Well, it is about to happen. I am moving.

          Not out of state. Not out of the parsonage, at least not yet. Out of my office. My current office is right in the area of the new construction at the church. When the construction is complete Rena and I will have new offices. So, for now, we are going to have to vacate the old haunts. “When” is the question. However, it really doesn’t matter to me. For this office, I am traveling light. Four plastic totes for my books and I am out. It hasn’t always been this easy.

          An office has always been an important place for me. Not as a prestige thing, but as a place of solitude where I could think and study and counsel. I have tried the ‘work from home’ kind of thing. Doesn’t work for me. If I am home, Marsha likes to pop in for a visit. Several times. We used to have a cat named Fred who liked nothing more than to jump up and lay down right in front of me. Any little household emergency required my attention, from spiders to sink leaks. It just wasn’t good. But the office has always been a good thing.

          First office. 1978. Sunset Hts. Baptist Church. Hialeah, Florida, which is a city that borders Miami. I was the associate pastor/ music pastor/ youth pastor. My office was AWESOME! Huge. Two walls lined with bookshelves and the shelves were filled with books. A huge desk that somehow looked small in the room. A window that opened up to the church’s courtyard where there were two small palm trees. It was an amazing office. The church had a sanctuary that sat over 500 people. State of the art (for then) sound. An educational wing that had ten Sunday School rooms, all very large. However, the church had been built during the 1950s and 60s. At that time the neighborhood was all Anglo. (English speakers in South Florida are called ‘Anglos.’) The church had two services each Sunday. They had a pastor, an associate, a minister of music and a youth pastor. By the time I came along the entire neighborhood had become Hispanic. We had a Spanish mission of over 400 people, but the Anglo church was in the 40 to 50 range. I had a great office, but the church couldn’t afford to pay me a full time salary, so I rebuilt carburetors and sold auto parts and the office went mostly unused.

          Second office. 1983. During seminary. Sandy Creek Baptist Church. Ponce de Leon, Florida. Seating capacity of the church was 50 people. Very country in the panhandle of Florida. The office was so small that the small desk in it went from one wall to the next. To sit in the chair, I had to leave the door open. But it was great. I went to school, worked 40+ hours a week and pastored the church. The only time I could study for school or get ready for sermons was after 10 at night. I would study and prepare and when I could no longer stay awake, I would go out the back door and walk through the cemetery, eventually getting back to the parsonage. I only fell asleep once at the desk in that office. I fell off the chair and didn’t have enough room to properly fall, so I was wedged pretty securely for a while. But I did enjoy that office.

          Third office. 1985. McKinley Community Church. Warren, Ohio. We had gone to Ohio as home missionaries for the Southern Baptist Convention. That is not a good memory. But McKinley was a wonderful experience. The office was great, too. If you are familiar with the copier room at the church, that was my office. Seemed really big after the previous office. Actually, it was bigger than that, but most of it was taken up with the furnace. I also had a desk that had a mimeograph machine. Those were outdated even then, but that is how we still did all our stuff. I was in the basement. No one wanted to come in and have to sit with the furnace, so it was secluded. Just me and my books. It was great. If anyone came in for counseling or just to talk, we went out to fellowship hall. But that was the most private office I ever had. Later on, we had a small building project going on and they wanted to construct a new office area. I told them that was fine, but I wouldn’t be moving. I know the next pastor hated sharing with the furnace, but I really enjoyed it.

          Fourth office. 1995. Park Street Christian Church. Geneva, Ohio. The pinnacle of a church office. The secretary’s office was attached by a door and the two offices were the size of the entire sanctuary back at Sandy Creek Baptist Church. This church wanted a pastor/counselor, so the office was top rate. Extremely attractive so that those coming in for counseling could be comfortable. Two very nice wing chairs and one very nice full length sofa. A desk I often referred to as the aircraft carrier. I once had a lock-in with all the boys in the youth group. It turned out to be a thundering, rainy night. We were in fellowship hall and I called lights out. I told the boys that I trusted them to behave, so I was going to go up to my office to turn in. That was when the storm really hit. Lightening and thunder and all of a sudden the boys were pouring into the office and throwing their sleeping bags on the floor. There was more than enough room, but I had to leave. They were stinking the place out. When we went to that church I made the assumption that it was the end of the line. I could never want a better situation. I was prepared to stay 30 years. So, I made that office truly mine. It had more of my ‘stuff’ in it than our home did. I could be there at any hour of the day or night. No TV, just books. Eventually a computer. It was truly my home away from home.

          But we only stayed 11 years. When I moved out of there it took load after load. Never again, I promised myself, would I make an office so much like home. If you are doing it right in the ministry, you are functioning at the Lord’s beck and call. You might think you and hunkering down for a 30 year stay, but He may have another plan. Eventually I went to work with the funeral home and became a church consultant part time. At the funeral home I shared an office with two other directors for seven years before getting my own little office and for the church work, just worked from home.

          And then the Lord brought us here and this office I have occupied for the last two+ years. Now, there is a new office to be built. That is exciting. We will just have to see how it works out. However, it will only be a good place so long as the Lord’s will is accomplished there, just as the remodeled church will be a good place only if we seek Him out. The work doesn’t end with the end of construction. That is when the real work will begin.

          This blog is called ‘From the Pastor’s Desk.’ My monthly article in the church newsletter is also called ‘From the Pastor’s Desk.’ These will continue to have that name. But for a while I will be moving to temporary quarters until construction is complete. So, even though the name will not change for the blog, it is actually going to be “From a Table the Pastor is Borrowing Somewhere.”

Blessings!