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| The night we will never, ever forget……
I have wanted to write a post about this subject for a really, really, long time. But somehow it just didn’t come together. However, today’s the day!
A limo arrived last Friday, just after 4. We had been told to be ready, dressed semi-formal for a mystery Pastor Appreciation event…
I about fell over when a limo pulled down our long lane…really? For us? |
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| From our house we went to pick up Mark and Jill |
Next Lori and Steve were picked up…
man oh man, we all were riding in style
Jen and Bill were last….
And then we were driven out to Dane & Laura’s home….
the beautiful Tuscan home were Tyler and Sarah were married…. When we walked into the courtyard of their home,
precious friends from church were standing on both sides clapping….
how blown away we were!!??
Dinner course was served in their formal dining room {above}
Dane and Laura- two of Dw’s and my most precious friends…
who generously and graciously opened their lovely home…
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The meal was a five courses
including Hot Red Pepper Soup
and Salad {my personal favorite} |
Some of the folks from church, who were serving us….
Jill was making me laugh….drinking her water from that huge goblet,
{seriously,
it was almost the size of a small fish bowl}
all fancied up with lime, lemon and orange slices….
They had the servers around the table and did everything in unison….
and we had salad and soup course in the breakfast room….
In between courses, we enjoyed live harp music…..
Seriously, they thought of everything!
Dw and Jasper….Jasper &
{Dane and Jasper both are on our council…
and Dane & Laura are one of our elder couples}
all deeply love the Lord and wanted us to feel
appreciated and honored! {wow}
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Delicious doesn’t even begin to describe it:
Prime Rib, Shrimp Scampi,
Twice Baked potato, and Risotto
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| Gabe: tender young cameraman who loves Jesus so much…. |
Dessert was on the upstairs on the outdoor balcony…with a roaring fire in the background…seriously, can you imagine the pampering?
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Some of the best staff we have ever had….
L-R
Mark {our worship pastor} with his wife Jill
{she is my right arm in women’s ministry}
Whitey and I
Steve {Associate Pastor} with his wife Lori –
they are our son-in-love Ryan’s parents – how cool is that?
Billy and Jen {Jen is our Children’s pastor} Kevin {our Student Ministries pastor}
and his wife Brenda were unable to be with us,
as they had out of town company
So what was that all about anyway?
A few weeks ago, Dane and Jasper sent all pastoral
staff out of the sanctuary during both services.
They talked to the congregation about
honoring and the pastoral staff
for Pastor Appreciation month.
They invited people to sign up to bring
different dishes for the meal,
or help with set-up, clean-up,
serving or whatever else was needed.
Behind the scenes all this was going on and
let me tell you, the entire evening I
felt like a princess. It was elegant, classy,
pampering and unforgettable!!
I am wondering if you have honored your
pastors this October? {Or last year or are going to?|}
As I understand it Pastor Appreciation Month
was either started or at least promoted
by Focus on the Family…as a way
to encourage pastors in their precious
and often discouraging life calling.
As many pastors are ditching out of
the ministry right and left, HB London
and Dr. Dobson wanted to see the tide
stemmed. They decided to call October –
“Pastor Appreciation Month” .
Probably it is hard to understand,
from the outside looking in, what
would be so hard about ministry.
Some day I would like to tackle that,
but suffice it to say: Dw was a lawyer
with a huge practice for 11 years….
and now has pastored for nearly 20 years.
Hands down, pastoring is a billion
times harder.
It isn’t even close.
And over the years we have had the
churches we have pastored,
honor us at times. We cannot begin to
thank those enough, who have shown
their appreciation for the ministry we
have been called to do. We do it with
a joyful heart, but it is not always easy
and some seasons are downright
overwhelming and discouraging.
Have you honored your pastor?
And let me just say: If you don’t even like
your pastor, get on your knees,
ask God to forgive you and start to
intercede for the man that God has
placed in that position over you,
in the church you attend.. It is really
hard to have offense against someone
that you are deeply interceding for.
Actually downright impossible.
And then ask God for creative ways
honor your pastor.
A gift card for the family.
A fruit basket.
A home cooked meal.
A night of babysitting so your pastor can go out
and enjoy an evening with his wife or
even something like our
Servant’s Council “cooked up”.
We are abundantly blessed to serve
the Lord at the River Church and at
difficult times in ministry, it makes
the days a little brighter to remember
Pastor Appreciation and how we are loved. |
How precious that your Church Family showed their love for you in such a unique and wonderful way!
Part of our ministry as AMF missionaries is to minister to the Pastor and wives in our area. Thank you for reminding others to lift up their shepherds. So many are struggling so here due to small churches, small funds, apathy etc. in fact several churches are getting ready to close their doors. I think if all of us would ask for the Father's eyes when looking at each other we would be instead full of laughter, contentment and peace- encouraging each other to the point of extravagant love- hmmm reminds me kind of the Prodigal Father – yup I said that right. When you look at how the Father lavished the love on his son that is what the Father is-prodigal (i looked up that word and was surprised at it's meaning and have never seen that story in the same light!)
Bee blessed
mary
As the daughter of a pastor, the sister-in-law to two pastors, and the sister to yet another pastor, THANK YOU for your charge to believers to honor their shepherds. For too, too long, the church has allowed their leaders to be run down, run ragged, and run over. For too, too long, the church has been TOKEN in its approach to this special month set aside to honor these servants of the Lord. Why, I have even heard folks call it just another "hallmark" holiday, meant to make more money on card sales. It saddens me.
