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You all make it easy to leave. I know you will care for one another and, though there may be some speed bumps, ministry and mission will go on and its impact will continue to be felt. You have a more than capable staff that remains and will work together with each other and with you.

You make it hard to leave. Never have I lived in a community this long nor served a church this length of time. In the past I seem to have been a “Nine Year Guy”, not a short time, but not a long time, either.

Pastors have opportunities to interview and leave especially these days with a shortage and less movement among pastors. Yet each time I got close to receiving a call elsewhere, it was here.it was you…that drew me back. Every interview opportunity affirmed this call was still there, tugging at me.

Since the announcement of my retirement, I have heard the word “congratulations” over and over again. I certainly appreciate all the good wishes I have received, but must confess congratulations seems like such an odd word to me. Congratulations suggests to me that people are glad for me as though I have escaped some difficult existence or circumstances.

I enjoyed and appreciated my ministry of 43+ years. Much of it never seemed like work. To be a pastor it is helpful to like people and enjoy being around them. Though I am in many ways a very private person, I enjoy being with people.

While in seminary I was interviewed by the chaplain at St. Elizabeth’s in Washington, D.C., a mental health facility. He was interviewing me on behalf of the international program I was applying for in Hawaii to receive certification in counseling. On his written review he wrote, “I don’t pretend to read minds, but when the possibility of doing this program in a faraway place was discussed, his eyes lit up.” I’m sure they did. For some reason new places, experiences, and people excite me. It seems I was cut out to serve in the West with its transient population instead of my native Pennsylvania with the highest percentage of natives of any state. When I return to my roots, it often seems like very little has changed.

It seems to me thus far that it is harder to leave here than to leave the ministry. I will see in the days ahead if this is true or not. The sorting of my books…which to take home and keep, which to give away…was quite revelatory in this manner. It was surprising how few “pastor books” I kept. Most of those I hung on to were about Luther, Lutheranism, and church history, especially in the US. Theologians, biblical commentaries and the like now adorn the shelves of the ULC/LCM library.

I will now be a former pastor and your former pastor. I will have to find a new neighborhood in which to follow Christ, serve God, and serve others. I do so with great confidence it will also be God’s neighborhood. Now you will have another come to serve and lead in your neighborhood. Keep in mind this will be God’s call through the community. Welcome them as such as you did for me these past decades. It will be a new day in the neighborhood. It will be God’s Day.

Yes, it is hard to leave, but made easier by who this community is and by faith this community has belonged and will belong to God.