Yesterday' Final Post I forgot to put up!

Hello for the third time today.  I told you I wanted to play catch up and write a couple extra posts.  I only have one or two more things I want to get off my mind and out in the open for all of you to read and ponder on. 

The first is from Pastoral Ministry class on Monday.  We were discussing things dealing with the call process.  We got on the topic of once you are at a church and receive a call to another church and what is proper procedure for the whole thing including letting your current church know.  This is when Dr. Utech started explaining that once you have accepted the call to the next church, you get the heck out of dodge from your previous church.  Once you have informed your current church you are leaving, you leave town, and cut all church ties as you go.  Now this I can understand, because once you leave, the new pastor is now their spiritual guide.  He is their pastor now, and they need to turn to him for their questions or advice.  If a previous pastor keeps contact with the church, he is going to make it very hard for that new pastor to feel like it is his church.  (I don’t literally mean his church because we all know it’s God’s church, but just in the sense of he is in control).  So like I said, I agree with this.  Once a pastor leaves a church, he can stay friends with those members he is already close too, and can even come visit them on vacations and stuff.  However, they need to keep their conversations to weather, sports, beer, or hunting.  All church matters are no longer your business as an ex-pastor.  This sits fine with me.  What sat so rotten in my gut was the last part he included in this discussion: retired pastors.  I have always had the idea (since I am a major day dreamer for those who don’t know this about me) that when I am getting up in the years, and realizing my retirement is coming soon, I want to accept a call somewhere (Lord willingly I get one) either back in Nebraska or Iowa where I have family and lifelong friends.  So when I get that final call, I will accept it, return to my old stomping grounds of the beautiful Midwest, and realize I am home.  This is when I can finally build a house of my own, on an acreage I have bought, and set my roots in one final place.  As a seminary student I am already aware of the fact, that a pastor never really has a permanent home (Other than Heaven).  A pastor takes a call, moves into the parsonage, and makes that his family’s home while they are there.  However, very few pastors ever stay at one church their entire life of ministry.  So it is only a matter of time before a call comes along and you know the Lord is telling you to go.  So you take it and move your family into the new parsonage and make that your home while you are there.  Moving to new churches and new places is just part of the life of a pastor.  However, someday I want a house I can call home before I die.  I want to build my dream house I designed myself many years ago.  I want either my acreage in the Midwest (or my small ranch on the Mountain front prairie; another dream of mine).  I want to settle in a spot that I know is the final place for me and my family.  This is the last time we have to unpack those boxes, the last time we have to decide where everything goes, and the last time I have to go out and meet people and make relationships in the community.  At the age of late 60’s or early 70’s, when I finally will have my student loans paid off (that’s a joke), I am going to be ready to already be a regular member of the town’s coffee group.  I will be set with the friends I already have, rather than having to go out and make all new ones.  So when I retire from a church, I am not going to be very happy remembering Dr. Utech’s advice that even then I need to get the heck out of dodge.  I am not going to want to up and move my wife and I, assuming I have one by then, and move our life again to a another new home.  I don’t see why I can’t retire, live out on my acreage with my wife, stay active in a community where I already know everyone, and just keep going to church under a new pastor.  I won’t even be on the voter’s council or board if they don’t want me to be.  I will be content just living out my final years as a semi-active member rather than the pastor.  Because in my mind, no matter where you go as a retired pastor you could cause problems for the church if you try to still be a pastor, rather than stepping back, admitting you are no longer a called minister, and just let the actual Pastor do his thing.  Maybe I am making way too big of a deal out of this; however, it really just sat wrong as I swallowed it in class the other day.  But I know that it is a long, long ways from now and by then maybe the Lord will have completely changed me into wanting to retire on a golf course in the south.   I will just put my trust in Him, and know He will lead me to do the right thing when I get there. 
Dear Heavenly Father, 

I know You are with me here at the seminary as I form into the pastor You want me to be.  I know you will be with me the rest of my life as I get called to Your church and do my best to serve You there.  I know You will bless me with many wonderful relationships along the way.  I thank you so much for being there with me through all of this.  I ask that You give me peace in my heart as I look forward to the future You have in store for me.  I ask that you always be and abide with me and all my loved ones, keeping us in the true faith always.   In Your Son's most holy name I pray, Amen.