It's been a good, yet busy year. I continued as the pastor of my congregation, overseeing its continuing worship, witness and work, while engaging local, regional and national duties. True, my workload doubled and my emails tripled as I tried to fulfill my goal to lift up the local church by preaching and teaching in as many places as I could, but I also had fun. I avoided as many meetings as possible, except for the Assembly Council. Regretfully, there were a few invitations I couldn't fulfill, but for the most part it was an enriching and encouraging year.
I learned again how valuable it is to be well organized, well prepared, well supported and well loved. Although I've been away from home for 26 Sundays and, sometimes in addition, several weeks at a time, my congregation, Calvin Church in Abbotsford, British Columbia, and my wife, Colleen, have been fabulous. Rick Fee, the General Secretary of the Life and Mission Agency, who has also been a moderator, told me that if I had any light bulbs to change before this year it would have been good to have done that before I began! Yet, in spite of travels across Canada, in Africa, to Korea and Scotland, I've had time to do a few things around the house, including shovelling my driveway a few times this winter and mowing my lawn this spring. I continued to have some balance in my life.
I'm grateful for the energy and the health God gave me to do what I have done. I'm grateful for the opportunity the church gave me in electing me as the Moderator of the 133rd General Assembly, and I'm grateful for all those who blessed me in my journeys and visits with their prayers, welcome, and affection.
Chatting with my colleague, chaplain and friend, Bruce Cairnie, at lunch a few weeks ago, we talked about some of the stresses and the struggles that ministers face. I, too, have seen some of that on my trips to a number of churches and meetings with pastors. In spite of associate and support staff in the congregation, and colleagues in the presbytery, ministry can be a very lonely and often discouraging business. It's difficult to be a minister in a diminishing denomination where congregations often seem concerned only about “keeping the doors open” and maintaining some form of “religious exercises.” Yet I go back to my congregation with enthusiasm. Many things have continued, and even some new things have happened, while I have been gone – without me needing to worry about how it will get done. Committed and gifted elders and other lay people have carried on.
I love the gospel ministry of Jesus Christ. I enjoy sharing my faith with other people and teasing them to “come and see” what Jesus does in church, and among Christians who faithfully gather to celebrate His presence, study His Word and impact God's world. I love to be a partner in the conversation with those who rejoice and those who grieve. I love to plumb the Bible's heights and depths. I love the various experiences with which God privileges the general practitioner preacher and pastor-teacher.
Some say being moderator is “the pinnacle of a person's career” – but that isn't the way I've looked at it or tried to fulfill its call. True, I've been honoured and blessed, but I do not have a career; I have a calling to be a minister of the gospel. It's been very good to have served you as moderator as best as I have been able, but I have a life and a wife and children and a church and a community to continue to serve.
So I go back to where I came from – with great gratitude, and with faith and with hope and with love.
