Month: August 2023

Dear Grandkids,

Here are a few frequently asked questions that I get now that I have retired from full time vocational ministry. This is what we tell people…

Will you be moving away from Durham? No. We love Durham and we love our home and we have no plans to go anywhere. Our sons and their families live within 30 minutes of us and our daughter and her family is in Charlotte – just 2 hours away.

Will you still be attending Ridgecrest? Yes!

What are you going to be doing with your time? At least for the near future I will continue to work part time at Ridgecrest – leading the College Ministry and teaching the Wednesday Night Adult Bible Study as well as leading a few of our ministry teams. Linda and I will also continue in our role as Team Chaplains at Chick-fil-A on Roxboro Road. Those 2 things take up a good chunk of my days and 2-3 nights of my week. So far I have found that I have a bit more time for disc golf in the afternoons and more flexibility as other things that I want to do come up.

What is on your bucket list? We have a Utah National Parks/Grand Canyon trip planned for October and then 9 Grandkid trips between now and 2032. When our 1st grandkid was born 10 years ago we started setting aside money so that we could take each of them on a trip of their choosing in the continental US. Our first trip is in a few weeks with Grayson and we are going to San Fransisco – to do touristy things like Alcatraz and Redwoods but mostly to see his favorite football team, the New York Giants play the 49ers.

What are some of your favorite ministry memories? I have GREAT memories of  both the 10 years we spent at Providence Baptist and the 30 years we spent at Ridgecrest. Here is a video that my friend Al Huffman put together that captures some of the memories from the Ridgecrest years.

If I had to describe the past 40 years in one word I would use the word “blessed.” And if I were to add one adverb to that word it would be “incredibly.” But even more so, I consider myself incredibly and bodaciously blessed to be your Pop Pop. I’m very much looking forward to the memories that we will make in the years to come.

Never forget that you are very loved,

Pop Pop

Dear Grandkids,

In addition to Legacy Building and Scuba Diving that I shared in my last post, here are the other two values that will drive my retirement years.

The Value of Disciple Making – As followers of Jesus, aka disciples, we are commissioned to also make disciples. This is not just something that pastors are called to do. In a sense, disciple making was a part of my job when I was a pastor. But it was no less a part of my calling as a believer. Most believers think that disciple making is for the “professionals.” Not true. And most believers think that disciple making is not something that they are equipped to do. Also not true.

Disciple making is not rocket science. But there is an intentionality behind it. You have to be willing to be with people. Disciple making is as much about “withness” as anything. Here are a few things that I think go into making disciples – which even believers that are young in their faith can do WITH others:

• model what a walk with Jesus should look like
• talk about Scripture together
• help them grapple with the tough questions of the faith
• coach them to think about everything from a biblical worldview
• be available when life is hard
• help them learn how to fight the enemy of their soul
• demonstrate grace and authenticity
• point them to great books

Bill Hull in his book The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ  says, “Discipleship isn’t a program or an event; it’s a way of life. It’s not for a limited time, but for our whole life. Discipleship isn’t for beginners alone; it’s for all believers for every day of their life. Discipleship isn’t just one of the things the church does; it is what the church does.”

I’m hoping that my best years of disciple making are still ahead of me.

The Value of Step Taking – You probably already know that Nona and I walk… a lot. Like, every day. Getting our steps in is important  to us because we know that it helps keep us healthy. We both have step-taking goals that are high priority to us. Often we are out the door and walking the neighborhood by 6 AM – especially in the summer as we try to beat the heat. I’m convinced that we are as physically healthy as we are because of our step taking.

But step taking also has crossover to my relational health. I created an acrostic using the word STEP to remind me of 4 questions I need to ask everyday:

• S – Who do I need to SERVE today?
• T – Who do I need to THANK today?
• E – Who do I need to ENCOURAGE today?
• P – Who do I need to PRAY for today?

Just asking these questions each day helps me to be as relationally intentional as I am with my health. Sometimes the answers are really obvious but sometimes I have to think a bit. But always when I take the time to think these questions through there are people that come to mind that I need to follow through with. So both physically and relationally, step taking has tremendous value for me.

Legacy building. Scuba Diving. Disciple making. Step taking.

As I move forward with the last third of my life these are the values that will drive my retirement days.

In my next post (and last retirement post), I will try to answer some of the questions that I am being asked when people find out that I have recently retired. Stay tuned.

Never forget that you are very loved,

Pop Pop

Dear Grandkids,

I’ve been thinking about retirement for about 5 years. I knew that I wanted to make it to both 30 years at Ridgecrest and 40 years in vocational ministry. Those sounded like good round figures. I also knew that the numbers needed to work. By that I mean the financial numbers. We wanted to make sure that we could sufficiently provide for ourselves for the next 40 years – or however many years we have left on this earth. In other words, we didn’t want your parents (or you) to have to use their resources to care for us. Though we knew that they would gladly do so.

