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Does your church give Christmas gifts to thank volunteers? For example church musicians, teachers, etc. what is an appropriate $ amount for a church of 100 that has a full time pastor and the church is financially comfortable?Last Sunday the head of the music ministry at a friends church gave each musician and praise team member (about 10 people) a bag with a gift that consisted of an plastic M&M candy cane and a 4oz tin can of store bought cookies. The total cost for each bag would have been at most $5.00. This is the only item they received to thank them for their service during the year. One of the receivers of this gift mentioned to me that he was stunned and hurt.My opinion is that is would have been better to have given no give then to have given such a thoughtless gift. I think an appropriate gift would have been in the $25 to $50 range, and something that was not from the dollar store.

Varying amounts will be shared and the volunteers will receive an average of $50.Key leadership will receive more due to their strong commitment to the ministries of FCC.Just as an idea,If a small church can be disciplined to the point where they set aside a $20 bill every Sunday for the whole year they will have enough set aside to be a blessing to a basic volunteer staff at Christmas time. Empty nest syndrome is for the birds!Email me at: [email protected] planters are focused on just one thing ...introducing people to Jesus!

My opinion is that it is good form to be gracious about a gift no matter how small. A gift is not a payment, requirement, or obligation. If the music minister is unpaid or paid little, I wouldn't expect him or her to take $250 to $500 out of his or her own pocket for gifts. If money for the gifts comes out of the church budget, the church should decide how much they want to budget for gifts. Appropriate is going to mean different things to different people, but if the other praise team members don't appreciate their gifts either, I hope the music minister just uses the $50 next year to take his or her significant other out for a nice dinner.Hey, I'll sing for peanuts (M&M's)!That said, our church does give gifts in the $25 to $50 range, but I'm trying to think back to other churches I've been to. I don't recall the churches I grew up in giving volunteers gifts (and maybe they did and I just didn't know about it). Of course, that was back in the dark ages when the congregation all sang songs out of the songbook. No weeknight practices were required because we all knew the songs. I daresay the song leader and piano player would not have expected a gift for what they did, and they probably considered it an honor to do what they did.

Every January we have a Volunteer Luncheon to honor all of our volunteers from the previous year. The meal is catered. At the end, we have a drawing for five very nice gifts that have been purchased for the event. The gifts total about $500 in value. Last year we gave away a Samsung Tablet, set of Bose Headphones, and various other gifts. Electronics go well! The first name drawn gets to choose what they prefer. People love it! We are a church of about 325 and last year 116 volunteers attended the luncheon.

A scratchers lottery ticket each. If one hits it big, just think of the huge tithe increase.