For elders, deacons, boards, and ministry leaders
If you're reading this, you likely love your pastor. You've seen what he carries. The job during the week, the sermon on the weekend, the phone calls at eleven at night, the family that gets what's left. You've noticed he's tired, even though he'd never say it. And you've wondered what a church like yours, with a modest budget and no staff, can actually do about it.
More than you think.
In most of our cultures, the pastor is the last person who'll ask for help for himself. It can feel like weakness, or ingratitude, or a burden on the church. So it usually falls to the leaders around him to say: we see you, we value you, and we've arranged some support. That's not going over his head. That's honouring him.
I've spent seven years working with immigrant and diaspora churches across Ontario, and the churches that keep their pastors for the long haul almost always have a leadership team that took this seriously.
Every one of these is something a board can decide on and fund, and every one of them is a gift a pastor receives with gratitude rather than embarrassment.
Many churches set aside a monthly amount for me to carry the administrative load: the newsletter, event flyers, registration, follow-up with visitors, giving updates. Your pastor sends me a voice memo. I send back finished work. He gets his evenings with people, and with his family, back.
Your pastor has preached hundreds of sermons and most of them are gone. A leadership team can commission a small group guide, a new-believer booklet, or a membership class built from what he's already taught. It honours his work and it gives your church tools for years. Some churches do this as an anniversary gift. Some do it for a book.
A short, honest look at your church across the four marks of health, done with the pastor, with a 30/60/90-day plan at the end. Boards often find this is the most clarifying thing they've done in years, and pastors find it a relief to have someone else name what they've been seeing.
Four to six months of coaching for your pastor, or for your pastor and his wife together, on whatever matters most right now: building a core team so he's not alone, discerning a next step, or the strain of ministry on marriage. Coaching is one of the most common things a board pays for, and one of the least talked about.
A planter family renewal weekend, or a place at a retreat I'm running with other churches. Most pastoral families in our communities have not had a real rest in years. A board that pays for one, and covers the pulpit, will not be forgotten.
If your church is growing and it's time to send out a planter, I can help your leadership work out who goes, what they take, how the mother church blesses the plant instead of bleeding from it, and how to raise the funds with dignity.
You have someone in your church you think might be called to lead or plant, and you'd like an outside perspective before you commission them. I'll meet with them and give you both a clear, kind picture of what's there.
Talk to him first. Don't surprise him. Something like: “We've been thinking about how to support you better, and we came across someone who works with churches like ours. Would you be open to a conversation with him?” Almost every pastor says yes when it's framed as the church's initiative and his choice.
Then book a call. I'm happy to meet with the pastor, with the board, or with both together. There's no cost for the first conversation, and I'll tell you plainly what I'd suggest and what it would cost before anything starts.
I know most of our churches run lean. Everything I do is scoped to fit a real budget, and I'll always tell you the cost up front. Some leadership teams take up a special offering for this. Some build it into the annual budget as pastoral support. Some individual members quietly fund it. Whatever you choose, it's almost always less than replacing a pastor who burned out.
And if your church simply has no means to pay right now, come and talk to me anyway. I would hate for a pastor to go without support because the church couldn't afford it. Tell me honestly where things stand, and I'll explore how I can serve you regardless. Everything I know was given to me freely, and I'd rather find a way than turn a church away.
Bring the pastor, bring the board, or come alone first. An hour, no cost.