While it is very important for judicatory staff to find ways to support the clergy in their care and express appreciation for their work, we should not forget that the work of judicatory staff can be both lonely and stressful. In this month of clergy appreciation, consider the possibility of reversing the process and encouraging pastors in a presbytery to send some notes of appreciation to those judicatory staff. Obviously the impetus for this has to come from other clergy rather than from the judicatory. Perhaps, a member of personnel for the presbytery could email the suggestion out to the clergy.
Ask them to consider an action taken by one of the staff people for which the pastor is thankful. It might be something that was done for the pastor or congregation or it may be something that the pastor saw done for someone else. In any case, the idea would be to encourage a number of pastors to express those individual words of thanks to the judicatory staff. In a sense, you are offering a pastor to pastors event in reverse.
We all need appreciation and as Israel discovered, offering appreciation to others frequently results in our experiencing our own blessing.
