and other books. Another gave me a rare book on the War Between the States (a favorite subject). No reason. Just because. That made these gifts all the more special. They remain treasures to me today, not just for the books, but for the relationships I had with these men.

Plan ahead and do something special for Pastor Appreciation Month next October;

And remember: a “thank you” goes a long way in stewarding your pastor as a person. 

II. STEWARD YOUR PASTOR’S FAMILY

Celebrate and take care of your pastor’s family as members of your family

Remember that they share their spouse and parent with you and sacrifice to do so.

Pray for your pastor’s family health – by yourself, with your spouse, with your family. 

Discover: 

When is your pastor’s wedding anniversary? 

When are the birthdays of their spouse and children? 

Where do their children go to school?

What are their interests and hobbies?

What outings does their family enjoy taking together?

Give Care: 

For your pastor’s spouse: 

Grant them the freedom God has already given them to find and fill their own role in the church. You pay one person as pastor, not two. This is especially important when you have a younger pastor, and there is a high probability that, in addition to having young children, the spouse has a job outside of the church, one required to make financial ends meet. Expect no more of the pastoral spouse than you do of yourself when it comes to ministry in the church. 

For your pastor’s children:

Give them the freedom God has already given them to be kids. Don’t “PK” them: don’t expect more or better of them than you do other children in your church.

Other gift ideas:

Give your pastor’s family a day at the zoo or other local park or attraction – even an annual pass.

Offer to watch your pastor’s children so your pastor and spouse can have a date night.

Surprise your pastor with a gift card to their favorite restaurant.

Remember their special days with small gifts.

In general, love your pastor’s family in demonstrable ways. 

In one church we pastored, the ladies of the church honored my wife with a tea and the two of us with a getaway to a nice B&B. 

In that same church, one of the ladies was our oldest daughter’s very first Sunday school teacher. She made it a point to “love on” our daughter with smiles, hugs, conversations, and the occasional treat (always with our permission, of course). Our daughter, now a mom with her own little ones, still remembers “Miss Esther” and loves her dearly.

III. STEWARD YOUR PASTOR’S MINISTRY

Take care of their ministry so they can glorify God and take care of you. 

Pray for the health and effectiveness of your pastor’s ministry.

Discover:

Learn more about your pastor’s many ministry duties.

Learn more about his personal financial obligations to his denomination.

Ask what the church is doing to help your pastor grow as a pastor. 

Learn what ministries your denomination offers to help your pastor grow as a pastor. 

Give Care:

Respect your pastor: 

“We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work” 1 Thessalonians 5:12–13

Honor your pastor: 

“Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.” I Timothy 5.17

Note: One way to do it is to help your pastor develop in their ministry. How?

1. Budget for them to attend conferences;

2. Encourage and help them pay for continuing education (a 50-50 arrangement?);

Defend your pastor: 

“Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. At my first defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.”  II Timothy 4:14–17

Pray for your pastor: 

“Brothers, pray for us.” I Thessalonians 5.25

Don’t just pray for their ministry; pray for their person. Doing flows from being; ministry flows from the minister. Build the minister, and you build the minister. If your pastor’s soul (their being) is strong, this yields a flow of life-giving ministry (their doing). You, your family, and your church will be stronger for it. 

Andrew Hall writes: 

“(Charles) Spurgeon was a 19th-century English preacher and pastor of the New Park Street Chapel in London, England, later named the Metropolitan Tabernacle. The church held 5,000 people. With no sound system, it was said that his voice could be heard by all.

“A group of young ministers called on him one day to see the large preaching place. After showing them his massive sanctuary, Spurgeon offered to show them his ‘boiler room.’ The guests declined, but the pastor insisted. Spurgeon led them to the basement. They found about 100 people in prayer.

“‘ This,’ Spurgeon said with a smile, ‘is my boiler room.’ Whenever Spurgeon was asked the secret of his ministry he always replied, “My people pray for me.”

• Hall, Andrew. Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Spurgeon’s ‘Boiler Room’ Secret Of Success; 2011 August 13. https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2011/aug/13/spurgeons-boiler-room-secret-success-20110813. Accessed March 10, 2025

IV. STEWARD YOUR PASTOR’ FINANCES

Take care of your pastor’s financial needs so they can focus on taking care of your soul needs.

Pray for your pastor’s financial health. 

“The elders who lead well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.” I Timothy 5.17

Elders. Lead well. Worthy. Double honor. Work hard. Preaching. Teaching.

