Why should you appreciate your pastor?

I ran across the blog Created to Give God the Glory earlier this month when I remembered October was Pastor Appreciation Month. I wish I did not need a month to help me to remember to appreciate my pastor, but I feel we and especially me, all too often forget to express my appreciation to him and to the Lord for him.

I thought this blog did a great job of explaining why we ought to appreciate our Pastor's. Here's a bit of what this blogger had to say.

Pastoring a local church is the hardest job in the world...Why?
1. The pastor carries the burdens of the people and is responsible for their souls before the Lord.
2. He does his best to help these people. Most of the time they completely ignore everything he tells them to do.
3. Church members tell the pastor how the church ought to be run. They have taken the point of view: "I have been in church, therefore, I know how to run the church."
4. Members take the church's highest peaks and try to say that was the standard
5. There are some members who always hide in the shadows. They will be quiet until they see something go wrong.
6. Pastors are not psychic.
7. Pastors cannot be at two places at one time.
8. People are sometimes incredibly unreasonable and the pastor has to let it roll off his back.
9. The pastor is expected to present a dynamic sermon each week.
10. Your pastor does all of this for the Lord. I promise you; he doesn't do it for the money!

I think these reasons and his examples are reminders for us to appreciate and encourage our pastors more frequently. Before the month is out, Lord willing tomorrow, I want to share publicly the reasons I appreciate my pastor, Don, and his wife Courtney.