by Joshua Cheresnick, Next Level Customer Support & Growth Specialist 

For seven years, I had the privilege of volunteering at a Pregnancy Help Center while serving as a pastor. That experience gave me a perspective I wouldn't have had otherwise.

I saw firsthand how important the relationship between Pregnancy Help ministries and local churches can be. I also learned how difficult it can be to get pastors connected.

And believe me, I say that as a pastor.

We pastors are an interesting bunch. We love people. We want to help. We believe deeply in ministry, and we will tell you that the Church should be engaged in the community.

And then you ask us to add something to our calendar.

Suddenly, we need to pray about it. A lot.

The truth is, pastors are busy. There are sermons to prepare, counseling appointments, hospital visits, funerals, weddings, Bible studies, meetings, staff concerns, family responsibilities—and the occasional emergency involving a church toilet that apparently requires theological intervention – and don’t forget many of us are bivocational.  

So I can understand why a call from a Pregnancy Help Center may not always get an immediate response.

But after seven years at a center, I also understand what is waiting on the other end of that phone call.

It's a woman who may be scared.

A couple who may not know what to do.

A young man trying to figure out how to respond.

A family already under financial or emotional pressure.

These aren't simply “pregnancy cases.”

These are people.

That's where pastors and Pregnancy Help ministries can complement one another so beautifully.

Pregnancy Help Centers often meet people right in the middle of a crisis. They can provide practical resources, compassionate care, and a safe place to begin asking difficult questions.

The local church can provide something equally important: community.

A pastor can listen. Pray. Encourage. Connect. Shepherd.

And the church family can become the people who continue walking alongside a woman or family long after the immediate pregnancy crisis has passed.

But that relationship doesn't happen by accident.

It takes Pregnancy Help leaders who are willing to keep reaching out to pastors—and pastors who are willing to open the door and listen.

To my friends serving in Pregnancy Help ministry: please don't give up on pastors.

I know it can be frustrating. You've made the phone call, sent the email, invited the pastor to lunch, and perhaps wondered if your message disappeared into the same mysterious place where missing church pens go.

Keep building those relationships.

Don't simply ask a pastor to support your ministry. Help him understand how your ministry can help him care for the people God has already placed in his congregation and community.

And to my fellow pastors: please take the call.

You don't have to become a pregnancy-center expert. Start by getting to know the people doing this work. Visit the center. Listen to their stories. Learn what resources are available in your community.

Then, when someone sits across from you and says, “Pastor, I'm pregnant, and I don't know what to do,” you won't have to wonder where to send her.

You'll know someone.

More importantly, you'll know that she doesn't have to walk through this alone.

After seven years of serving at a Pregnancy Help Center while serving as a pastor, I came to appreciate something deeply:

Pregnancy Help ministries and churches don't have to do this work separately. We can do it together.

The Pregnancy Help Center can open the door. The pastor can help keep the door open. And the church can become a place where a woman, a man, or a family discovers that an unexpected pregnancy does not have to mean an unexpected journey alone.

So this Pastor Appreciation season, let's thank our pastors—but let's also remind them of something important:

There are people in our communities who need them.

And there are Pregnancy Help ministries ready to stand beside them.

Sometimes all it takes is a phone call.

And as someone who has made—and received—those calls, I can tell you:

That phone call is worth making.