Above: Brian Kluth, national spokesperson for NAE Financial Health and the Bless Your Pastor Movement, appeared on Tuesday’s edition of CBN’s Newswatch to talk about how church members can bless their pastors. Newswatch is seen weekdays on the CBN News Channel.
The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) is sponsoring a campaign designed to encourage Christians and churches to show God’s love for their pastors and church staff.
The Bless Your Pastor movement hopes to educate church members on the financial issues that their pastors often face and offers ideas of how they can help.
More than 2,000 churches have participated and collected more than $1.2 million in donations for their pastors.
There are various ways congregants can serve, including babysitting, home repairs, and painting. But the campaign also promotes assisting pastors with specific needs that could help someone pay down their student loan debt, help send their child to college, or contribute towards a family vacation.
During an interview with CBN News, Brian Kluth, national spokesperson for the NAE Financial Health and the Bless Your Pastor Movement, explained why it’s important to support our pastors during these challenging times.
“COVID has really affected pastors. It’s been a difficult 15 months and they need all the love and support they get and we have free material to help every Christian and every church in America bless their pastor and church staff,” he explained.
Kluth said Christians are called to serve others and this initiative is a great way to do just that while building both awareness and generosity.
“Pastors typically work 50-70 hours a week and even more in this last year. In every decision a pastor made this year, somebody wasn’t happy so it’s been a very, very challenging time,” Kluth emphasized. “We really want people first to fulfill 1 Thessalonians 5:12 which says show your deep appreciation for pastors. Galatians 6:6 says we are to share all good things with our pastors so it’s really about showing and sharing the love and care that any Christian can give them with their abilities, skills, resources – whatever God has given them to bless their pastor and staff.”
He also pointed out there are several steps on the campaign’s website that make giving so easy.
“First, go to the website, get the free resources of 50 ways to bless your pastor so your church can distribute that to everybody. Secondly, they take up an appreciation offering or give a year-end bonus. Third, they honor them publicly in some way and when they do that, we have a million dollars in gift cards to give away to pastors – a hundred dollars at a time. So when your church does the 1,2,3 at BlessYourPastor.org, we will bless your pastor with a hundred-dollar gift card. Any Christian in America can help that happen,” he concluded.
The NAE is encouraging church members to give to their pastors to help their financial stress or to just encourage them.
Go to BlessYourPastor.org for more information.
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