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My-Pastor Minute, Issue #001 -- Carjack your pastor.
October 31, 2006
1,500 pastors leave their churches every month in the United States because of conflict, burnout, or moral failure. Help keep your pastor from becoming part of that statistic. Use every available resource to encourage, support, and partner with your pastor. This ezine, My-Pastor Minute, combined with www.My-Pastor.com give you a good start toward effectively ministering to your minister.

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Date: October 30, 2006

Issue Number 001

Table of Contents:

  • Carjack your pastor.
  • Turn a photograph into a work of art for your pastor.
  • What do pastor’s really think about church ministry?
  • 52 Ways To Encourage Your Pastor – One for Every Week!

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Carjack Your Pastor

Normally carjacking isn’t a good thing. It’s stealing a car while the driver is still inside or just outside pumping gas or something. So I don’t want you to carjack your pastor in the literal sense. And frankly, the cars that some pastors drive don’t make for very appealing targets anyway!

However, your pastor would feel incredibly appreciated if you carjacked his car for a day. But don’t take it for a “joy ride.” Take it to some specialists – or get together with some others and do it yourselves.

  • Change the oil and check all the fluid levels.
  • Give it a tune-up.
  • Rotate and balance the tires.
  • Get a wheel alignment.
  • Wash, wax, and vacuum the car. Then wash the windows, dash, seats, etc.
  • Fill up the gas tank.

Obviously you don’t want to just take his car without knowing a little about his schedule. You’d hate for him to miss a wedding because he couldn’t find his car.

You might ask his wife about his schedule. Or you may have to approach your pastor directly. Most pastors wouldn’t ask many questions if you simply said, “Pastor, a few of us would like to borrow your car for a day. What day would be best?”

Carjack your pastor … just make sure you give it back.

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A New Pastor Gift Idea: Turn Photographs into Art

Take any photograph and turn it into a work of art on a painter’s canvas. CanvasonDemand.com transforms your pictures, digital photo enlargements, traditional photo enlargements, family portraits, or church pictures into beautiful giclee (an art quality ink jet process) style canvas prints. Choose from their Photorealistic or Light Brush Strokes techniques as well as various levels of retouching.

You could turn a picture of your church building, of your pastor’s family, of the congregation into a large work of art that will hang on your pastor’s wall for years.

Or, create a lasting tribute for your pastor. Use a picture of your pastor preaching or praying to create the artwork. Then hang the portrait art in your church as a tribute to his ministry.

Put Your Photo on Canvas as Art!

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What Does Your Pastor Really Think About Church Ministry?

Consider the following results of a survey of pastors conducted by the Fuller Institute of Church Growth:

  • 80% believe that pastoral ministry is affecting their family negatively
  • 33% say that being in ministry is clearly a hazard to their family
  • 75% have reported a significant crisis due to stress at least once every five years in their ministry
  • 50% feel unable to meet the needs of the job
  • 90% feel they were not adequately trained to cope with the ministry demands placed upon them
  • 40% report having a serious conflict with a parishioner at least once a month
  • 70% have a lower self-image since they have pastored than when they started

What can be done about this? Read the rest of this article by Steve Johnson.


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What’s New at My-Pastor.com?

52 Ways To Encourage Your Pastor. Here’s a list of practical things you can do this week to encourage your pastor. Read the list here.


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Comments? Ideas? Feedback? I'd love to hear from you. Just reply to this zine and tell me what you think!

Thank you for your ministry to your minister.

Dan Sherman
Michigan, USA
www.My-Pastor.com


If you have questions, ideas, or wish to be removed from my mailing list, please reply directly to this ezine email.

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