I also wanted to make sure that I had a purposeful retirement. Retirement is not a word that you come across in Scripture. My guess is that retirement is an industrialized nation notion. It is probably a foreign idea to much of the world. So while I don’t mind the idea of retirement I prefer to think of this next part of my journey as non-compensated intentional work for the glory of God. Work was intended by God from the very beginning to be a blessing. And believe you me I’ll take all the blessing that I can get.

A few years ago I established four values that I wanted to guide my life, not just the vocational years of my life. Hence the phrase “values-driven retirement” that I titled this post. Here are the first two for your pondering…

The Value of Legacy Building – Perhaps you know that I am a first generation believer. In other words, I am the first person in my family to become a believer in Jesus. For this reason it has been important to me to establish a spiritual legacy for our family. My hope is that your grandkids and their grandkids and their grandkids are all walking with Jesus and that our family, should Jesus tarry, is having a significant influence for the sake of the kingdom. You are now generation number 3. Nona and I are thrilled to see that our 3 kids have chosen to walk with Jesus and have chosen spouses that walk with Jesus and are raising you to walk with Jesus.

What does legacy building look like in real life? To coin a phrase borrowed by Eugene Peterson, I think it has a lot to do with “a long obedience in the same direction” – (the phrase was actually and surprisingly penned by the famed atheist philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche). Legacy building is not flashy. It has to do with consistency and character and integrity, and I hope that you will remember me for these. Yes, there are some tangible things that I am also doing – like these Pop Pop Epistles, Brick by Brick ponderings, creating shared experiences, etc. but those would mean nothing if the other things were not true.

The Value of Scuba Diving – Which is kind of a weird value given that I have NEVER been scuba diving. So what do I mean? Picture a glass bottom boat. As you look through the glass you get a glimpse of some beautiful fish IF the boat driver takes you to the right spot. This is how most people encounter the Word of God. Their experience is dependent on the preacher revealing the beauty of Scripture. He is the driver of the boat.

But what if you got out of the boat and put on some snorkeling gear and actually got in the water yourself. What if your encounter with God’s Word was dependent on your initiative and you were able to seek out the beauty of Scripture yourself. I have been snorkeling and I have been amazed to see the beauty of all kinds of God’s underwater creatures. But snorkeling only allows you to see what is just below the surface. I have been told that if you REALLY want to experience the spectacular artistry of God’s aquatic creation then you need to go deep. You need to scuba dive. Scuba diving requires personal investment.  You have to be coached in how to do it. There is risk involved. It takes time and effort. But there is also great reward.

And the same is true with regard to Scripture. There are incredible discoveries waiting to be found if you are willing to do what it takes to find them. I don’t want to be content with a surface reading of Scripture. I want to explore the depths. I want to see the beauty of God’s Word that can only be seen if I get out of the boat and go “scuba diving.”

I will share the other two values in my next post so that this one does not get too long.

Never forget that you are very loved,

Pop Pop

Dear Grandkids,

Surreal!

That is one of the words that I have used to describe my retirement so far. It is very hard to believe that I could have possibly been at Ridgecrest Baptist Church for 30 years much less another 10 years at Providence Baptist in Raleigh. 40 years of ministry sounds like a long time and it makes me seem old. And yet, I still feel like the new kid on the block – until I look in the mirror or listen to the noises I make when I try to stand up.

40 years ago Ronald Reagan was president. The Berlin Wall still stood. 911 was a number you called in case of emergency and not a date of infamy. Interest rates were down to 13%. (They had been 18% in 1981). The NC State Wolfpack were NCAA basketball champs. Seve Ballesteros was the reigning Masters champion. And the New York Mets were just 3 years away from their historic World Series win. No one owned a mobile phone. No one had personal computers. And mass shootings were pretty much unheard of.

Nona and I had been married for 2 years and none of your parents had yet to be born. Our “baby” was a beautiful golden retriever named Cassidy. We had just moved to Raleigh from the Boston area where I had finished seminary. We started doing student ministry at Providence as volunteers which turned into an internship which turned into a full time staff position. We did student ministry for 25 years and then as I approached 50 years old transitioned to other staff roles.

I think retirement is a funny word. It generally means that you stop getting paid for a job that you have been doing for a long time. Perhaps you have heard it said, “find a job that you love doing and you will never have to work a day in your life.” My job has never seemed like work. It hasn’t always been easy but it has never seemed like work. I have been extremely blessed to be financially compensated for doing something that I love. What a great way to spend my vocational years.

Fred Rogers once said, “Often when you are at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.” Well I am at the end of my vocational years but most definitely at the beginning of something else. Some of that is yet to be determined but I have no doubt that this great adventure of life will continue because of the values that drive my life – which will not change just because I am “retired.” My next epistle will explain what those values are and how they will shape my retirement years.

Never forget that you are very loved,

Pop Pop