Just a “Heads-Up”

Did y’all know it’s October? (Just barely yet! We are almost to November!) October means “Preacher Appreciation Month”.

You know, I can say these things now that I’m not a “in-the-pulpit-every-week/same-place-every-week” preacher, so…

Respect Preachers
Preachers used to be respected. Even if you didn’t believe the Bible, most people respected preachers. The government wouldn’t draft preachers because they believed it was important for the preachers to do spiritual things for our country. (The government believed this!) Nowadays, from the things I’ve seen a lot of preachers experience, many of them aren’t even respected in their own congregations.

At the same time, I don’t know any preachers that demand respect. I don’t know any who want a special parking space at the front door. I don’t know any who want to be at the head of the line at a fellowship dinner. I’m not saying they don’t exist; I’m saying I don’t know any – and I know a lot of preachers. Most preachers are content to take a backseat. The ones I know park as far from the front door as possible so visitors seeking Jesus will have easy entrance. The preachers I know would be more likely to go from table to table at a dinner filling people’s coffee cups like an employee at a diner.

Pay Preachers Well
Still, preachers don’t get paid much. Would you keep the hours of a preacher, be at everyone’s beck and call, put your family in a fishbowl, and endure the criticism of people who usually give the least of themselves in God’s Kingdom …for what your preacher is paid? …to live in a house that you’ll never have any equity in? …to have that house furnished with appliances that others in the congregation have already been done with? …to pay out-of-pocket for every doctor’s visit? …to work until your body won’t anymore and live on Social Security?

Oh, OK. “They shouldn’t care about the money! They should care about people!”

Would they do it for free? Many would. Many do. Would you?

Do you get paid at your job? Does that mean you don’t care about the people you work with, work for, or serve? No, it simply means we all need to make a living. Don’t deny your preacher one.

Let’s appreciate all our preachers do for us – not just in October, but every day! If we don’t, the world certainly won’t!

Raise Preachers
One way to show your appreciation for your preacher is to raise a preacher! If you have a young boy in your family, why not encourage him to consider becoming a preacher? (Because you know the way you treat yours?)

If you don’t have a son or grandson – a nephew… find a young man. There are young men everywhere that need an older man to guide them. Fatherless, aimless young men. Do something with them! Build a relationship. Bring them to Church. Teach them the Bible. Encourage them to preach.

I want to say that I am so very thankful for preachers who shaped me…

Gary Strickland… my dad who didn’t really preach ’til later in life, but preached to me every day!

David Martin… a young college student who became a preacher decades after he mentored and spent practically every weekend for a year with a shy JRHI kid in his youth group.

Fred Huckelbury… who first put me in the pulpit and directed my thoughts toward becoming a preacher.

Danny Burroughs… who once stood in front of the congregation and called me a “man of great integrity” (A sixteen year-old “man”). That was perhaps one of the most influential things ever said to or about me.

Tom Weaver… a mentor’s grandson I first heard preach when I was just a little kid (I love sayin’ that – lol), taught me how to be a revival preacher, and trusted me enough to become my “boss” preacher.

Evan & Nathan Strickland… those boys make me want to be a better preacher – if only to make sure my own sons don’t learn to out-preach me! (They are just about there, if not already!)

Frank Williams… my own preacher (when I’m home to hear him). I don’t know anyone else who has ever modeled for me the love, compassion, and patient endurance a preacher should have like Bro Frank does for me.

There are so many others I’ve bumped into as an adult. Those “bumps” always nudged me to be the kind of preacher someone might appreciate. I could never sit here and think of all of them – but there have been many. They are men like the ones who have influenced you – or maybe men like you, yourself – or maybe it was you. And you know, as simple as it was, the biggest thing that any of them did was spend time with me.

I love preaching – but most of all, I love preachers.

It’s important that we keep producing men like these, so we have more Christians like you.

Won’t you help us?