I love how your staff and ministry team honored you – not the pomp and circumstance, but the ritual of feeding you and nurturing you in such a lavish and loving way. It's soooo not about the money spent or the manner in which the event is carried out. It's in the hearts of the people who do it. It could have been pb&j for all you cared about the actual food, I'm sure. It's so much more about the heart of honor and gratitude.
For all the pastor's wives (and pastors?) who lurk here and read this post – Thank you. For your service to the people of God. For your late hours, sleepless long nights, tear-filled and prayer-filled times on your knees. For your passion to serve Our Father with excellence. For your totally poured out, sold out, sacrificial love for your church, for your community, and for your family. What you do and how you do it is NOT unnoticed.
What a wonderful surprise! Our kids school actually does pastor appreciation day. Which is coming up very soon. The kids at the school do everything for the meal including serving and putting on a show. They invite Pastors from all over our area and bring them together for a time to serve them and to thank them.
P.S. I just found out about a week ago that the Principle of our kids school, her husband and her use to be youth pastor and then her husband moved into position of assoc. pastor at your church right before you all moved there and took it over. CRAZY! We do live in a small world.
That is AWESOME!!!
Wish I had been there to help! I think we need to take out our new pastor and his wife here in Chicago. Would be a huge blessing to us to spend the time with them!
what a cool evening!!!
Linny,
what a blessing for yall 🙂 Sound slike you have an amazing Church. If I had money I would make a trip and come visit! 🙂
Tami
PRAYING for a MIRACLE for Jeremiah
http://www.tillGodbringsthemhome.blogspot.com
How fun that your hubby and you and other pastors of your church were honored. I respect and love all that our pastors do at our church. Once in awhile when Jesse comes into the hardware store, I'll buy him a drink from the cooler, cuz I know it's a pick me up. He usually gets a frappicono. I know he likes coffee. God bless!
so fun!!
What a wonderful way to honor all of you. Beautiful!! Hugs and love
That was awesome! I had chills when I saw those people standing on the balcony, clapping as you arrived! Imagine the great cloud of witnesses cheering you on!
We have something planned for our pastor every Sunday for the month. He is so dear, and has been our pastor for 22 years!
Today, when asked by JT why the children sang for the pastor, I said because he is wonderful…and she said, "Uh………….he's the BEST!"
Just learned how to post a comment! Okay, what a gift, truly, to have an evening like that. Also, I am glad you got a kick out of the subject line of my email but I am not.even.kidding. =)
That was so elegant and everyone looks so beautiful. That is a gorgeous picture of you 2. That is such a good feeling when you take time getting ready and get all fancied up and your so appreciated. Loved to hear about all the people helping. That was such a cool thing to think of. The food made me hungry!
On another note, I forgot to mention this. How awesome God has been answering our prayers. We went back to the church we used to go to about 20 minutes away and within the first week I approached the new pastor about doing an Orphan sunday event and looking into starting an Orphan Ministry and it's a go. We have an event scheduled and working on the rest…He is so very supportive of our adoption and we can actually talk about it in church. God is so good!
Lots of love!
The Funk's
Hi Linny,
Thanks for sharing the link to your church. I visited today and have been listening to the sermons there. What a blessing!
Much love,
Stacey
How amazingly fun does this look? So glad yall got to have such a sweet time.
Love the idea about thanking/ministering to/encouraging your pastor – this is so important…. also wanted to remind everyone to do this for your youth minister as well – even if you dont have kids in their group…. their jobs may look like they are just having fun all the time, but it is so much harder than you know (speaking from experience)… such a great idea and reminder!
What a fabulous evening!
Unfortunately, my husband and I are two of those that left full-time ministry after about 7 years. It IS so much harder than anything we have ever tackled. That may be hard to understand from an outside perspective, but for us, it was downright painful and has had lasting consequences on our emotional health. There were only a very few times in our ministry that there were outward expressions of appreciation.
Thanks for your note and your encouragement to lift up those that have dedicated their lives to shepherding us.
God bless!
Wow! You are absolutely stunning. You look stunning, but even more than that…it's easy to see your "excellent spirit" (like Daniel had) shining in the pictures.
What a blessing! As a pastor's wife, I say thank you for posting this! It's so wonderful to see our hubby's getting loved on by those that they serve!
Thank you for how you are constantly ministering to my heart with your posts!
How wonderful that your church family honored you and the fellow pastors of the church in this way. It looked as though you all had a fabulous time! Everything was beautiful!!! May God continue to bless and keep you all for many more years of service.
Also, I really enjoy listening to the sermons on your church's website. Great messages!
Dear Linny & DW:
I am so happy that you got to enjoy such a lovely evening out with the special people of your church! Just beautiful!
Oh Linny- it looks like an incredible evening!! What an honor to serve the Lord and to have those you work with and those you minister to, love you so much!!
(hope that sentence made sense!)
I do have to ask you- what did people say when you took a pic of the salad- I had to chuckle here at home!
Linny – I know what a HUGE night of encouragement this was to you, DW and the whole staff!! Your church family will be blessed for blessing you. As a pastor's daughter and pastor's wife now for 25 years, we have rarely been thought of so extensively…in other ways at times, but not like this. Here we are in Pastor Appreciation month and not a word. Please don't take this post as one of jealousy or such. Just where the Lord has us at this time. My hubby is the Sr. Pastor and I the Worship Leader in our small church and our titles don't even begin to tell all that we do. What we continually verbally speak to each other is that we will choose to be faithful to The ONE who has called us no matter what.. knowing that when it's time, HE will be the one who tells us "well done". Hugs my ministry friend! 🙂