On July 11, 1971, I was installed as the Pastor of First Lutheran Church of Neosho.\u00a0 All my life, and that of Gerry\u2019s, up to that point had been directed toward that event.\u00a0 At that moment, what I thought my life was to be and for what we had worked for so hard, had come true. I was a Pastor.\u00a0 We had our whole life ahead of us.<\/p>\n
That was a long time ago, now, and here we are at the other end of our lives.\u00a0 I am retiring.\u00a0 I will officiate my\u00a0 last worship service with you as your Pastor on Sunday, July 12.<\/p>\n
It is hard for me to imagine what it will be like, not being the Pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church of Carthage.\u00a0 Your joys and happiness, and your sorrows and hurts, have also been mine.\u00a0 Together we have stood with Jesus in good times and bad times.\u00a0 As your Pastor, you have shared your lives with me in so many meaningful ways.\u00a0 It has been my honor and privilege to be here at Good Shepherd.\u00a0 This is hard to give up.\u00a0 I will miss this relationship with you, me being your Pastor.\u00a0 However, I find comfort in knowing the Good Shepherd Jesus will be with you in your next Pastor.<\/p>\n
We have worked well together, you and I.\u00a0 Certainly, it is not to our credit, but to God\u2019s glory.\u00a0 You have been very gracious and forgiving to me and for that I am eternally grateful.\u00a0 I have watched with joy and some amazement the faith you have exhibited and your forward-looking attitude at all times.<\/p>\n
You are not only a big part of my life, but Gerry\u2019s and my family\u2019s as well.\u00a0 We have not only worshipped here as a family, but also come together here as a family to do family things.\u00a0 It is like a home to us.\u00a0 My retiring changes that, too.\u00a0 It still remains unclear as to what this means for us and our continued involvement with you.\u00a0 I know in God\u2019s good time it will be worked out.<\/p>\n
While my retirement brings changes and adjustments to us all, I do not fear for you.\u00a0 God is here in your midst.\u00a0 He is not retiring.\u00a0 He is not going anywhere.<\/p>\n
As God has blessed our work together in the past, He will continue to give His blessings to you in the future.\u00a0 There are so many good things ahead for you that a new Pastor will be a part of and will aid with his gifts and talents.\u00a0 Yes, it will be different, but the most necessary thing will most necessarily not change.\u00a0 You will continue to hear the Good News of God\u2019s love for you in Jesus proclaimed from this pulpit and God\u2019s precious Sacraments administered according to His will from this altar.\u00a0 There is nothing better than that.<\/p>\n
Beloved in the Lord . . .<\/i>I have spoken these words to you often as your Pastor.\u00a0 They are still true.\u00a0 You are beloved to me.\u00a0 But my role as to how those words are acted out will change with my retirement.\u00a0 Thank you, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.\u00a0 I do love you.<\/p>\n
The Lord bless you and keep you.\u00a0 The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.\u00a0 The Lord lift up His Countenance upon you and give you peace.\u00a0 Amen<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Finally, this is all we can really say:\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 With God so shall it be!<\/i><\/p>\n
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On July 11, 1971, I was installed as the Pastor of First Lutheran Church of Neosho.\u00a0 All my life, and that of Gerry\u2019s, up to that point had been directed toward that event.\u00a0 At that moment, what I thought my life was to be and for what we had worked for so hard, had come… Read More »Beloved in the Lord…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-worship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gslc-carthage.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gslc-carthage.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gslc-carthage.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gslc-carthage.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gslc-carthage.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1426"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gslc-carthage.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1427,"href":"https:\/\/www.gslc-carthage.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1426\/revisions\/1427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gslc-carthage.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gslc-carthage.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gslc-carthage.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}