Personalized Religious Gifts

Let’s look at when and how to give religious gifts:

When to Give Religious Gifts

The typical moments for religious gift-giving usually revolve around Easter, Christmas, baptisms and funerals.  However, there are many religious gift ideas that help to express religious love and care through times such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Confirmation, graduation and weddings. Some people treat a few of these as more secular in nature but to the religious devotees, all of these occasions and more provide an opportunity to express religious affection. 

There are public and private moments to offer religious expression.  A religious gift such as a Bible might fit well in a public gathering such as a baptism.  However, a personalized religious gift such as a plaque engraved with the recipient’s name on it, might be more appropriate for a special event or a more intimate setting. 

What’s the purpose of giving religious gifts?  These gifts are continual reminders of something larger than the life.  That’s why gifts such as bracelets, crosses, pictures, figurines, etc., hit a sentimental chord with most recipients.

How to Give Religious Gifts

There are so many venues to give religious gifts.  Some of these include:

- Pastor Appreciation Month

- Lay Leader Appreciation

- Baptism

- Confirmation

- Church Anniversaries

Looking at Pastor Appreciation Month specifically, how the personalized religious gift is given is almost as important as the presentation itself.  This will require significant advance planning if it is to have the desired impact.  Things to consider for the presentation of the gift are:

Making sure the pastor is in town for the event date

In order for this to be a true success, it’s always great if the honoree is actually going to be there for the presentation.  Check with the spouse and/or secretary as to. 

Proper venue

Nothing is more important to a pastor than family and congregation.  In fact, the congregation is often an extension of the actual family.  Proper planning with those who conduct the worship services is necessary to seamlessly include the presentation of the pastor’s gift.

Secret invitation

Working with the pastor’s spouse and/or secretary and others with appropriate skills, it will be necessary to secretly invite the congregation to the church on the specific date set.  Invite them approximately two weeks from the time of the event to encourage as much secrecy as possible.  Giving them much more time than that might make it harder to keep the secret.  Invite as many of the pastor’s family as possible that could travel to the church.  The expression on the pastor's face will be priceless as he receives the religious gift in front of those that he/she loves.

Purchase of appropriate gift

There are so many ideas from which to choose that they can’t be enumerated here.  However, shopping online for that perfect gift is not as hard as you might think.  With enough lead time, the gift can be personalized for the recipient.

Recording the presentation

Preserve the memory with a professional recording so the pastor and the family can relive the moment again and again.