Transition

Seven months ago (July 2011) began a transition for me and my family. In summary, after 13 years of being a pastor and family, we felt God leading us out of traditional full-time pastoral ministry. In December of 2011, I was hired by a hospice agency to be their chaplain and bereavement coordinator in a town 50 miles north of where we lived as pastor. The process of applying, being interviewed twice, and being offered the job all happened within 7 days. God was definitely leading us into a major transition and career change at this stage in our lives.

Over the next several days leading up to Christmas, our family found a place to live 20 minutes south of my office. After Christmas, I ended up spending 4 of the 7 days prior to our actual move in training leaving my wife to pack much of our stuff. Following our move, I attended two weeks (3 nights, 4 days) of training back-to-back 200 miles away from our new home, once again, leaving my wife with our two children to begin unpacking and acclimating our 1st grade son to a new school.

The first Sunday I was not a pastor of a church, our family attended a friend's church. It sort of felt of like we were on vacation as we usually attend a church different from our denomination while vacationing. The second Sunday I was not a pastor, reality set in that I was not preaching, taking care of the needs of my flock, etc., and I was fidgety the entire service. This next Sunday will be my third weekend not being a pastor (after 13 years) and I am actually looking forward with great anticipation to being in church and not being fidgety.

This transition out of pastoral ministry to hospice chaplaincy was welcome and confirmed as God's will many times. Some lessons I have learned or re-learned over these first few weeks have been: 1) living by faith daily for every need is more than just a sermon preached, it's a reality; 2) sabbath rest was neglected many times as a pastor and I'm resting more now; 3) God will not lead where He has not gone before to prepare the way; 4) other than my relationship with God, my family is the most important thing to me.

Some importants lessons to learn and re-learn. But as I continue in this transition, I look forward to all that God will teach me as I humble myself before Him. I thank Him for the relationships we have made over the years in ministry and look forward to the new ones we will make in this new chapter of our lives.