Showing Appreciation to Elders

God said double-honor (I Timothy 5:17). There was a time in my ministry when I gave no thought to honoring them, much less “double-honor”. However, when one of the godly shepherds at Maury City reached a 50-year milestone of consecutive and faithful service to the Lord’s church as an elder – he “ruled well” which meant it was time for a party.

Brother Bates was a noble man and was a pharmacist in the town of Maury City for many years. I recall one time his telling me when he retired, he took all the receipts of those who owed him money and burned them, never looking back. He helped people. He grew a garden and gave away more than he kept! He was generous. He was kind. He was humble. He was smart. He was extremely wise and became one of my very good friends.

It has been many years since the congregation has hosted an “elder appreciation party” but they wanted to do such a thing on December 30, 2018…so the planning began. Instead of honoring just one elder as was aforementioned in 2009, we are honoring all elders along with their good wives. The elders’ families were notified and all their children/grandchildren were present for our morning worship and the fellowship meal to follow. I believe we had a record attendance for the day. The members were encouraged to all hand-write letters of appreciation, the kids were encouraged to draw pictures or write according to their abilities, and one member even wrote a tribute in the form of a poem to these godly shepherds!

The goal was 100% participation from every member and if it was not met – we got very close. I have learned a lot after almost 17 years of ministry and one of those is this…God said double-honor. We will try to continue to live up to that verse as we strive to heap upon the men who are an integral part of the organization of the Lord’s church and who rule well – double honor. — Stephen Sutton

I appreciate Stephen sharing this encouraging post. If you would like more information, you can contact him: stephensutton@me.com

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Jerrie Barber
Servant of Jesus, husband to Gail, father to Jerrie Wayne Barber, II and Christi Parsons, grandfather, great-grandfather, Interim Preacher, Shepherd coach, Ventriloquist, barefoot runner, ride a cruiser bicycle

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