Remember Lot’s Wife

I stood in church yesterday giving announcements and telling people about the new Church App and Church Website that I am working on; 64 years old and I am the tech guy; I am an OK Boomer after all. During those announcements I told our Pastor, Todd DuBord, that we don’t want him to return.

Perhaps some explanation is in order. Our pastor is retiring from pastoral ministry, his last Sunday will be Easter Sunday. He feels a calling elsewhere — he just doesn’t know what this calling is or where this calling is going to take him. I imagine that it is a frightening prospect for him; the not knowing. If I recall correctly, except for a seven- or eight-year period, he has been a pastor since achieving his Master of Divinity degree in the 1980’s.

Part of me envies this call on his life, and part (most of me, if I’m being honest) is glad that I don’t have the same call.

When he first told me that he was retiring and that he feels that God wants him elsewhere, my first thought was the words of Jesus in Matthew, “Remember Lot’s wife.” This was an incorrect assumption on my part, that is a Scripture about eschatology, or the end times. The actual Scripture that fits the situation is in Luke:

Luke 9:61–62

61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”

62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Lk 9:61–62). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

We at Mount Lassen Community Church (MLCC) want his new ministry to be fruitful. We will be praying for him and his new ministry, but if he looks back it may have a detrimental effect on both MLCC and Todd DuBord.

I’m also gonna miss the guy, a lot. I hope he is around regularly, visiting and encouraging those of us who remain at MLCC. We will have a very large void to fill, but allowing a window for his return could cause his ministry to falter, and possibly cause the ministry of MLCC to falter as well. That could be disastrous for both. Matthew Henry writes this about it:

Those who begin with the work of God, must resolve to go on, or they will make nothing of it. Looking back, leads to drawing back, and drawing back is to perdition. He only that endures to the end shall be saved.

Henry, M., & Scott, T. (1997). Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary (Lk 9:57). Logos Research Systems.

It is going to be emotional for me as the time draws near, he and I have worked closely for a decade. He sometimes thinks I am a magician. He has asked things like; “Can you add subtitles to this video?” or, “Can you remove part of this video?” or, “Make a video fit a song.” I’m an OK Boomer, so, yes, I can, because God has gifted me with a desire to learn this techy stuff.

I don’t know what a new pastor may want, but as long as I use those gifts that God has given me to for His purposes I will be in the place He has for me. Even if that place is telling our pastor not to return.