TRANSITION COMPLETE!

As I mentioned in a recent post, God has led us into a time of transition.  A transition from  pastoral ministry.  I have retired from pastoral ministry.  This past Sunday was my last Sunday as pastor of the church I had been serving for just over five years.  July 30th was my last "official" day as pastor.  That means today I am celebrating two days as a former pastor.

I do mean  I am celebrating!  I'm ready to sing the old song "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty I'm free at last!"  People have asked me if it was really that bad?  Were the people that hard on me?  I don't celebrate leaving the people.  That was probably the hardest thing about this transition for my wife and I.  The people are precious.  Many will be friends for life. What we are celebrating is this next leg of our spiritual journey.  God has a plan and a purpose in all of this and it's exciting to see Him bring it together as only He can.

If you have been reading  my blog for very long, you will know that I am an outside the box Christian.  When God led us to this very traditional church, I must confess that I asked,
"Are You sure, God?"  As we prayed about this we came to understand that God wasn't trying to put us back in a box, but rather sent us there to lead the folks there out of the box.  We've done our best to do that with some success.  But as you can imagine, some do not want to come out of the box - out of their comfort zone - ever.  They have resisted it when being led to do so.  Why?  The response we heard over and over again was, "But we've always done it this way."  I guess in many people's minds that makes it right.  We believe God desires to do something different than what passes for the "norm" in the church world today.  If we want to see it, we have got to allow Him do it.  We've got to let Him be God.

So today, we celebrate our freedom from the bondage of tradition as well as the chains of religion.  God is opening new doors as well as doors to places we've been to in the past.   This outside the box journey is an exciting one.  I encourage everyone to think outside the box in regards to your own spiritual journey.  After all we serve a God who is outside the box!

Until next time...enjoy the journey!

Ray

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