Elders are those who direct the ministries of the church, preach, and teach. Those who lead well and those who make it clear they “work hard” at the ministry of preaching and teaching are to be given “double honor” in esteem and estate – great respect and sufficient financial recompense. Because your pastor works hard to feed your soul with the Word of God, the God of the Word says they are worthy of double honor in the church’s heart and financial provision.

Discover: 

What is your church doing to demonstrate honor for your pastor?

Is the salary your church provides your pastor and family sufficient?

How will your pastor pay for family illnesses, doctor and dentist visits, or hospitalization?

Given your church’s financial provisions for your pastor, what will their retirement look like?

Care: 

As you consider how your church can give your pastor “double honor,” remember these elements: 

Salary:

See to it that your pastor’s salary sufficient for them to care for their family, and so, be financially stress-free to focus on the church. If your pastor is stressed over providing for their family, they are not at their best for you and your church. Steward your own soul by seeing that your pastor’s family is well provided for financially. This means that you need to faithfully pay your tithes and generously give offerings. 

Health insurance:

How will your pastor pay for family, illnesses, doctor visits, or hospitalization? Health insurance is expensive. If your church doesn’t provide it, your pastor has to pay for it out of their salary. Some young pastors have to depend on state programs. Other pastors and their families are simply going without this necessity in this time of skyrocketing healthcare costs. A recent Journey survey showed that over 70% of young pastors do not have church-funded health insurance (see our two most recent articles here and here. And they won’t unless they change churches. Help your pastor stay in your church.

Idea: Christian cost-sharing Ministries like Christian Healthcare Ministry and Samaritan Ministries are two organizations (and there are others) that may be a solution for your pastor’s healthcare needs. While these are not technically insurance, they do provide a way for the same health care to be affordable. 

Retirement

Given your church’s financial provisions for your pastor, what will retirement look like for them? Do you have a retirement account? Many young pastors don’t. A recent Journey survey showed that 52% of young pastors do not have church-funded retirement (see our two most recent articles here and here. And they won’t unless they change churches. Help your pastor stay in your church. 

Idea: Do something. Anything. And do it consistently. If you contribute $250 per month at the current CD rate of 4.5%, this would give your pastor over $225,000 in 30 years. Even $100 with the same terms would yield over $70,000. Not enough to retire on? No, it’s not. But if you’re not contributing anything to a retirement account now, that $70,000 is something. We have to begin somewhere. So, gather your board and, with joy, take that step of faith! Invest in the kingdom of God by investing in your pastor’s future ministry, even if it isn’t in your church.

Seek Wise Counsel: 

Invite the state officials of your denomination to meet with your church board to discuss what you are doing financially for your pastor. These leaders are sensitive to the needs of pastors and local congregations. They so will help you do the best you can without overextending your church. 

I once preached for pastors who were over 70 years of age. They told my wife and me that they continued to pastor because they had no choice: their Social Security check did not meet their needs. The churches they had pastored had paid them little and contributed nothing to their retirement. And so, this godly couple that had sacrificed to serve local churches all their life were now living in a tiny, cinder block apartment, eking out a bare-bones living as they continued to serve sacrificially. Brothers and sisters, this ought not to be. Not for any pastor. Let us consider carefully God’s command to give double honor to our pastors.

V. STEWARD YOUR PASTOR’S SOUL

Take care of your pastor’s soul needs so they can focus on taking care of your soul needs.

Pray for your pastor’s soul.  

Your pastor provides care for your soul, but did you know you can see that their soul receives the care it needs? Do all you can to help your pastor’s soul not just survive but thrive in ministry.

Insist and do your best to ensure that your pastor takes a day off each week. A Sabbath. A day when they cease from their normal labors as pastor.

But there is much more to living in Sabbath Rest than a day off each week. 

Insist that your pastor not only take a day off each week but give themself to learning how to live and minister in Sabbath Rest, just as Jesus did during His earthly sojourn. 

Living in Sabbath Rest begins with a desire to live and minister in such a way that, whatever comes our way, the soul is at rest in God. Taking a Sabbath Day each week is a reminder, a road sign really, that points us to God’s desire that we live in the soul rest he offers. You can help your pastor find and live in Sabbath Rest in the following ways: 

Prayer Retreats:

Ask your pastor to take extra days every quarter to go away for personal prayer retreats. These times along will not only refresh them, but you and your church. 

Vacation:

Give your pastor sufficient vacation time. Begin with three weeks and increase it over time.

