Well, this is not the way I wanted it to happen. Truthfully, I never wanted it to happen. However, we don't always get what we want.

    I am retiring, effective October 1, 2023.

    I am no longer able to pastor in the way I feel I must. This long illness I have struggled with just will not let go. For every step forward I have gone back a step and a half. My last hospital stay cemented it in my mind. I struggle to make hospital and nursing home visits and I cannot make in-home visits because I fear falling on uneven ground. I cannot see to drive at night. And now I can't even be depended on to be in church on Sunday. I have never understood 'pastors' who just preach, but I have become that, and it does not sit well. The church deserves better.

    The Greek word for 'pastor' is 'poimenas' and means 'shepherd.' The Hebrew word is 'roim' and also means 'shepherd.' The meaning is clear. My job has been to care for the flock. Not rule the flock, not ignore the flock while I do my own thing, not control the flock. Simply, care for the flock. And until the last few years, I have done that very thing. But now I am no longer able.

    Oh, I won't be done completely, I suppose. I will fill pulpits, maybe do the occasional funeral, maybe do some counseling. Maybe even try my hand at writing. But pastoring is beyond me now.

    And before you start with 'the Elders need to do those things,' let me tell you that the Elders at the Yoke have been great. They have stepped in for me at a moment's notice, making visits, talking with folks, preaching, running me around. The Elders and some others in the church have stepped in when I cannot. And this is good! But there is nothing quite like having the pastor take a hand of someone in a hospital bed and praying with them before surgery or, in some cases, just before death.

    Right now, I feel like a ship that has hit the rocks in a stormy sea. Battered and breaking up. But a friend in Miami, Noelvys Betencourt, who has known me most of this journey, reminded me of the career that has been. And it has been amazing! While that ship is battered and breaking up, it sailed a long while through all kinds of seas. There is a feeling of pain and loss when you watch a beloved one die, but there is also a feeling of victory, knowing they are seeing Jesus! Walking a person through the phases of grief is awful, but seeing them get their life back is worth it. Encouraging people to rise up in their Spirituality is a privilege most people never feel. I could never have had another career.

    And I have to say, I was pretty good at this career. I have never backed away from the Word, even if I knew folks would get angry with me. But in forty eight years, I have never been asked to leave a church, and when I have left a church, it has always been on good terms. God's people will respond to God's Word, even when they don't like it.

    So that pretty much is my announcement for this Blogday. I will say this, though. I really, really want no form of a farewell. I have been part of a team here. Any accomplishments that have been made have been made by the Yoke, not by me. So, no gifts, no tears, no meals. (I know from experience that pork would be on the menu. Its like you people cannot help yourselves.) Just a few handshakes and a couple of hugs and the Yoke moves on.

    There was a plan at one time. I was Southern Baptist. An influential professor in seminary took an interest in me. He drew up a plan for me, and if this particular professor created a plan for you, you were set. Kind of like the Mafia and the professor was a Don. Actually, now that I think about it, that is kind of what the Southern Baptist Convention is like. The Mafia. Anyway, there was mission work, there was turning a church or two around, there was being elevated to a state convention post to work with crisis churches, there was a teaching stint and then there was a posting in the national convention. And then, an honored retirement and a home somewhere in Tennessee. We did do the mission work, but then the will of God intervened and we moved away from the Southern Baptists. We did work with crisis churches and I taught for a while, but neither with the Southern Baptists. And that honored retirement with the home somewhere in Tennessee? Not going to happen. In my mind, though, retiring from a country church in Indiana is the best of the best.