This Was a Surprise

It has been said that God is a God of surprises.  The way my mom tells it, each of her five kids were little surprises from God.  We’ve had a little surprise come our way as well.  (No, Diane’s not pregnant!)  I don’t know if it is the pandemic or our advancing age on the backside of our sixties.  It’s been over sixteen years since we moved away from our family and we are saddened as we watch our grandchildren and one great-grandchild grow up without us being there.  Next month our great-grandson will be two years old and I’ve never held him or spoken directly to him.  We began to wonder if we could make it in this role for the next three years or if that would even be the best way to spend those years of our life.  A pastor needs to remember that his family is his first line of ministry and it sometimes seems like I’ve been negligent.  So, Diane and I began to wonder and pray if God wasn’t leading me to retire from local church ministry and seek some sort of work closer to our kids. 

About a month ago, I began to do some searching in the Sioux City area and Omaha, which is not too far from where they live.  God seemed to be directing me in applying for chaplain jobs, which surprisingly, I found quite a few listings in both places.  Two weeks ago, yesterday, I applied for a hospice chaplain position near Omaha.  I had never considered becoming a chaplain, but as I thought about it, God began to birth in me a new sense of direction in ministry through hospice.  In less than a week, I was offered the position.  Diane and I had been laboring in prayer over the issue and had seen his fingerprints all over this development.  When I got the call, I told them yes.  In a beautiful stroke of God’s affirmation, I received an offer for another chaplain position which I turned down. 

Our last Sunday with you will be January 9.  God has done good work in us since July of 2017 when I arrived and I know that I am privileged to have been your pastor.  I’ll have much more to say in the coming days to celebrate God’s work among us and to share my perspective and heart for you for the future.  Separations in ministry are hard.  The nature of a pastor’s relationship with a congregation is love and affection and that certainly is the case with Diane and me for you.  Between now and then, I will fulfill my role as pastor and do all that I can to assist you to take the first steps in the journey ahead. 

With great affection, in Christ,

Pastor Bob Myers

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Don't Find Jokes About Worship Music Very Funny

Image
This post is a second attempt on this topic.  The first was pushback on the cartoon above that a friend had posted on Facebook. It was lacking in grace.  I regret that but remain committed to my point.  I have a good sense of humor.  I enjoy the satirical website, Lark News , and even my own copy of A Field Guide toEvangelicals and Their Habitat.  I can laugh at myself and my evangelical tradition.  But I don’t find jokes about worship music very funny. Most of the time, it is contemporary praise and worship songs that are the target of the jokes and cartoons I’ve seen and heard.  There was a variation of Cows in theCorn several years ago that poked fun at hymns.  Nevertheless, the repetition found in praise and worship is the usual target.  It is my experience that people who don’t like the genre think the jokes are really funny.  I don’t.  I never have.  Here’s why: Praise and worship songs are differe...
Read more

Should the Church Accommodate Its Worship to the Culture?

Image
Yes… and no. Early this morning, I finished reading John D. Witvliet’s essay, Theological Models for the Relationship between Liturgy and Culture in his excellent collection, Worship Seeking Understanding   (Baker, 2003).   Heady and academic stuff, as the title demonstrates.   But the concepts that he unpacks are important for every pastor and worship leader to encounter and grasp. There are some groups who resist the surrounding culture at all costs.   The Orthodox Church, along with certain Anabaptist sects (such as the Amish) are probably the most radical in this regard.   But there are other traditional groups who avoid cultural infiltration like it was the plague.   On the other side of the spectrum are evangelicals who will do most anything and everything in order to satisfy the god of relevance.   Neither pole on the spectrum is to be desired. Cultural influence, or inculturation, in corporate worship is unavoidable and should be, in so...
Read more

Embracing Conflict in the Church

Image
Our church family is having a bit of a kerfuffle. Since this is a public forum, I won’t share the details. But it’s painful. It’s personal and it’s dangerous. No one likes it. This is not the first time I’ve been in a church family that was having conflict. Come to think of it, I can’t recall a church that I’ve ever been a part of that didn’t have inner conflict. Conflict is part of the landscape of human relationships. And the church, while it is infused with Divine life, is still human. On this side of eternity, we remain broken – in need of God’s grace and work in our collective life together. It’s the same for any family. There are many responses available to us when we enter into conflict. The first and, I must admit, easiest for me to immerse myself in is anger. It is an honest response, especially when one believes that injustice has been done or that the other party is somehow unrighteous. That has usually been my assessment of “the other side” when I’ve been deep in it. I...
Read more