Now that our church has identified a senior pastor, our interim pastor can move on. And having served for forty years, he and his wife have decided to move on to retirement. We had a retirement dinner for them last night. It was a fitting celebration of forty years of ministry, replete with pictures, letters, and testimonies from almost all of the places in which they have served.
At the end, our interim pastor was asked to say a few words. In addition to expressing his deep gratitude for such an honoring evening, he asked us if it was OK at the morning service the next day to have the elders of the church lay hands on him and commission him for retirement. He explained that while he planned to take at least the summer off and would definitely take it easy from here on out, that he intended to continue to do the work of God while he was alive, and so he desired to be commissioned for that work, whatever it was.
I appreciated the sentiment and only wish everyone who was retiring saw their post-work days in such a way. For just as God considers us all ministers equipped to do His work, He considers all the times in our lives to be useful for His kingdom. As our interim pastor put it, retirement is not an end but simply a transition; and he was humble enough to desire God’s guidance and power for it.
Many people do not retire well. Some fade into uselessness, others can’t stand to not work and give into drivenness, and still others get into all sorts of trouble as a result of their newfound idle time. This morning, I am glad we will be commissioning our interim pastor for a retirement that is none of those things, but rather that is a continuation of a lifetime of following God and serving others.
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