I’ve begun to think about the difference between my spiritual practices during my active pastorate and now in this retirement phase of my life. When I occasionally take on an interim task for another church, I often return to the practices that were part of my earlier life. But what is the difference in my spiritual practices when I am not actively serving a church?
First, I think I have to intentionally identify times that I will step outside of activity and enter into a time of prayer. In the relatively unstructured time of retirement, that is harder than one might think. My initial objective would be to identify at least three times a week when I might enter into my personal sanctuary and seek to be present to God. However, the energy of my life is redirected and that affects my intention as I enter the presence of the Divine. While I was active in the pastorate, I sought to be open to God’s guidance as I engaged in my ministry. Yes, I’m still doing ministry, but it is not structured by the service of a church. So I still seek God’s will for my life, but my ministry is shaped by different human understanding.
Also, though it may still be twenty years away, I am winding down my life and preparing for my death. So my prayers are shaped not only by what God’s will is for the activities that I can do, but what God’s will is for the various phases that I will pass through as move towards the day when I will no longer exist. In many ways this still has to do with witness. I want these years of my life to be a statement about my faith. After I am gone, to the degree that anyone thinks about me, I want them to see my faith in how I lived these final years as well.
For me that means that ministry is not done but it certainly is taking a different shape, and will increasingly be less global and more personal as I advance in age.
