Over the past couple of weeks I've been receiving a whole lot of very kind cards, notes and even small gifts regarding my pending "retirement." Very dear friends and well intended folks have gone out of the way to express their love and appreciation for the 37 years of ministry here in Pittsburgh and particularly the 30 years here at North Way.
The difficult thing for me to do is to recognize that I don't need to "correct" their perception. The reality is that I have a full time position that I am going to assume called "Founding Pastor" of this church and a rather substantial list of responsibilities that I will be tackling after a short break following this weekend.
The word retirement has all kinds of potential positive implications, but the Lord has clearly led me to see this next season of my life as a further investment in the Kingdom in a way that I believe will give me an opportunity to pursue the things that will benefit our church, the greater body of Christ and, in some ways, my family and friends, unencumbered by the very significant weight of the daily operations of the church.
I am blessed to be in this position and thankful for a great team that will be picking up those duties and advancing the Kingdom forward while I am freed up to follow Jesus in new paths of obedience and discovery.
So, I'm not retiring, just repositioning myself to let the Lord use me as He sees fit!
Thanks to all of you who have expressed your well wishes and personal appreciation in these past weeks.
I am deeply blessed by you all,
Pastor Jay
No comments:
Post a Comment