I will speak of the body that meets regularly with a staff person as a council. You can adapt that to whatever body that regularly meets with a staff person to help that person exercise his or her ministry. In some cases it may be more than one body and then each need to take responsibility for reflecting on the well-being of that staff person. In other posts, I will also suggest activities and strategies that the individual staff person consider. For many of the devoted staff people in our church, that is the person who most neglects his or her own health. Therefore, the accountable body should occasionally ask the person what they are doing to care for his or her own health.
As a first step, and to be repeated at regular intervals, the council should step aside from their business agenda and engage in a version of what can be called appreciative inquiry. You can do this in one of two ways. You can simply place the person in your midst and members of the board begin to speak spontaneously of attitudes, activities, demeanor, accomplishments that they appreciate in that person. These should be done in short declarative sentences. Long stories and meandering reflections should be avoided. Conclude with a prayer of thanksgiving for his or her ministry.
Another way to do this would be more intentionally liturgical. Where available, by doing this in a chapel or sanctuary you are drawing upon the physical setting that speaks of our faith community. Have the person placed in your midst (physical placement of the person in the center of the circle can be powerful), enter a time of verbal prayer in which members of the council offer prayers of thanks for the positive aspects of this person’s ministry and conclude by laying hands upon the person and have a prayer for healing and strength.
