Reflections of a Retired Pastor

For nearly fifty years, I rarely had the opportunity to just “sit” in church. There were opportunities on vacation to sit in church and of course there was the chair on the platform where I sat during certain segments of the church service. The perspective has certainly changed since retirement.  But sitting in church is a lot more than position or posture. I will delve into both aspects in this blog entry. Sitting in church might be construed as the casual church goer who sits through the service and leaves doing nothing to serve the Lord. He’s just a pew-sitter. Sitting in church might involve being fully engaged in the worship followed by a week of ministry, discipling and service in the Kingdom, yet being oblivious to others sitting in church with them. You might have other mental images of what sitting in church might apply to some. Before I proceed further, let me talk about the sometimes dreaded “Meet and Greet.” Extroverts love traipsing around the church hugging and catchi...

I remember talking to veterans while I was at Genesis, talking about their military service. I quickly learned that they didn’t care to talk much about their experiences because the memories were ugly. General George Patton said, “War is hell.” I can’t imagine the ugliness these veterans have experienced. We who haven’t served in the military and never experienced combat duty have no idea. Veterans who were fortunate enough to return home alive were changed for life.  Whether it be Omaha Beach at Normandy in the Second World War, or Korea, Vietnam, or Desert Storm, these veterans watched soldiers die right beside them, sometimes with gruesome images that linger in their memories. It should not be difficult to understand why they don’t talk about it. Neither should we be surprised that many who returned, came back with emotional issues, PTSD, etc.  There are opportunities to honor our veterans, and we should. But this weekend is an opportunity to pause in memory of those who ga...

Today was Pentecost Sunday, commemorating the birth of the Church, fifty days after the Resurrection. Please don’t gloss over the significance of this day in church history. On the Day of Pentecost, my Helper, Comforter, Paraclete (all ways that He has been translated) entered into the 120 disciples in the Upper Room and into every Christ-follower since, and that includes ME! I don’t know how I’d be able to serve the Lord or face life in general without Him. Praise be to God! Worship was especially meaningful to me today. We observed Communion today. It was my practice while I was pastoring to observe Communion on each of these significant “holy” days (Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Pentecost, etc). The focus of our pastor’s message was on being included at the Lord’s table.  Our church hosts middle schoolers monthly during the school year. It’s both an outreach to the community as well as a ministry to the youth of the church. The middle schoolers eat foods that middlers like (not necess...

Depending upon one’s understanding of Scripture and their interpretation of divine healing, there are different views on this subject. Debating the topic is not the purpose of this blog. I personally have experienced a medically verified supernatural healing and I also know that not everyone we pray for gets healed. The theme of this blog centers on how we can reconcile the two. If you’ve followed my journey over these many months, you know that it has been my desire to be an example of how to handle adversity as a Christ-follower. I’ve sought to be positive, encouraging, and upbeat. I’ve had many opportunities to share with others and the Lord has opened so many doors to point people to Him. Opportunities that I wouldn’t have had if I didn’t have cancer. The reason I wanted to model adversity was that I’ve seen Christians either fall apart or mask their situation with some super spiritual persona, neither of which, in my opinion, are healthy coping mechanisms for Christ-followers. We ...

  After 50 years of active ministry and a lifetime of attending church “most” Sundays, not being able to attend church for several months due to my illness was difficult. As I muse about this, it begs the question, “Why go to church?” The scriptural answer for me is Hebrews 10:25 (NIV), “not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” I’ve heard those who say this does not refer to “church, and quite frankly, there seems to be a current movement that is diminishing the value of “church” as we have known it for decades and even centuries. In my opinion, this is a dangerous trend because I believe that we need the church and I will try to explain why in this blog.  When I was actively pastoring, I felt that people came to church on Sunday needing to recharge for the coming week and needed the “encouragement” of the church body. They are “beat up” so to speak by pressures at work fr...

Have you ever felt lonely? Of course we all have, at one time or another. We measure loneliness by the lack of people around us or how many are in our circle. But as Christ-followers, we never need to feel totally alone because Jesus is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Before you accuse me of over spiritualizing this consider the following. On Sunday, our pastor talked in the children’s sermon about being yoked with Jesus. Isn’t that a cool thought? Think about it, when we choose to follow Jesus, He comes alongside us and joins us in our journey. Where we go, He goes. He is always there, even when we long for the companionship of friends or loved ones who have died. Our pastor then made what I considered to be an ingenious illustration that struck me in a simple yet profound way. Jesus is like Velcro! He sticks with us no matter what!  So, the next time loneliness overwhelms you, the BEST friend we can ever have is yoked with us. He’s stuck on YOU!

We are complex beings. Jesus indicated as much when asked about the Greatest Commandment. The answer was first of all to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, secondly to live it out by loving others as ourselves. He even goes further by saying that everything is wrapped up in these two commandments. Luke 10:27. I have some thoughts on this subject: Our heart is the  emotional part of our being. Our soul is the motivational  part of our being. Our mind is the mental part of our being. Our strength is the physical part of our being. Everyone of us, whether we are Christ-followers or not, have the same complexity. We are emotional, we have an internal purpose that drives us, we are intellectual, and we are physical. What separates us from the world as Christ-followers is that our commitment to following God’s will is what motivates us in this life and the part that continues with us to heaven. In contrast, the unbeliever’s motivation is devoted to the ways of th...