The system may be the problem, but in our lifetime the fulltime minister takes a call, moves to a field of service, takes a salary, attempts to become part of the community and works to achieve the Churches spiritual goals.
I never really stopped preaching or quit the ministry, I served a two church field in Neshoba County where Laura's mother had been raised. I healed some hurts and got some perspective and we were called to Moss Point Ms in 1983. A Community of 20 thousand amid a tri city area of 50 thousand. Once again we had a nice building and 150 fine folks.
We had so many happy memories watching our kids grow up in a large old home, becoming active in local service clubs, education, politics. We were three miles from Lauras mother who came to work part time for me at the church. My folks were 80 miles away. We had ocean swimming and fishing, great golf courses, a terrific youth group and lots of couples our age.
We made a commitment that Laura would be a full time mom until our youngest went to school. It kept us living pretty frugally, but we loved living close to the gulf of Mexico. We had good race relations with the majority of blacks living in our town. We welcomed some of our kids black friends to summer bible study. I bought my first computer and became a computer nut.
It was rewarding and joyful, not perfect, but good. We might be whistling dixie today if there had not been two issues that got us to dream. One, our children's education, which we sensed was lacking, two, my reading about what the church could be and some experiences with contemporary worship. Laura did not want to leave her mom, but she allowed me to candidate for a move to a big city. O my Lord, have mercy.
No comments:
Post a Comment