Appreciation Month

Did anyone else know that October is "Ministry Appreciation Month"? I just found out, it sounds funny to me. I found out for a Dayspring add. They explain its a time to honour the pastor and his family and closed with "May God bless you as you bless those that minister to you."

Interesting....as much as I like "being blessed" is this another marketing thing to get Christians to buy more stuff?

Comments

matthew said…
to be honest, i don't like pastor appreciation month. it sorta takes the focus off of God a little bit each week of that month. plus, i've never been good at handling compliments. the whole thing just makes me a tad uncomfortable.
Sarah Beth said…
I don't know if Pastor Appreciation Month was developed to get people to spend more money, but my think-the-best-of-everyone-attitude says that it was not. I think it was developed, as the name implies, to show appreciation to pastors. I like the whole idea because, as a pastors kid I've seen how unappreciative people can be of their pastors sometimes. And in response to Matt, I've never been in a church that did anything more than one mention of Pastor Appreciation Month in the whole month, and if we can't take 5 minutes in one Sunday of our whole church year to say a word of thanks to our pastors, then we are in a sad state in our churches. And as for taking the focus off God, we take the focus off of God for so many other, less worthy things from Sunday to Sunday. This I acctually find a worthy "taking the focus off of God thing", if you want to call it that.
matthew said…
I agree with Sarah and disagree with my former self
Missy said…
I feel like such a dork in writing this comment, but I know where 'Pastor's appreciation month' started.

Mid 1990's at a Promise Keepers convention: Bill McCartney asked all of the pastors attending to come to the front. As they slowy did, a standing ovation came from the lay leaders. Bill then got the brillint idea that our Pastors and leaders are not shown the apprecation that we truly do feel for them often enough. And so with help from a few other, so began 'Pastor's Appreciation Month.'

I'm not entirely sure what i think of it. I kinda think it is tacky to write your pastor cards one month out of the year and not regularly, but then again, if that is what it takes to remind us to be considerate...