October is Clergy Appreciation Month?

OK, I’ll admit it. I was as surprised by this as anyone. Like a lot of ministers I know, I'm just now starting to come up again for air after a busy autumn start to yet another church program year. Until just a few weeks ago, I had no idea there was any such thing as a “National Clergy Appreciation Month,” much less that “Clergy Appreciation National Day of Honoring is always celebrated on the second Sunday in October.” But thanks to the Hallmark website, not only do I now know that Clergy Appreciation Month was established in 1992 (although I'm still not sure who established it), and that its “mission is to uplift and encourage pastors, missionaries and religious workers by providing physical, emotional and spiritual support,” I’m also aware that “Hallmark offers 35 Clergy Appreciation cards,” and that “Clergy Appreciation cards may be found wherever Hallmark brands are sold.”

I also have to admit though that I kinda like the idea of there being a National Clergy Appreciation Month. Heck, I think it ought to be International Clergy Appreciation Season. Not that I generally go around feeling unappreciated for what I do. In fact, just the opposite -- I generally feel like I am able to accomplish relatively little compared to all the things I WISH I could do in my ministry, and am always a little amazed by how much people seem to appreciate my feeble contribution to the quality of their spiritual lives.

But the truth is, I’m not so sure that anyone can really appreciate what clergy do except for other people who have been doing ministry themselves for a significant amount of time. I know this was true for me. I first got involved in this line of work because I thought I’d like it, that I’d be good at it, and that it would provide me with an opportunity to accomplish something important with my life. I also liked the idea of working with both books and people, and that there was only one hour a week when I absolutely had to be in a certain place at a certain time.

Of course now, twenty-five years after my ordination, I’ve discovered that ministry is easily the most emotionally and intellectually demanding thing I’ve ever done in MY life, and doubtlessly among the most emotionally and intellectually demanding occupations on the planet. The relentless and unforgiving weekly deadline of Sunday morning can quickly become all-consuming if I let it (and often even when I don’t). I still like my job a lot (most days), and like to feel that at least now I do it better than I did when I first started out. But sometimes it’s still hard to see what tangible good I’ve been able to accomplish with my life, especially since so much of my work is intangible and highly subjective to begin with.

More to the point, I also have a much greater appreciation at this point in my life for how much ministry truly is “shared.” I try to do my job for the benefit of the people under my care, but I also can’t do my job without their active encouragement and support. Furthermore, a good portion of my job is to help equip people to be of service to others (i.e. to “do ministry”) themselves, and in this regard it is sometimes hard to tell where my ministry leaves off and all of theirs begins. Ministry is a lifestyle as much as it is a profession or an occupation or a vocation. Or to put it another way, ministry is what we do together when we make up our minds to take the mission of the church seriously.

In any event, I'm very grateful for all the expressions of appreciation I've heard for my ministry over the years -- not just during National Clergy Appreciation Month, but often at some of the most random times and places. And I also hope you all know in your heart-of-hearts, more than I can express in words, that the feeling is mutual....