1. It is artificial--Pastor
Appreciation Month isn’t a natural
holiday, like New Year’s Day. It’s not a
civic holiday like July 4th. It’s not a
religious holiday like Christmas.
It’s an artificial holiday. It was
invented by a group of clergy in 1992,
promoted by a prominent Christian
organization in 1994, and bought into by
Christian retailers throughout the
country USA) as a great way to unload
their overstock of pastor’s office
tchotchkes. It’s not the only
artificial holiday, nor does its
artificiality mean it is automatically
unworthy. (I mean, Valentine’s Day is a
manufactured holiday, but ask a
boyfriend or husband who has neglected
it to his own detriment if it is a
worthy holiday.)
2. It is awkward for visitors--Imagine
a scene with me: you have just moved to
a new area. You’ve never really been a
church-goer, but the new setting,
loneliness, and curiosity have led you
to “check out” the church down the
street. You walk in, are warmly greeted,
chat with someone you recognize from the
office of your apartment complex, and
sit down in a well-lit, comfortable
room. A guy gets up and prays to start
the worship service. A band plays songs
that, while unfamiliar, tug at your
heart and bring a few tears to your
eyes. Then, another guy gets up, directs
you to open the Bible you find under the
seat in front of you, and shares a
message that clearly comes from his
heart and touches yours. He closes with
a prayer, the band plays another song,
and you are suffused with a sense of
God’s goodness.
And then someone else stands up, grabs a
microphone, and talks for five minutes
about how much the pastor does for the
church people, and how they should
appreciate him every day, but especially
this month, and that there will be an
usher at the door with an offering
plate, and everyone should give whatever
they can so the church can buy him a
nice gift.
How awkward is it for you, a
non-church-going, non-pastor-knowing,
first-time-visitor, to hear that
announcement? What thoughts run through
your mind as your contemplation of God
is interrupted by it? Imagine what
you’re feeling as you walk past that
overeager usher pushing that plate in
front of you?
Not good, right? Not only can it be a
shockingly abrupt and uncomfortable
intrusion, but it can also reinforce the
lie that pastors are all about getting
your money.
We are often tragically inattentive to
the visitor amid our church gatherings,
but even more so in our celebration of
Pastor Appreciation Month.
3. It is awkward for church
regulars--Pastor Appreciation
celebrations can be uncomfortable for
church regulars, as well. The typical
bon mots about how hard pastors have it
can sound a bit contrived to the ears of
the single mom who serves in the nursery
every week even though she works two
jobs to make ends meet while she
struggles to raise her kids alone.
The call to give generously in October
can weigh heavily on the middle-aged man
whose 20 years at the factory have him
making a salary that’s half the pastor’s
regular pay package.
The widow who struggles with loneliness
may berate herself for the jealousy she
feels when this person who has never
even learned her name is praised as
God’s gift to the saints. Then there’s
the false guilt that comes when someone
forgets to organize a celebration or
when they compare what their church did
to what the bigger church down the
street did or when the pastor seems
ungrateful for what they did do.
Whatever the cause, Pastor Appreciation
Month can lead to some awkward feelings
and situations for those who are a part
of the church but not a pastor.
4. It is awkward for pastors--But
it’s not just awkward for guests and
church regulars; it is awkward for
pastors, too. Most pastors, myself
included, really struggle with receiving
compliments and gifts when it’s just one
person giving them. We know that any
good in us, any ability, any quality, is
solely of God, not ourselves, so the
compliment or gift ought to be directed
at him and not us. And yet we don’t want
to seem hyper-spiritual or falsely
humble by denying the giver’s gift. So
we stumble through a “thank-you” and
feel like it isn’t enough and yet is too
much, at the same time.
Now, compound that by 100, and you have
the typical struggle of a pastor facing
his congregation after they just feted
him with a celebration dinner, had
several church leaders speak about his
excellencies, and handed him a generous
financial gift.
What can he say, and how should he say
it?
Or,
the awkwardness can derive from another
angle. Imagine a pastor who just
accepted a call to his first church. He
remembers October as Pastor Appreciation
Month from his time as a church member.
He thinks of the cruise that church sent
the pastor and his wife on, the cards he
made in Sunday School as a kid, the
deacon chairman’s pat on the pastor’s
back. Then, his first October rolls
around, and it’s crickets at his new
church. Nobody says anything, does
anything or acknowledges the occasion.
His expectations weren’t met.
That’s awkward. But it could have been
avoided if we simply got rid of Pastor
Appreciation Month.
5. It cheapens pastoral ministry--One
of the chief arguments for Pastor
Appreciation Month seems to boil down to
the fact that pastors have a hard job.
But most pastors I know don’t need the
reminders about how hard ministry is:
they’re living that reality. But most
pastors I know are still glad to serve.
They didn’t get into ministry for
recognition or an easy life: they did it
to follow Christ’s commands. They don’t
want to be singled out, they don’t want
to be rewarded on earth: they’re looking
forward to Jesus being exalted and
joining with the saints in a heavenly
reward.
Pastor Appreciation celebrations and
gifts can give the impression, however
unintentional, that the hard work of
ministry can be rewarded here and now.
That cheapens it. Pastoral ministry is
not about what it gains the pastor in
the here and now, and any pastor worthy
of the title is not looking for such
menial reward anyway.
These gifts can also be potentially
manipulative or coercive. A church that
gives a large Pastor Appreciation gift
may be trying to keep a pastor in line.
A pastor who receives such a gift may
feel pressure to avoid saying or doing
things that God’s Word demands of him
for fear of offending his generous
congregation. Either way, the ministry
is diminished, changed from something
that is God-directed to something that
is financially-steered.
I understand that the same could be said
for pastoral salaries. However, most
churches provide a salary to free up the
hours a pastor would generally spend
working to provide for his family so
that he can focus on his ministry. In
such cases, the salary is not a reward,
but a substitute designed to enable his
service. The argument would stand,
however, if a church or pastor viewed
his salary as the bait on the hook for
keeping him around or the stick for
keeping him in-line or as payment for
services rendered.
Regardless of your stance on that
broader discussion, however, Pastor
Appreciation Month doesn’t diminish the
difficulty of the task; it cheapens it.
6. It reinforces the unhealthy
clergy/laity distinction in our
churches--Frankly, I was torn on
whether to put this reason first or last
(the places where “science” tells us
things are remembered most). I ended up
not putting it first because it is too
heavy a topic, and you would have quit
reading. I didn’t want to put it last,
because I wanted to not just be a Debbie
Downer and actually give some positive
statements about appreciating pastors at
the end. So, here is where it landed and
I hope you don’t forget it.
That October is Pastor Appreciation
Month is one of the funniest ironies in
all of Christendom. Why? Because it was
on October 31, 1517, that Martin Luther
first posted his 95 theses. While this
document was basically an extended
argument against the pope selling
salvation to the highest bidder, it
sparked the widespread movement we call
the Protestant Reformation. (Ok, the
funny part takes a while to develop).
One of the fundamental tenets of the
Reformation was the priesthood of every
believer. This was opposed to the
Catholic Church’s insistence that there
was a distinction between the clergyman
and the layperson. (Still developing…).
The Reformation sought to reestablish
the New Testament principle that, while
every believer is gifted differently to
serve, every believer’s gifts are
essential, and all believers are equal.
Yet, in October, the same month that
kicked off a movement that sought to
abolish the clergy/laity distinction, we
reinforce just such a division with our
celebrations (Hahaha! Get it? Ok, maybe
it’s not as funny as I first thought).
The point is that Pastor Appreciation
Month can, by definition, reinforce the
perception that the pastor is the
“professional” Christian and that the
“amateur” Christian’s job is to
recognize and encourage him and be his
audience rather than his co-laborers.
This continues the Catholic error of
separating out one class of
Christ-follower apart f
rom
all the others and elevating it in
importance. Pastors may have God-given
authority for their flocks in Christ,
but they are also still sheep in need of
the gifts of their fellow flock-members.
7. It can be a substitute for
biblical pastor appreciation--Finally,
celebrating Pastor Appreciation Month
can serve as a substitute for what the
Bible actually commands as pastor
appreciation. It is so much easier to
write a card, write a check, and write
off the much harder ways in which
Scripture calls us to express our
appreciation for those who lead us in
the faith.”
