Yesterday I drove over to Findlay, Ohio and had lunch with an old buddy of mine from our seminary days. We both started in the same program at the same time and had many of our classes together. I think he ended up finishing a year behind me though.
We had a nice lunch at Tony's and got caught up on what we've both been doing. Neither one of us are in full-time ministry any longer. He drives for Fed-Ex, but said he does stay busy most Sundays providing pulpit supply for churches in Western Pennsylvania (where he lives).
He was surprised that I really have no contact with anyone in our denomination anymore. I think that's partly because the conference he's from has always been way more connected than the one I'm from.
We tried to go through some of our old classmates and we could only think of ONE who was still involved in pastoral ministry. Granted, we didn't attend a large seminary, but one out of the 10 or 12 we could think of still seems a pretty low percentage. I don't know...
It was kind of a bittersweet day for me. It was nice to see Frank, and hear him talk about how much he enjoys preaching at a different church every Sunday. I am envious of that. I wish I could muster the courage to preach again. The truth is, I'm just scared. Plus I don't feel worthy anymore. So, it was kind of sad in that respect. I wish I were different.
And, that's about all there is to say about that. It takes about 90 minutes or so to get to Findlay, and we probably spent about that much time chit-chatting. It was nice.
1 comment:
I had a chat a few months back with a guy who was a student at the seminary when we were there and we talked about who's still in the pastorate. He didn't know anyone from his group who is. He's not. I'm not.
Money invested. Debt! Years spent. Families uprooted. Hearts broken.
Something is very seriously not right.
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