FIRST-PERSON: Pastor appreciation that lasts all year

Editor’s note: October is Pastor Appreciation Month.

By Craig Webb

“The elders who are good leaders are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.” (1 Timothy 5:17, CSB)

Read the verse above. Then look it up and read the next verse. You’ll see what Paul meant by honor. He immediately quotes: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “the worker is worthy of his wages.” The word Paul uses for honor carries both meanings at once: esteem and provision. The honor he had in mind isn’t the honor that costs a church nothing.

We may think of pastor appreciation as a card in October. Paul saw it as a way of life for a healthy congregation, and he placed it in the middle of instructions on how a church ought to be ordered.

Honor that costs something

This year’s numbers tell a hard story. Inflation has climbed 6.3 percent since 2024, but the average compensation for full-time Southern Baptist senior pastors fell 1.5 percent, and total pay packages slipped 0.4 percent. It’s the first time both figures have dropped since Lifeway Research began tracking them in 2008. That’s not a pay raise; it’s a pay decrease.

Health coverage tells a similar story. Nearly two-thirds of Southern Baptist congregations provide no medical insurance for their senior pastor — a share that has fallen steadily from 65 percent of churches funding it in 2008 to just 37 percent today. As Hance Dilbeck of GuideStone put it, “Healthy churches and healthy pastors go hand in hand.” See the full Lifeway Research report.

In Hawaii, the pressure is sharper still. Our cost of living outruns almost every mainland U.S. benchmark, and many of our pastors serve bivocationally, carrying a full workweek before they ever open their study. A church that quietly compares itself to a similar-sized congregation in the South may be underpaying its pastor by a wide margin without ever intending to.

What does honor look like on a budget line?

1. Review compensation every year, on purpose. Not a rollover from last year’s budget. Put it on the personnel or deacon team calendar and treat a cost-of-living adjustment as the floor rather than the ceiling.
2. Don’t count ministry expenses as income. Mileage, books, conference registration and continuing education are the church’s costs of doing ministry. When a church says, “we pay our pastor X” and part of X is reimbursements, the real salary is smaller than most people realize.
3. Look past salary. A housing allowance designated in advance by official action. Health coverage. Retirement contributions through GuideStone. Real vacation. Study leave. A sabbatical policy written down before anyone needs it.
4. Use the tools. GuideStone publishes a free Compensation Planning Guide to help you. And, we at the HPBC office are glad to help you think through it, too.

Honor that costs only courage: words of affirmation and support

Money matters. So do words, and those are available to every member of your church this week.

Be specific. “Good message, pastor” evaporates by lunch. “What you said about Peter changed how I talked to my son this week,” gets remembered for years.

Say it on Monday. Sunday is full of handshakes and noise. Monday morning is when the discouragement arrives.

Write it down. Many pastors keep a folder of notes for the hard seasons. A text disappears into a phone. A card stays in a drawer.

Send a copy to the personnel committee. Encouragement that reaches the people who set the budget does double duty.

Include the family. Tell his wife what her husband’s ministry has meant to you. Tell his kids something good about their dad.

Defend him when he isn’t in the room. That one costs something, which is probably why it counts.

And then there’s October

October is Pastor Appreciation Month, and it’s a gift to the church. It’s a set date on the calendar that turns good intentions into action. Treat it as the overflow of a year-round posture, not a substitute for one.

Just make it personal. A generic gift basket says we thought about you for five minutes. A gift that lands says we pay attention to you. The difference is simply asking ahead of time. Over a decade ago, I created a simple worksheet published at Lifeway.com and have updated it: Pastor / Elder Appreciation Worksheet. Hand it to your pastors/elders in September (including your unpaid lay elders, who often receive nothing at all), and you’ll know their coffee order, their grocery store, favorite snack and the commentary they’ve wanted for two years. 

Download the worksheet: Pastor / Elder Appreciation Worksheet

Access an Online Google Form Template for the Worksheet Here

Your pastor gave your church a year of his life. October is a good month to say so. And January, and March and every month after that.

Webb is executive director-treasurer of the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention.