Thank a minister this holiday season

Thirty-one years ago today I got married. It was a Saturday 31 years ago. My 19-year-old bride knew she was marrying a minister, yet little did she or I realize the costs of such a calling. Both she and I learned the days around our wedding.

I was pastor of a little church in southern Indiana. The day before our wedding one of the faithful members of our church died and his funeral was scheduled the day after we were married. There was no question as to whether I would officiate at the funeral or not.

As soon as the wedding reception was over, Mary Ann and I took off for a nearby hotel, only to arrive and find out most of the hotel personnel were on strike. I had a huge headache but still had to carry our luggage one block away from parking.

It was no great wedding night, to say the least. The next morning we got up, had breakfast, and made our way to our church field for the funeral. What a honeymoon! But we would not have wanted it any other way. It was an appropriate introduction to the real ministry.

Before returning to our seminary apartment Monday, we spend one night in a wonderful Marriott Hotel, enjoyed a lovely dinner for two, and indeed experienced our first real night as a married couple.

Over these 31 years we have had similar experiences where church and church members have come first over our family and our marriage. Good and bad. That’s the lot of members of the clergy.

Christmas and New Year’s are good times to express to your minister your gratitude for his putting you and your family often ahead of his own own family. He is there making sure you and your family have wonderful Christmas and New Year’s Eve Services often to the neglect of his own.

Say, “thank you.” Make it visible and obvious you appreciate him for his calling. He would not have it any other way, but it is extremely thoughtful for you to say so and do so.

This was the first Christmas in 15 years we have spent with my wife’s parents in their home in northern Kentucky. How delightful it was to go to church and not worry about all the “nuts and bolts.”