Tuesday, September 23, 2008

we all need to be connected

A full morning behind me. Resigning from some more groups I work with here in PA. Then I spent an hour and a half talking with a young pastor in a faraway city on the phone.

Its often that they phone me for some connection or insight, and yet it’s I who am so encouraged and hopeful when we part. The quality and passion of these young leaders is staggering when I watch their lives and choices.

 

When I was a young pastor, there was nobody that I could call to ask questions or freak out on. Nobody to hear my heart or my desires, no one who I could trust with my suspicions or theological explorations. It was pretty lonely out there.

And so that partly motivates me to be there for whoever needs a friend or a senior pastor, or whatever.

What’s cool about that is that I get to hear their heartbeat, I get to see their passions, and it’s so familiar to my own story. Those talks take me back in time to my own story, and my centre returns again and I remember how I got to where I am.

I think sometimes its easy to get cynical, but those times call me right back to who I am called to be. Iron sharpens iron.

This year, because of the transitions in our lives, Lauralea and I won’t be hanging out with many of them at our yearly Pastors & spouse retreat in Canmore. We feel that loss deeply as it always is a time to hang out with those we have deep connections with. People who do the same things we do, and so have the same appreciations for the struggles and successes we might have.  For us Autumn always includes this re-connection.

 

I am really excited and hopeful for the future of the Church. Yeah, there are always some leaders who really don’t get it, but more and more there are Godly young men and women who are willing to live what they believe, and they are the ones that will change history.

1 comment:

  1. I am sad you are not going to be there Randall, I will find time to drink a dark brew in your honor.

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