Gift ideas for Pastor?

[faith]

We have a Pastor, associate pastor (no salary), and a youth pastor.
Any ideas for a gift? Have taken bake goods, etc for all to share, but hoping for something a little different. Like many of you we are on a tight budget this year.

 

[binny]

well as a PK I can tell you the gifts that were very appreciated in our house were bookstore gift certificates or to restaurants. Dad was a bookaholic and we didnt get to go out very often because most Pastors ( especially of the smaller churches) dont make a whole lot as Im sure you know.

Does your church do a love offering? Some of the churches we were at did a "money wreath" It was rarely more than a couple of hundred dollars but it made a huge difference to us!

Of course any gift is VERY MUCH appreciated.
Its very nice of you to think of them!

 

[CapeCodTenor]

No Salary?! Wow. Well, try a movie. Try and find out what kind of movies he likes and buy him/her a DVD.

 

[faith]

About the no salary. It's just the associate pastor. He has a "regular" job also.
Thanks Binny for the great book gift certificate idea. Didn't think of that. We have a Family Christmas bookstore close by.

 

[Pam]

We have given our Pastor Red Lobster and Olive Garden gift cards. He and his wife were very, very happy and appreciative.

 

[Talking Hands]

Faith, all the associate pastors at our church are paid, even those who are bivocational. So that was a question I would have had also.
We have given our pastors tickets to pro basketball or football games, restaurant cards, bookstore cards, money collected from the church members secretly, CDs of his favorite music.

 

[Free4Life11]

My dad is a pastor and he always gets bookstore certificates. They're not bad but he never really has time to use them. Restaurant gift certificates are the BEST! My family never had much time to go out to eat very often and it was always so expensive. Movie theatre gift certificates are nice, or maybe one of those movie gift baskets with a DVD rental. Pastors work a lot harder than people think -- they don't just work on Sundays! Anything to give him a break and have some fun with the family would be appreciated! My dad does a lot of driving too so a CD he could listen to in the car would be nice.

 

[allie&mattsmom]

We usually give the priests at our parish a gift certificate to a very popular local steak house. They seem to really appreciate it.

 

[kc73]

My husband is a pastor of a small church. The thing he really enjoys is knowing that he's thought about during the holidays & that the people here really appreciate all the hard work that sometimes goes unnoticed.

About the gifts, we have received restaurant gift card (they are great!), a love offering (fantastic, esp. right before Christmas), movie certificates (great, but I accidently threw them away )

It's nice that you're thinking about them!

 

[tommygirl79]

I'm a pk as well...

I was gonna suggest possibly restaurant gift certs too but honestly, I think money might be the best thing. It might seem easy or petty on the side of a preacher's family but now that I'm older my parents have told me that without monetary gifts from our church members, me and my brother would never have gotten very much for Christmas. In fact, they bought presents some years ONLY when they got money in the mail/by hand as a gift and it meant so much to them and means soooo much to me now since we've been at the same church for over 25 years now...

 

[RoyalCanadian]

I am a Lutheran pastor in Canada. Let me tell you -- I know Christmas gifts. Some have been great and some have been -- well, exactly the same as the gift the year before. Poinsettias are nice -- fruit baskets are nice. Don't think that I'm ungrateful -- they were appreciated gifts, but I get all the free poinsettias I want after Christmas when we clear them out of the church and we have a large collection of baskets from fruit baskets we've received over the years. There is only so much room for more rattan baskets.

One year I received a glass manger scene. Jesus, Mary and Joseph standing on a mirror. Nice. The next year I received a glass manger scene. Jesus, Mary and Joseph standing on a mirror.

Let me give a shout-out for the bookstore giftcard/gift certificate. Might I be so bold as to suggest a national chain such as Barnes & Noble or Borders? Many of us have book allowances that we can spend at church bookstores, but buying a "normal" book isn't always in the budget. One parishioner gave me a history book that touched on a Christmas sermon subject. Best part -- she got to watch me enjoy that book on a train trip we took together to a church convention in Ottawa and then I had the chance to tell her how great the book was.

The restaurant gift card -- A1!!! I don't accept money for baptizing anyone, but I've had many people slip me something in a card that I don't have the opportunity to protest until it's well and received. The best baptismal gift I received was a gift card to a nice steakhouse restaurant. DW and I were able to enjoy an evening out at a restaurant we could not otherwise afford to frequent (with DD safely at the grandparent's place).

The best Christmas gift I ever received from my congregation was a tabletop game. Shaped like a slab of wood cut from a tree, the lid came off and flipped over to reveal a Tic-Tac-Toe game board. The playing pieces were shaped like beavers. I spent hours playing Tic-Tac-Toe against myself and had so much fun with that gift.

The best part of any gift I have received from the congregation as a whole or a member of the congregation is the knowledge that the work I do is appreciated.

 

[sodaseller]

Year of Gevalia coffee service, based on his comment that he spends whatever money he has from his small stipend on good coffee and loved ours