Thanking pastor

An important word in your question is “should.” You are under no obligation to give your pastor a monetary gift when he visits you and communes you. Your congregation has called your pastor to provide exactly that service to you. If you are not able to receive the Lord’s Supper in church, your pastor is happy to offer you the Lord’s Supper in your home.

This does not mean that you cannot express your thanks—in a tangible way—to your pastor for communing you. When I served as a parish pastor and homebound members wanted to give me a monetary gift for communing them, I offered to put their gift in next Sunday’s offering plate in church. Almost without exception, those homebound members did not want me to do that. Instead, they wanted me to receive their expression of gratitude for my service to them. So, I did.

If you want to thank your pastor with a monetary gift for communing you, go right ahead. You might very well receive a little resistance from him, but persist as you will!

Your question calls to mind the attitude that Scripture directs us to have toward our pastors and others who serve in the public ministry: “Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work” (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13).

God’s blessings to you. In these challenging days, you can take heart in God’s promise to you that you are never alone: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).