A new start for the church
NOVEMBER 20, 2007 (TUESDAY) – Excitement fills the air as members of the First Baptist Church prepare to meet the pastor being recommended by the Search Committee, this coming weekend.
The reason for my preaching here is rapidly disappearing.
The end of this interim pastorate will mark a new beginning for me, personally. At this point in time, I am not sure what I will do next, but as the church marks a new phase in its history, I am pausing to reflect upon my life.
I was not raised in church, but somehow in God’s mercy, He saved me at age 11. My sisters and I were living with our grandparents. Neighbors took me to church, but as each of my parents remarried, my sisters and I found ourselves living in different parts of town, away from the church, moving back and forth between families. For a brief period, I attended an Assembly of God, but it was not until I could drive a car that I returned to the church where I had been saved. Six years had passed since I had last attended that church. I immediately rededicated my life to Christ and began preaching before my 17th birthday. That was the summer of 1948. In the fall of 1951, after serving 1 ½ years as Associate Pastor of a County Seat church while a freshman in college, I was ordained to the ministry by the church that had called me to become the pastor. I was 20 years old and a Junior in college. I went on to serve as pastor of two more churches before graduation from college and seminary. After two more pastorates, I moved to Rockport as pastor at the age of 33, where I remained for the next 31 years. I retired in early 1996.
The first year of retirement was very sad, as my wife and I spent much of the year helping out in our daughter’s home as she suffered with cancer. She died January 18, 1997. She had been at our retirement celebration one year before, and we had no idea at the time what awaited her. For the next five years, I supplied pulpits and had two interim pastorates in nearby towns. On January 27, 2002, my mate died. On the following day I had a heart attack. After a few weeks, the doctor allowed me to resume my work as interim until January, 2003. For the next 1 ½ years, I attended church at Rockport as a member and supplied pulpits as requested. I became a real pastor of a church in Houston, where I preached from August 2004 to June 2006, when I resigned to become Interim Pastor of First Baptist Church, Rockport. The interim is now coming to a close.
Forgive me for not giving names, etc. This blog has been totally about me (although no one ever lives independently and many, many people have contributed to all my experiences). I just wanted you to see my ministry through my eyes, so that you could understand something of what went on inside me as I journeyed toward the end of 2007. God has been at work in my life, as He has in yours. At times during retirement, I have felt like I was watching a movie about some guy named Charles Fake, as God made decisions for him, moving him from one place of service to the next. Thanks for going to the show with me. God bless you for giving me the privilege of serving here for the last 17 months.
My wife and I bought a motor home in 1998, intending to travel and see the country. We stayed in it a few times when visiting our children and grandchildren, and made a trip to Colorado once. It sits by my house. Who knows? I may crank it up and go somewhere. Strange as it may seem, my happiest moments in retirement have not been in exotic places, but in the pulpit.