Ties that Bind

In January 1992 we began a seventeen-year long experiment at UBC. We started a Saturday night contemporary worship service. It was supposed to be a more casual atmosphere. I had to ease into that. I was used to wearing a suit and tie when I preached. At first I took a sport-coat-and-slacks-with-a-tie approach to more casual. Then, with some urging, I left off the coat. Finally, one Saturday evening I did not wear a tie. I felt naked. Vulnerable. It was like that dream where you show up at church in your underwear. I felt the urge to put my hands over my chest to hide the fact that I had not donned a necktie. I could hear my mother’s voice, expressing her embarrassment at my indecent preaching attire.

After the service I stood at the back of the worship center greeting people as they left. I struck up a conversation with Joe, one of our senior adults who’d endured more changes in church than most people would put up with. Joe’s the guy whose picture appears in the Wikipedia article on “curmudgeon.” He’d tell you that. His favorite TV show was Alf. Joe had voiced his share of complaints about many of those changes but had managed to stay engaged. Here he was at a Saturday night contemporary service. While we were talking, someone walked by and commented positively on my tie-free attire. I acknowledged how uncomfortable I’d felt without it. Joe muttered, “Change is hard, ain’t it, Preacher?”

Change is hard. It is stressful for everyone. Perhaps that accounts in part for the six- month gap in my posting to this blog. The past six months have been nothing but change. I accepted a new position at Truett Seminary and began the process of transitioning out of the role of senior pastor at University Baptist Church, which I have filled for twenty-two years. In June I spent two nights in a San Antonio hospital following what was likely a TIA. That was followed by intensive tests and checkups with a Houston cardiologist who finally pronounced me heart-healthy. But now I’m one of those old men taking three pills a day.

My son returned from his deployment in Afghanistan in July. I became a grandfather for the third time in August. August also marked the official change in career. I began weekly commutes from Houston to Waco on Mondays and return trips on Fridays. Melinda began the work of preparing our home for sale and Jenna started her senior year of high school. For eight weeks I’ve been teaching three courses I have never taught before (Life & Work of the Pastor, Strategic Planning for Churches and Ministries, and Leadership for Christian Ministry). This turns out to be much like preparing six sermons a week. I have met a couple of hundred new people and have begun learning my way about an entirely new social and work system. Now it looks as if our home might sell soon and we will be moving to a new one in Waco. The prospect of moving away from Houston means leaving behind many friendships and increasing geographical distance from two of our grandchildren (as well as their parents). Next spring Melinda will finish her master’s degree from UHCL. Change, even positive change, can be difficult.

Transitions can also be exciting. And this one is. I have stories to tell about it all. The wilderness experience of no-longer-Egypt and not-yet-Canaan is one of those times when you learn to trust God to provide and in which God proves himself to be faithful. I’m going to make an effort to return to the blog and to document some of what the past several weeks have been like as the journey continues.