I found a combination of some spiritual disciplines and paying attention to some unexpected experiences in life helped me listen to a new sense of call as I entered my final years of being a pastor. I don’t keep a disciplined journal but I do find that writing tends to reveal God’s leading in my life. So I did some writing about the sense of call in my life. I also did some meditating on what God’s new call might mean for me.
I had had the privilege of having one book published and was finding a growing excitement in writing a novel about a pastor. It seemed then, and still seems today, that devoting more time to writing was one of the freedoms that retirement could offer. But what was God calling me to write about?
I found myself increasingly concerned about the effect of the demands of ministry on the lives of pastors that I knew. The whole area of how to care for clergy was forming in my mind when into my mail box came a notice about an annual conference on care of pastors to be held in Atlanta. I immediately signed up and when I attended I met with a number of participants who cared about this issue and was invited to serve on their board. That began to shape the subject of some of my writing interests.
A third area of interest seemed to develop out of nowhere, although looking back I can see its antecedents. As we were planning the next conference on pastoral care, I heard my voice volunteering to provide a stand-up comedy routine on the life of a pastor. Since then I’ve developed a real interest in comedy, particularly around the profession of pastors and see it as an act of pastoral care.
So three areas of vocation or calling began to emerge for me that helped shape my new understanding of call — writing, comedy, and care of clergy. While I have made some mistakes in shaping my life in retirement, those three areas fill me with energy and excitement.