Sabbatical:

Build true sabbaticals into your pastor’s calendar – three months every seven years of ministry at your church is a healthy place to start. One month away is not a sabbatical; it’s a vacation. And no, a pastoral sabbatical need not weaken your church; in fact, it will strengthen it. Learn more about what constitutes a sabbatical. There are many great resources on the subject, and Journey can help. 

Solitude and Silence:

Encourage your pastor to read in the areas of solitude, silence, and sabbath, and then grow in these necessary practices. Contact Journey for title suggestions.  

Book Allowance: 

Add a book allowance to your pastor’s paid-for-expenses. Leaders are readers. 

Retreats: 

Encourage your pastor to participate in a group retreat once a year. Not a ministry-focused conference where pastors sit and listen to speakers, but a soul-focused, small group gatherings of ministers where they can engage with peers and mentors in soul-care. Our retreats in January are a highlight of Journey’s calendar. Every year, God works wonders in us that don’t just soothe our souls, but strengthen them, and gives us relationships that build us throughout the year to come. 

Mentors:

Ask your pastor to walk with a mentor, a more experienced minister who can help them grow in their life in ministry. This is not a luxury; it’s an essential. It’s not for the weak; it’s for all. Not a mentor your pastor can just talk with or listen to, but a mentor that requires something of your pastor in return: you get what you pay for. At Journey, our members don’t pay for coaching with money but by investing in each other. It’s required to belong to Journey. Why? What you receive from something is determined by your investment in it: small investment, small return; big investment, big return. The return is in the hands of the investor.

Note: Your pastor may have a mentor / pastoral coach in theory but not in practice. Your pastor needs to talk with someone at least once a month for the full benefit. 

Peers:

Ask your pastor to give attention to walking with friends in ministry; at Journey, we call them “peer mentors,” people in ministry who are in our age range and experience;

Thank you:

Finally, a sincere, eye-to-eye, hand-in-hand “I’m praying for you” goes a long way in strengthening your pastor’s soul. 

I always told the churches I pastored that I could preach no more powerfully or pastor more effectively than they had prayed for me: we were partners in pastoral ministry. My part was to set myself in presence of God and humble myself before Him, to pray down and study up the Word of God and the Holy Spirit’s anointing. Their part was to pray for me and listen to teaching with the intent of being doers of God’s Word. Additionally, I had prayer partners who joined me every Sunday morning before services to pray with me and for me. These were rich times when God’s presence overwhelmed us, knit us together, and brought to us the strong sense that we were partners together in ministry. 

FINAL WORD

Let me offer one final way you can thank God for the gift of your pastor and take care of them: 

Find your place of ministry and serve faithfully: 

“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them . . .” Romans 12.3-6

In one church I pastored, when it came to my pastoral duty of matching ministry giftings to ministry roles, I was more traffic cop than recruiter. It seemed everyone was either looking for a place to serve or creating ways to serve. They would check in with me for my approval and counsel even as they were running to serve or start new ministries. It was wonderful in the way it ministered to our entire church and guests. 

And it was contagious: because ministry was the norm and not the exception, when people landed in our church, they naturally stepped onto an escalator of service that brought health and fulfillment in their discipleship. And yes, great joy and ease to their pastor. 

When God gives us a gift, two responses are required:

First, we thank God – we verbally thank God for His gift;

Second, we take care of the gift God has given us. We steward it. We take care of the gift as the giver would take care of the gift if He were personally present.

What a precious and powerful gift God has given your church in the person of a pastor. What a precious privilege it is to take care of that pastor as the Giver of that gift would do so if He were personally present.

__________

NOTE: Journey Pastoral Coaching exists to provide pastoral coaching to Millennial ministers.

Saddled with large student debt, just beginning to set up homes and start families, and serving in low paying first and second positions, Millennials are those who most desire but can least afford to pay for pastoral coaching.

We are able to do so thanks to the faithful and generous support of individuals and churches like yours who want to see young leaders not only enter the ministry, but remain in the ministry.

Now, more than ever, we need your help. 

If you or your church would like to help Millennial ministers across the US and overseas build strong for a lifetime in ministry, please click here to support Journey monthly or with your one-time gift. Thank you.

We also invite you to click and subscribe to our twice-monthly blogs at journeypastoralcoaching.com

“Of all vocations, surely the gospel ministry is the one whose paradigm is most radically formed by the dynamics of godly mentorship.” 

Stephen Baldwin