Regardless of where you are in your ministry, there would be value in making a list of ten things you would like to accomplish as you continue your journey. To use a popular phrase, you are making your bucket list. However, you can make this whether you are just beginning or whether you have retired. As one pastor friend once said to me, you can retire from active ministry in a church or other form of vocation, but you don’t retire from God’s call until God says so. I retired from being a pastor of a church 5 years ago, but I have still sensed God’s call in different ways since. In fact my retirement from “active” pastoring has liberated me for some whole new directions in my life.
Consider the stage that you believe you are in your ministry. Now, make a list of ten things that you would like to learn, accomplish, try, experience, etc. in your ministry in the reasonable future. Clearly it will be different at different stages. The younger you are, the more you may focus on some skill sets or even varieties of types of ministry. Mid-Career raises possibilities of new ventures once your children are out of the house. Five years from retirement may suggest directions to prepare you for that significant change in your life. As I mentioned, retirement offers a new openness to ministry. It may not even appear to be an accepted form of ministry. You may want to sharpen your skill at golf, but you can explore how that might become a form of ministry — perhaps to other golfers.
As you make your lists of ten, don’t get too detailed at first. Simply let your mind wander and identify in a brief sentence or so something you think you would like to accomplish, experience, explore.
