Retirement

In my ministry, I had the opportunity to be vacancy pastor on a couple of occasions, and, as circuit counselor, I've helped guide the number of congregations through the calling process. It's a little bit different this time, because the congregation in helping now is my own. When I took a call in the past, I was gone so fast that I never had the chance to see a congregation go through the process close at hand. When I helped out congregations in the past, I was helping out with the calling process, but wasn't close enough to the congregation to see all the ins and outs.

It is very curious. My congregation now has basically realized that I'm leaving, and they're beginning to understand that they're looking for a new pastor, even though it's strange to say that since I announced my retirement back in May. Right now, they're at the point of thinking through, as individuals, what they think they should have for a new pastor, and what direction the congregation needs to go in. The next step is to get them talking together with each other and come to an agreement about those things.

The interesting thing is looking at some of the self study surveys that have come in already. Much like any congregation, there is a wide variety of opinion about what kind of pastors needed here next. Some of the people think that there are changes ahead in the future that require new way of looking at things (my personal opinion as well), and some of the people want the exact same thing that they had 50 years ago (in the sense of style of ministry). It's going to be very interesting over the next few months to see how, or if, they come to an agreement about what's needed here next.