September 25, 2015 (Friday)
On this first day after my birthday, I’m still reminiscing, assessing my experiences of life, and my mind has focused on my years of retirement. I retired from my long pastorate at Rockport in February, 1996. Here’s what I’ve been doing since “retirement.”
The entire period of my life since retirement has totaled 19 1/2 years. Of this time, I have actually been retired 7 1/2 years, when I attended church listening to my dear friends and brother preachers (Steve Peace, James Bond, Walter Knight and Scott Jones) as they shared the Word of God on Sundays. Some of those Sundays I preached in other places in the absence of the pastor and for a while I worked with the Hispanic Baptist mission in Rockport as a volunteer helper.
The total time spent with churches as pastor or interim pastor totals more than12 years,
4 1/2 years total in 2 terms as pastor at Timbergrove Baptist Church, Houston, 1 1/2 years at FBC Rockport as interim, 1 3/4 years total in two separate interim pastorates at FBC Refugio, and a total of 4 1/2 years as interim pastor 4 times to date at Bethel Baptist Church, Ingleside.
Some of my friends think I have never retired at all, but an honest look at the record says that I have been fully retired for a third of the time since I was the pastor at First Baptist, Rockport. This is a little surprising, even to myself. I’ve been “inactive” more than I thought.
I’m sure only a very few people care about any of this, but it was on my mind. I figured it out and wrote it down after trying to explain it all to my grand daughter, a captive audience (bored to tears, I’m sure). Anyway, there it is, whether you wanted to know it or not.
I am very thankful that my mind has continued to function fairly normally, my body is reasonably OK for someone my age and I can continue preaching these days at the request of my precious friends at Bethel Baptist Church, Ingleside. I cannot thank them enough for the privilege of preaching in their pulpit each Sunday.