- It's Pastor Appreciation Month.

Yesterday we told you about the

National Association of Evangelicals

new campaign to help relieve pastors'

financial stress.

It helps to educate church members

on the financial issues thattheir pastors often face,

and has direct ways that they can help.

Here now with more onthe financial realities

of pastors is Brian Kluth

with Bless Your Pastor.

Brian, welcome.

- Great to be on withyou and your viewers.

- You know this topic personally.

Tell us your story.

- When I was 45 years old

I felt God's call

for me to leave the career field I was in

and to become a senior pastor,

which I did joyfully.

But that meant a $70,000 pay cut

for me and my young family.

And I began to discoverhow does God provide

when they paycheck isn't big enough?

And so we put together a lot

of materials to help churches

and Christians really come alongside

and bless their pastor.

And everything we have is completely free

at the blessyourpastor.org website.

- This month is Pastor Appreciation Month.

What can church members do

to change this reality for pastors

now and year round?

- Yeah I think there's a few things.

One is to go to theblessyourpastor.org website,

order the little flyer,

50 ways to bless your pastor

and your church staff year round.

That's free.

And then really look at that list

because most people that see it

go wow there's things there

I never thought about.

Even things as simple asgetting a pastor a gift card,

gas card, a grocerycard, or restaurant card,

Home Depot, Lowes, anythingyou do for a pastor

or church staff member willreally, really bless them.

So that's something that everybody

listening to us can probably do.

But another thing is to provide

free services.

Child care services ifyou have a connection

with your pastor and their children.

Medical care, dental care,

cut their hair, beautycare, cut their grass,

anything you can do to come alongside

and just lighten the load

because most pastors,

people don't realize this,

they're working 50 to 70 hours a week.

And over half the pastors in America

make less than $50,000 a year

and receive no retirement,

non healthcare and no other

employee benefits from the church.

So when Christians rally

around heir pastor

and care for them practically

and personally,

it's really life changing

and life giving to that pastor

and to that congregation.

- Yeah every little bit helps.

How can pastors get helpin managing their money?

- Yeah we fortunately got money

from Lilly Endowment so we created

financial health resources for pastors

and church leaders.

So any pastor, churchstaff member in America

can go to NAEFINANCIALHEALTH.ORG.

And we have free courses there

and materials and links

that they can get affordable healthcare.

They can learn to pay off debt.

We even have grantmonies that are available

for taking the courses

and even honorariums.

So there's a lot of things

at NAEFINANCIALHEALTH.ORG

or blessyourpastor.org

that can help pastors andchurch staff specifically

in addition to their church boards

and their congregations.

- Are there any other ways

that people can learn moreabout this program, Brian?

- Yeah, the best way isto go to the website,

everything is free

and all grant funded.

Blessyourpastor.org orNAEFINANCIALHEALTH.ORG.

Either one of those websiteswill be a great blessing

to your congregation, to your pastor,

and even to yourself.

- Wonderful.

Thank you so much foryour time today, sir.

And we really appreciate your efforts

giving back like that.

And I know pastors all across the country

and around the world reallyneed their congregations

to step up and lend a helping hand.

Thanks again.

- Hey, God bless you.

Thanks for having me on.