Sept. 11 marked the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on our native soil, resulting in approximately 3,000 deaths and another 6,000 injured.
When that tragedy sunk in, we talked about the day the world stopped or forever changed. If you were alive on that day, where were you and what did you do when you heard the news?
I was on a plane bound for New Orleans on that Tuesday when the Twin Towers were struck. My plans were to fly down, have lunch at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary before attending a trustee subcommittee meeting, and then fly back to Atlanta and drive home. The airport closed, and all methods of transportation out of the city were shut down or not available. I was stranded in the Crescent City until Friday. From then until now, I heard over and over, “We will remember.” We should remember. That day was a terrible reminder of the evil and destruction in the world.
People of my generation remember the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the breakthrough of the Beatles because we were alive when it happened. Sept. 11 trumps everything else for the Baby Boomer generation.
Jesus Christ exhorted us to remember Him when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Why? Perhaps because we tend to forget things over time. We need reminders.
October is Clergy or Pastor Appreciation Month, and Oct. 19 is the day set aside to do something tangible, loving, honoring, and memorable for our pastors. Why? Most all pastors (including staff ministers) deserve to be honored by God’s people because they do God’s high and holy work — specifically, but not limited to, preaching the glorious Word of God. First Timothy 5:17 says, “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.”
Romans 13:7 says, “Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.”
Pastors are typically overworked and underpaid. That has changed some over the years. But pastoral ministry is not a high-paying job. It is a divine calling. A pastor does what he does because he is called to do it. Finances are secondary but still very important. He has a family to support.
The pastoral calling is an extremely serious undertaking for a man of God. James 3:1 says, “Let not many of you becomes teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment.”
The exercise of honoring God-called pastors is biblical. Pastor Appreciation Day or Month is good, even if it did start with an idea from Hallmark Greeting cards in 1992 and Focus on the Family about the same time. Hallmark began selling cards for pastors in 2002.
If you don’t like partnering with the secular to honor a man of holy calling, find a creative way to express your appreciation with even more powerful results.
To appreciate your pastor means to be grateful for him and value him highly. If you do — and you and I should — then we should show it in a tangible and practical way. In 1 Corinthians 9:9, Paul wrote, “For it is written in the Law of Moses, ‘You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.’ God is not concerned about oxen, is He?” He goes on to write in verse 11, “If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we should reap material things from you?”
Honor your pastor by paying him well, and then each October, express your appreciation to him and his family with a generous and tangible gift. We all have material needs, so why not give your pastor something that communicates in an undeniable and measurable way that you do, indeed, love, support, and care about him. In 100 years, you will not regret it
Please remember your pastor during Pastor Appreciation Month and don’t forget Paul’s words in Acts 20:35: “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
Remember your pastor with appreciation this October!