One of our co-workers in our ministry is getting married this weekend! Totally exciting in our world. These two individuals are awesome Catholics and awesome ministers. This is an exciting moment in their Christian journey.
Today, we threw what we called a “groom shower” for the groom and invited his fiancee to join us. We had more food than we needed, balloon animals created by one of our team members, a gift, cake, a blessing for the couple, and an apple cider toast. It was a great lunch. The funnest part was watching the bride and groom revel in the celebration. It was fun and the bride and groom were very grateful. What a nice send off for their wedding.
I didn’t plan the event, but I’m glad someone did. As I participated in the celebration, I thought about how important moments like these are. We celebrated as a ministry community a huge event in the life of someone we minister with and care for. The celebration communicated a few things today:
- It brought us closer together as a community.With events like this, we can’t help but smile and enjoy each others company.
- The groom felt supported and loved by his ministry team.He walked away from the celebration knowing that we truly do care for him and his life outside of the office. That leads us to number three:
- Our lives outside of the ministry are just as important as what we do in the ministry.We value each other as ministers and as people who have lives outside of ministry.
- The community that eats together, stays together…and also gains weight together. Okay, hopefully not the weight thing, but sharing meals, breaking bread together is exactly what Jesus did!
The groom is going to walk away knowing that the ministry that he is involved in is awesome because of the people he gets a chance to work with. He knows we care for him.
The learning for me is that I need to be intentional about celebrating with those I minister with. Whether that is volunteers, fellow staff members, or the people I minister to, these celebrations go a long way to making people feel cared for and building community and momentum. From now on, I’m going to pay attention to opportunities that are worth celebrating. It will make a difference.
In what ways do you celebrate with your ministry team? Let me know and post in the comment section below.
