60 Years of Ministry

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending a retirement party for my grandparents. I think it’s the fourth retirement party I’ve attended for them now—but that’s another story. The point is that my grandparents have faithfully been serving in ministry for over 60 years now. Grandpa has served as a pastor, chaplain and missionary over the last 60 years. As his granddaughter I’ve had the pleasure of him passing me on many of the lessons he learned from his experiences. Although it would take me a lifetime to tell them all, today I want to share a few with you.

Grandpa taught me to meet people where they’re at. Grandpa served for many years as a pastor in rural communities. The churches he was pastoring at weren’t full of seminary students or Bible college graduates. They were full of farmers, log truck drivers, and people from all walks of life. They were everyday people trying to make ends meet, often these were people that were used to relying on themselves not God. Grandpa had to teach them that it wasn’t about fitting God into your life but about building your life around God. He learned though that you can’t teach people this by just coming in and preaching at them Sunday morning- “You’re doing it all wrong! You have to repent!” Those messages may have a place but Grandpa learned how to go about things a bit differently. He discovered that preaching at people wasn’t effective but following Jesus’ example of loving people got him a lot further.

Grandpa learned to become friends with people, to become invested in their lives. He truly loved the people he was serving and it showed. He would pray for them, talk to them, and find practical ways to help them when they were struggling. He became a part of their everyday world and because he met them where they were, they invited him further and further into their lives where he could finally begin to teach them what God has to say and how they needed to respond.

One of the biggest things Grandpa taught me about is unity. Particularly unity in the church. Grandpa explained that one of Satan’s most used tactics is to tear people apart but God brings unity.

So many times over the years Grandpa saw people who had a certain opinion about one point of theology. These people would share that opinion with others and if someone disagreed with them they would lash out. Instead of saying ‘okay, I disagree with you but we’re still brothers and sisters in Christ’ these people would throw accusations and insults around. They hurt their fellow believers because they weren’t willing to accept that someone else slightly disagreed.

Now please understand what I’m talking about here—these weren’t issues of theology that centered around what it takes to be saved or the deity of Christ (although those certainly happened too but should be handled in a slightly different matter) these were issues that arose from obscure verses or some silly little thing like what instruments to use at Sunday morning service.

People would split the church over issues like this when the fact is that it doesn’t matter. Jesus called us to be one body. He taught us that we should be more concerned with living a righteous life before God then arguing amongst ourselves. Grandpa didn’t disagree with every person who was so dogmatic about a piece of theology but he did disagree with how they presented their point. There are constructive ways to explain what you believe. Arguing, shouting insults or shunning people who disagree are not constructive methods. It hurts the church and it presents a terrible image to nonbelievers. Why would someone who doesn’t know Christ have any interest in coming to church if the people of the congregation act worse towards each other than nonbelievers do? This is not what Jesus meant when He commanded us to love our neighbor.

A third thing Grandpa taught me was to never underestimate God. We serve an amazing God. Over the years Grandma and Grandpa saw God provide for them and their five daughters in completely unexpected ways. More than once there were times when there wasn’t enough food to put on the table of the small parsonage they were living in and someone would “just stop by” because they  had too many potatoes or a little bit too much milk or their chickens had laid more eggs then they needed. So they would give the food to their pastor and his family—probably never knowing what a blessing they were.

God provided cars so Grandpa could visit people in the community. He even provided a washing machine through the generosity of a Christian Women’s Club meeting when my mom was young so Grandma would no longer have to hand wash and wring out laundry for their family of six. (Their youngest daughter had not been born at the time.)

The Lord took care of them and sustained them in hard times and He didn’t stop blessing them in the good times. In return my grandparents passed on those blessings to others and they taught their children to do the same. Those children, five girls, are my mother and aunts. And each of them, along with their husbands, has taught their children, my siblings and cousins and myself, these same lessons and so many others.

So after more than 60 years of ministry Grandma and Grandpa—now in their late 80’s—are stepping down from the church where they have been serving. But they won’t stop ministry. They will continue to be a blessing to those they’re around because they’ve learned the discipline of serving God every day of their lives, no matter where they are, what circumstances they’re in. They will take the lessons He has taught them and faithfully continue sharing those lessons with others like me.