Decorations for an Installation Banquet for a Pastor

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More than 320,000 Christian congregations operate in the United States. On a typical Sunday, the median number of people in an individual church's worship service is 75. Each week, the pastor of your church prepares a worship service to enhance your religious understanding. It's important to welcome a new pastor warmly, and one way of making him feel at home is with a special installation banquet.

Table Decorations

Create a somewhat formal banquet setting using plain white tablecloths at the event. For a more casual look, sprinkle confetti in the shape of crosses on top of the white tablecloths. Choose religious items, appropriate for your congregation, and use them as centerpieces on the tables. Add a vase of fresh flowers to designate the table where your new pastor will sit.

Creative Food Labels

Create unique food labels for items at your banquet. Think of creative names for the food you serve that relate to your church, town or state. For example, you might serve "Texas Toast" or "Maryland Macaroni and Cheese." To acquaint the pastor with your area, you might also choose a local landmark and name a dish after it. Write the food labels on blank note cards and include a photograph of the landmark. Place them in front of each dish.

Wall Decorations

Decorate the room of your welcoming banquet with posters related to your area. Select maps or photographs of hot spots in your area. Buy inexpensive picture frames and hang them on the walls of your banquet hall. Ask children of the church to create a large banner that says "Welcome, Pastor" using a long piece of butcher paper and markers. Hang this in the entryway of your banquet room.

Photographs of Congregants

Help your new pastor get to know the church's congregants by placing framed photographs of congregants participating in church events around the room. Select people-focused photographs so that the pastor can begin to relate faces to people of the congregation. Write the names of the individuals in the pictures on the back of the frames. After the banquet, set these in the pastor's office so that she can refer to the back of the frames as she acquaints herself with the congregation.