Congregating to honor the service of church secretaries

The world is full of unsung heroes.

Fortunately, there are folks all around us who unselfishly give of themselves year in and year out to make the world a better place.

I'm talking about people who do that with little or no compensation or recognition - who are satisfied with doing what they can without a need or expectation of reward.

They are the teacher who stays after school to mentor a 4-H club; the cop who befriends a kid who's teetering on the edge of a life of crime; the mechanic who takes care of the car of the widow next door without accepting payment.

Last month, the Rescue Mission of Roanoke honored a whole group of people who are often under appreciated: church secretaries.

At a quarterly meeting of the Rescue Mission Auxiliary, the secretaries were invited to a delicious free lunch - funded by Lewis-Gale Medical Center and catered by its executive chef and his staff.

Giving the Mission a face

Some 52 church secretaries joined about three times that many auxiliary members for the luncheon, which was in its third year.

Lee Clark, the mission's development director, admitted that there was a secondary motive to the simple objective of honoring those who serve their churches.

The secretary is often the first - and sometimes only - face a church visitor sees on a weekday. Often those visitors are people in need - of food, clothing, money for the electric bill, sometimes even of a roof over their head for the night.

The secretaries appreciation day at the mission is a way to show them the facility - "to see that it is a bright, welcoming place and not a flop house," as Clark put it - and perhaps to help them remember it as a resource the next time a needy person comes knocking.

A presentation accompanying the lunch included testimonials from volunteers, staff members and program participants about the myriad ways the Rescue Mission fills a critical need - without requiring a cent of tax money - for the Roanoke Valley and beyond.

Deserving of reward

The real focus of the event, however, was the secretaries. Many larger congregations pride themselves on paying their secretaries competitive wages, with excellent benefits packages.

That ought to be the goal of every church, but the truth is that most religious congregations are small with limited budgets. Probably hundreds of church secretaries in Western Virginia make little, if any, more than minimum wage, often on part-time hours and with paltry or nonexistent benefits.

For many of them, that's all right. Their service is their primary reward - a ministry, if you will, in God's service.

The Rev. Bill Lee, pastor of Loudon Avenue Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), delivered the keynote message at the luncheon.

Lee compared the church secretary to a midwife who makes sure the projects, programs and mission of a church are born. Every church "needs a good midwife to turn the baby's shoulders and shepherd a successful birth" of its ministries, Lee said.