Faith Works: Appreciation for clergy all the year round, especially summers
We are four months from October, which long ago was established as Clergy Appreciation Month with the very best of intentions. But after the end of that month is a steady rain of can’t-miss events on most ministerial calendars, from Thanksgiving and Advent through Lent and Easter to Pentecost.
So please allow me to proclaim out of season: If you want to appreciate your ministerial leadership, encourage them to take their time off — for some rest and personal time each week — and their leave time every year.
Here’s the hard part: It’s nice to say to your preacher, “Make sure to take your vacation time!” but what’s more important is how you affirm and defend that time to others in your church.
Speak up when the nitpickers say, “Didn’t they just take off a Sunday?” Support that time away when a friend or fellow parishioner says, “How many days have they been gone, anyhow?” Don’t just nod or chuckle when someone says, “They only work one day a week, what do they need time off for?”
I could add something about helping to make sure they don’t get contacted a dozen times when they’re away. I’d also remind anyone still listening that if your minister leaves after preaching on Sunday and preaches the morning after they get back, any elders or trustees who say, “That’s six days away off your total for the year’s vacation time” is not doing accurate or compassionate math.
The Rev. Willard Guy, who in 1990 was retired but working part-time where I was in my first full-time position, made quite an impression on me as I believe he did on everyone who had the honor of knowing him. I had started the year before with two weeks vacation in my letter of call. I hadn't taken all of it, having done three weeks of camp, but in my first review was recommended for a third week in my contract "which I should try and take all of this time!"
This proposal went to the board for approval, and at that meeting someone said, "When I started working I got no vacation and had to work for years just to get two weeks." There was much rumbling, and it looked as if the third week was going to be removed from the motion.
Rev. Guy spoke up. He'd been a chaplain in Europe with the Blackhawk Division, earned a Silver Star, feared God alone having faced armed Nazis, and helped liberate a concentration camp or two on their way to Berlin.
"In that job, how many holidays did you get?" he asked. The grudging reply: "Ten." Willard went on: "And how many weekends did you get off?" Long angry stare, which bounced off of Rev. Guy. "All of them."
Calmly he replied: "So that's 104 plus 10 days you got off when you didn't have vacation, 114 days. Your ministers work literally on most holidays, every Sunday unless we give them time off, and with regional and district events, almost half the Saturdays. I think four weeks should be a minimum, but that's just my opinion since I don't have a vote."
Silence, for a bit, then the chair moved the motion as stated through. Thank you, Willard. I got my three weeks.
That’s my contribution to any church member thinking ahead to Clergy Appreciation Month. October’s too late, but May is when the rubber really should be hitting the road on this subject. Be blessed and renewed, and God grant you lack of cell coverage as you get away!
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher around central Ohio; he’s on a sabbatical of sorts these days. Tell him about how you support your preachers & leaders at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Faith Works: Appreciation all the year round, especially summers
