Editor’s Note: Our guest blog this week comes from Rev. Brent Newberry (he/him). In honor of Clergy Appreciation Month, Brent shares with us his reflections on how the practice of appreciation evolved into the overall culture of his congregation. Brent has served as the Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Worcester since 2015. He loves baseball (real and fantasy), ramen, poetry, photography, creative writing, good sermons, and his family (Kelsey, Liza, and Higgins!). Brent earned his Master of Divinity from Baylor’s Truett Seminary in 2013. He is currently in the writing phase of his Doctor of Ministry in Transformational Leadership at Boston University School of Theology.
Creating a Culture of Appreciation
My first Sunday as pastor at First Baptist Worcester (FBCWoo), I was overwhelmed by how lovely and beautiful worship had been. In response, I started thanking the people who’d been a part of making it so meaningful. Then I turned to the congregation, and I thanked them, too.
I think a couple of people chuckled as my enthusiasm ricocheted around the sanctuary like Oprah giving everyone a new car: thank you, and thank you, and thank you! But the truth was, I’d stumbled into my first on-the-job lesson. I truly appreciated that they had been there and participated, and I didn’t want to take that, or them, for granted.
I’ve tried to thank them every Sunday since.
That accidental tradition continues to teach me how generative it can be for a congregation to practice appreciation.
Appreciation as a Practice
The “thank yous” at the end of worship now include several people, from the sound and video team to the ushers, liturgists, choir, and other ministers. And of course, the congregation. It may take all of 30 seconds, but it’s become an unscripted part of our liturgy. Liturgy, after all, is “the work of the people,” so it seems fitting that we’d express our appreciation.
During our offering time, we include a moment of gratitude, a silent opportunity to give thanks to God. That weekly moment has expanded how I think of appreciation. When we thank God, we’re giving thanks for blessings, answered prayers, glimpses of hope or joy or love. But we do so from a deeper belief in God’s character and goodness. Gratitude is a way we remind ourselves who God is. In that light, appreciation is much more than a feeling or acknowledgment of someone’s efforts, however important they are. It’s a recognition that goes beyond someone’s production and sees the person behind it.
Practices of appreciation shift our traditions, expectations, and how we treat each other. They reflect how we value one another.
And it applies to staff, too.
It seems small, but thanking our staff for the work they do, even when they’re just “doing their jobs,” is a simple yet powerful way to shift expectations and reshape the culture. It honors the dignity of their work and keeps everyone’s actions from becoming utilitarian and their interactions from becoming transactional. Thanking them in front of the congregation or during worship models for congregants a new way of conceiving their staff. They are seen as more than employees, and as partners in the shared work of the church.
Appreciation as a Commitment
In many ways, appreciation is a commitment to choosing the kind of community and culture we claim to believe in and hope to create. We can treat our staff and congregants the way we’ve always been treated at work or in our families, or we can do better. If we really believe in this kin-dom of God, where things like mutuality, justice, kindness, and belonging are abundant, then we should commit to embodying it, even when it’s costly.
That kind of commitment might look like sharing power, access, recognition, or responsibilities. As leaders, especially those at the top of the org chart, we receive our fair share of appreciation. We have higher salaries, and the organization defaults to us for important roles, whether liturgical, ecumenical, fiduciary, or managerial. What would happen if you shared some of those roles, especially the pulpit, with the other ministers on staff more often? It would affirm their giftedness and value, and it would help the congregation see them beyond their usual functions. It would also spark their own theological imagination about the roles they can play in the church’s ministries.
Appreciation as a Culture
But when do practices of appreciation become a culture of appreciation? That change seems to come when the congregation takes ownership.
It might look like ritualizing their appreciation, creating policies that prioritize staff well-being: like making COLAs (cost of living adjustments) the default, recognizing and blessing the entire staff in worship every year, or celebrating milestone anniversaries.
Other times, it might look like reinforcing the boundaries around how they want everyone to be treated. A telltale sign of a flourishing culture of appreciation is how the congregation protects and nurtures it together. They know how they want people to treat one another, and it’s shaped by how they value each other. When toxic people misbehave, they stand out as glaring outliers in a culture of appreciation.
Still other times, it won’t look like what you expect at all. They’ll have their own ways of showing appreciation that look nothing like your own. Maybe they’ll clap for your sermons or the postludes or really any special music at all. Or they’ll welcome newcomers so enthusiastically that they pull you away from conversations to be sure you meet the person they’ve just gotten to know. They could invite you over for dinner, which might seem like more work, but in reality, is the most generous and vulnerable kind of appreciation they could ever offer.
Surely that’s the truest sign of a flourishing culture of appreciation:
when you learn from each other what it can be.
+++++++++++++
More ideas to create habits of appreciation
This post includes five questions to ask and four studies to inform your work on making habits of appreciation which lead to a shared culture of appreciation. And there’s a download to save to your files. Or share with congregational leaders.
