I’m not sure whether I have written this up or not. A couple of weeks ago our community had a pastor’s appreciation banquet organized by an ecumenical counseling center. The program is something that could be duplicated by any community. Here is what happened.
The center invited local churches to find $100 to provide for their pastor and spouse a celebratory banquet in appreciation for their work. In addition, the churches were asked to send along with the reservation a letter of appreciation for their pastor’s work. This letter was given to each pastor who attended. The $100 per couple paid for a very nice banquet and some extras. Ten times during the evening, a drawing was held and the winning couple received a free night at the Brookstown Inn, a local bed and breakfast. We also commissioned a local musician to take a familiar hymn tune and write new words to it celebrating the work of pastors. We invited a speaker who had done research on the challenge of being a pastor and had a local comedian provide some levity to the evening. The end result was a fun evening and an expression of appreciation for the hard work of ministry.
We did learn in the process that most communication with churches goes through the pastors and you can’t send an invitation to a pastor to have their board express appreciation to them. So before planning such an event, you need to strategize on how to communicate with the lay leaders in the congregations. You also have to work hard in convincing congregations that there is no hidden agenda. It is a sad truth that people can get suspicious when you say that all you want to do is express appreciation.
Community wide expressions of thanks are hard to pull off in our individualized communities but they are good for the whole community.
