Clergy Families: Supporting Each Other

There are many articles out there on tips and ideas on looking after your family while in ministry, but recently we came across two we wanted to share. They have plenty of advice from clergy workers, and pastors wives so there's a wealth of options. Of course not all ideas will suit everyone and they aren't hard and fast rules, but hopefully there might be something in there for you and your family:

12 Ways To Support Your Husband Who Is A Pastor: Written by a US mother of 4/pastor's wife. She has some great, practical suggestions to help including getting ready for Sunday on Saturday evening, providing positive feedback on sermons or teachings, and organising quality time with your spouse. None of these suggestions are gender specific, I'm certain any pastor would greatly appreciate the help in these ways. Access the full article (and her blog) here.

Ministry At Home: 7 Ways To Make It Work (Guest Writer)

It can be tricky finding balancing the needs of home and ministry at home, particularly if church is held at your home or there are limited other buildings available for meetings etc. We asked an Australian psychologist who has experience working with clergy families what she'd recommend!  Below are her top 7 tips for making ministry at home work for the whole family. For more of her insights, visit our earlier article.

1. Have clear work times and communicate this with the non-paid ministry spouse. That is, break your day down into 3 chunks – morning, afternoon and evening. Most full time workers work a 40-hour week which should translate to approx. 10 ministry chunks. Schedule that clearly into your week, and communicate the work chunks to your spouse. For example, if on Tuesday there is a staff meeting in the morning and bible study in the evening, then my afternoon is a non-work chunk. 

What's A Pastor's Day Like Anyway?! (Video)

We recently came across this fun skit which was made as part of Clergy Appreciation Month and found it so accurate and fun we had to share :) While it is fun, it's not too hard to see the point behind it. We were recently speaking to a clergy child (PK) who was saying how people outside clergy families don't seem to understand how complex the job of ministry is and how long the hours are. Maybe this goes a bit of a way towards appreciating and understanding the job?

We hope you enjoy this skit, and maybe take a bit of comfort in the fact that your experience is quite similar to others in ministry :) Thankyou to The Skit Guys Studio for making this short video and making a great point in an easy to watch way. Is your day similar to this?

To watch it, please click on the picture or link below, it's definitely worth it!

~ Rachel

October: Clergy Family Appreciation Month

What a great initiative in the US! A chance to thank and acknowledge these hard working ministers for all the seen and unseen things they do for their churches. We are so glad to know churches around the US are finding ways to encourage their pastors.

We would just make one, small change - include the entire clergy family! While technically one person is generally paid, the whole family is really helping out :) Finding ways to acknowledge all clergy family members goes a long way towards encouraging them in their work and life as a family.

Here in Australia, we are wondering: should adopt Clergy Family Appreciation Month, what do you think?