Realize it's

just the middle of August and you are stirring to get your kids back in

the school saddle. But, let me drop a little suggestion in your ear this

day: help your church to start preparing to honor your Pastor during Clergy

Appreciation Month in October. Too often, we hear the news of such a practice

too late and it's difficult to organize any kind of worthy recognition.

Your pastor

needs your affirmation. Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family,

led the way to make October Clergy Appreciation Month because he had met

with enough of us types to realize we needed some love.

Contrary to

most perceptions, the Pastorate is one of the loneliest jobs on the planet.

Genuine friendships are hard to come by. Why? There's the sister or brother

who wants to be the pastor's friend and so go out of their way to encourage

him. However, one day he acts like a human being and fails in some way

perhaps fails to make a strategic visit and his friends are no longer

there.

Perhaps the

pastor and wife have some friends in the church friends who will bend

over backwards for their pastor until the day he adopts a new approach

to church policy. That's it. So long, friends. Never to be heard from

again.

Those considered

life-long friends at one time have left the church and never even call

to check up on how things go. Friendships in the pastorate are precarious

at best. That's why the pastor, but especially the wife of the pastor,

is more than leery of such overtures of friendship.

At times, church

members only want to be friends with the pastor and his wife to get what

little glory there is by associating with them in their days of fleeting

popularity. They also want to get the inside scoop by befriending the

pastor.

One way to

resolve the crisis of loneliness in the pastor's family is for the whole

church to attempt to behave in friendly ways with the pastor's family.

One way to do that would be to put some real muscle behind Clergy Appreciation

Month.

When the church

wolves in sheeps' clothing begin to see the widespread affirmation from

the whole congregation for the pastor and family, they might think twice

before trying to tie a noose around the pastor's neck and drag him out

of town.

Some churches

hesitate to do such a grand thing as honor their pastor fearing he might

get the big head. Believe me, he has sufficient "thorns in the flesh"

to keep him humble the rest of the year.

But, I encourage

a church to go all out. What about a banquet in the family's honor? What

about an all expenses paid tryst for the pastor and wife (or pastor and

husband)? What about generous gifts for the children? Make a whole month

of it. Have individual members make their contributions in creative ways.

When your pastor

sees to what lengths you have gone, he might be a better pastor, a more

effective preacher, and a possible friend. But you have to take action.

O yes, don't depend upon the official heads of the church to lead the

way. Often times, they are already plotting. Get them involved after you

and others have a good idea of what to do. If you leave it to official

heads, they will more than likely give the pastor a gift certificate to

the local fast food restaurant.

The Rev.

Dr. John Hatcher is pastor of

River's Edge Community Church

1091 South Jeff Davis Drive

Fayetteville, Georgia 30215

770-719-0303

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