Interesting Days! Important Decision Ahead!

Interesting Days! Important Decisions!
Please Pray for Wisdom and Clear Guidance

Retirement has been an interesting season of life for me on many fronts. Sunday mornings have been one of those interesting “challenges.”

When we moved to Fort Worth in full retirement in October 2024, Debi and I weren’t fully settled on what we were going to do on Sunday mornings. Our main thought was that we were going to go to Restoration Baptist Church with Mark and Lauren and our grandkids. We also hoped that, from time to time, we might check out a few other churches just to see “the state of the church” around us. I was also hoping that I would get a few invitations to preach from time to time just to keep active at some level on that front. It has been a blessing that this has happened a number of times.

Now, almost two years into this “interesting season of life,” we have mostly attended Restoration Church, and it has truly been a blessing. The preaching at Restoration Church is incredible! We have met some absolutely amazing people. We have gotten involved at a decent level in a community group. I love that Restoration Church is so multi-generational and that it also has a very solid path of discipleship for those who attend.

With all of this said, there are many Sunday mornings when I wonder if I am where I am supposed to be. I am very aware that there is a pretty severe shortage of pastors these days! It feels a bit strange, knowing this, to be sitting in a chair on Sunday morning, mostly in receiving mode. We know that once we join Restoration Church, we could serve as greeters or in the children’s ministry, which is the greatest area of need at the church. But still, I often sense the fire of God’s Word burning in my bones on Sunday mornings, even as I hear some amazing preaching.

All of this helps set the stage for what happened last week. I was doing my morning Bible reading, and one of the passages for my assigned reading was from Matthew chapter 9.

Matthew 9:36–38

But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

I really soaked this in and prayed along these lines as I read this passage.

That seemed to set the stage for a phone call that I received later that morning from the main office of the Mid Texas Conference of the Global Methodist Church. Now that we have moved to Fort Worth, we live in this conference and no longer in the Trinity Conference of the Global Methodist Church.

They were calling to verify all of my information, including my address, phone number, and email. After all of the verification, she asked me if I might be interested in serving as a pastor in the Mid Texas Conference, as they had several openings where pastors were needed. That was certainly an interesting question for me after my Bible reading and prayers that morning. I told her that I would be interested in learning more. She told me that a presiding elder named Rob Price would be getting in touch with me soon.

OK! Wow! This is an interesting development.

Around 4:30 p.m. that afternoon, I connected with Rob Price by phone, and he began to tell me about an opportunity nearby. He and I then met for lunch the next day so that we could get acquainted, and he could tell me more about the opportunity.

Now, I will meet with Rob Price tomorrow at 4:30 p.m., and we will be going out to the two churches that comprise this newly developed two-point charge. They will be interviewing me, and I will be interviewing them. If it is a match, then I will begin preaching at the two churches on Sunday mornings beginning September 6.

I hope that you will join me in prayer for God’s clear guidance! This is an important decision on numerous fronts. I sense God’s call through it all, but I most certainly need to be sure! Thank you for your prayers.

Also, I am most certainly praying for Mike Garst, Caleb White and his daughter, Reece, and his nephew, Lincoln Vashey, at the Baseball Camp for Jesus in Osterholz-Scharmbeck, Germany, this week! I hope you will be praying as well. I will share updates as I receive them.