Thoughtful Appreciation

Our language contains some words that have a happy ring to them. Appreciation is one of them. 

Appreciation…a rare word that envisions two parties: those who do something commendable and those who observe it with approval.

Appreciation cannot be manufactured but members of communities can alert each other to be observant of the good things that are being done and then to mention them with a measure of approval and acceptance.

In our church-communities there are the many volunteers that deserve appreciation. 

Why?

Their service is the life-blood of a church’s ministry program. They don’t do their volunteer labor In order to be praised. In fact, they risk criticism. Nor do they do it for the fun of it. In fact, volunteer work eats up time and has more than its share of difficulties. And they don’t do it because they think they are smart. In fact the reality is that they often doubt whether they are on target. Among these volunteers are the pastors who rarely have the feeling that they are caught up.

The “Church-Year” has started again. The church council needed new personnel. Teachers had to be found. Committees had to be staffed. Visitors had to be lined up. And a host of unforeseen duties could not be postponed and always again good people pitched in and did them.

None of these volunteers drew attention to themselves. So, they actually didn’t get much attention. That’s why churches needed to be alerted to be observant and take note! We agreed to do that and gave it a name: “Pastor and Ministry Appreciation.”

Can you “do appreciation”? Should it ever be programmed…? Not an attractive thing to do. But it is wonderful when from among the membership voices are heard: we should take note, we should observe what these people are doing, we should mention it, we should be appreciative! Once those feelings become real they will find an eloquent expression: a sincere word, a card, a little hug, or a token of your own imagination.  

Yes, let’s do it: voice our awareness of appreciation.