Southern Gospel News SGNScoops Digital

NEWS PROVIDED BY
National Association of Evangelicals
July 17, 2019

WASHINGTON, July 17, 2019 /Christian Newswire/ — The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) today launched a new national campaign to help congregations “show and share God’s love” for their pastors in creative and practical ways. The Bless Your Pastor (BlessYourPastor.org) campaign is part of a larger initiative to address financial challenges faced by pastors and is funded by a $1 million, 3-year grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.

The Bless Your Pastor campaign will encourage and equip churches to consider creative ways to bless their pastors and to take up a special appreciation offering for their pastors. Some churches may decide to extend this campaign to church staff members, in addition to their pastors.

Brian Kluth, national director of NAE Financial Health and spokesperson for Bless Your Pastor, said, “Having been a pastor myself, with three children and a wife who needed major medical treatments, I understand the financial struggles many pastors and their families face – and the tremendous difference it makes when a congregation shows their pastor they are there for them, all the way, sharing God’s love and blessings in practical ways.”

“Bless Your Pastor is about people in the church sharing their time, talents and treasures to creatively bless their pastors and church staff members,” Kluth said. “Some examples can be babysitting, doing car repairs, offering low or no cost medical and dental care, sharing a vacation home, and providing gift cards to the pastor and family.”

Churches that sign up for the Bless Your Pastor campaign at BlessYourPastor.orgwill receive a robust toolkit that will make it easy to launch and spark excitement for the campaign in their churches. The toolkit includes a list of “50 Creative Ways to Show God’s Love to Your Pastor;” a short training video for church boards and leadership teams; a timetable for organizing this behind-the-scenes effort; template letters and emails; social media graphics; and more.

According to national research from the NAE, LifeWay and InTrust, most pastors and their families operate with limited financial resources to meet their current and long-term needs:

The NAE will send an Amazon gift card to the senior pastors of the first 1,000 congregations that take up a special offering for their pastors (and staff, if applicable) and complete the online form at BlessYourPastor.org.

About Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by three members of the Lilly family – J.K. Lilly, Sr., and sons, J.K., Jr., and Eli – through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly & Company. The Endowment exists to support the causes of religion, education and community development. Lilly Endowment’s religion grantmaking is designed to deepen and enrich the religious lives of American Christians. It does this largely through initiatives to enhance and sustain the quality of ministry in American congregations and parishes.

About National Association of Evangelicals (NAE)
The mission of the National Association of Evangelicals is to honor God by connecting and representing evangelical Christians. The NAE includes more than 45,000 churches from 40 denominations and serves a constituency of millions. Founded in 1942, the NAE is currently led by President Leith Anderson.

Back in the local Sunday paper, there was a picture of a small little country church now called Courtney Chapel. It was built in the early 1800’s before the U.S. Civil War and is located in western Caldwell County in North Carolina. They have a website giving more information about the chapel.

 My baby cousin was married there back in the fall and I have to say it was most tranquil of settings. The church reminded me of the song “The Church in the Wildwood.”

I wonder how it must have felt back in those days, when they stopped everything and went to church on Sunday. The church was full, the men stood outside, there was no electricity. Air conditioning was opened shutters, heat was a wood stove. But the Spirit shown up and  they worshipped the Lord.

Mom said the church she grew up in was similar. In the mountains of NC, people walked to church regardless of the weather. And they heard the songs of Zion and preachers preached the word. The people who could get in, sat on the wooden benches, not padded pews, but they went home knowing they had been in a special place.

The verse the quoted was: “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.  For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:18-20).

And it was so. My, we have came a long way.

Sometimes we should go back to the old paths and see what were missing.

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’'” (Jeremiah 6:16)

Blessings,

Pastor Stephen Widener