Many churches celebrate the anniversary of a pastor and are looking for interactive ways to commemorate the occasion. Also, as part of an ordination or installation of pastors, elders, deacons, you may want to give a gift that involves all the participants and worshippers. Here are three ideas that I did that can be adapted for any occasion.

Celebrating the 15th anniversary of my Head of Staff’s ministry at our church, I cross stitched the names and dates of all those he had baptized. I thought it was a great way to visualize the blessings throughout his ministry at this church.

On his 20th anniversary at the church, I traced all the kids hands on felt, cut them out, and sewed them on a prayer blanket. To make the blanket, I scrounged through the Sunday School closet and found left over material from a quilting project made by one of the oldest members at our church. It had her signature on the corner of the fabric. It was a wonderful find. As a way to present the it, the kids laid hands on him and said a prayer (seen in picture above.)

At a presbytery meeting, we installed a new Presbytery Pastor (a head executive position that overlooks a group of churches within a geographic area.) As a gift from the presbytery, we wanted to give him a stole. I first made a pattern for a stole and sewed strips of ribbon in order to make a loom.

Before the meeting, commissioners were invited to write prayers on the ribbon.

I then wove the long strips of ribbon through the loom stole, sewed the ends, and added some fringe.