Category Archives: Systematic Theology

One of the more difficult questions to answer in a pastor’s life is determining when it’s time to retire from ministry. When should a pastor retire?

What do you do when you find yourself at the crossroads of life and there are no signposts? What happens when you lose your pastoral call and you think you should change vocations? Or what happens if you graduate from seminary and after a number of years you still haven’t been able to get a call? Should you hang up your cleats?

Over the years I have watched a number of colleagues lose their pastorates for various reasons. This can be a very discouraging turn of events to say the least. What do you do when you’ve spent four years in college, three or four years in seminary, spent ten years in the pastorate and then inexplicably lose your call?

In team sports athletes who do not start the game and spend a lot of time on the bench have a phrase—they “ride the pine.” That is, they sit on the pine bench rather than play in the game.

In team sports if you have the skill and ability, you can be a starter on the team. From the very first tick of the clock the coach puts you in the game. There is a great degree of satisfaction in being a starter. This parallels the experience of a seminarian who, upon graduation, is a starter.

Among the many legitimate vocations that Christians can pursue, military service is certainly an acceptable choice. Serving in the military can be very beneficial. Many young people have testified to the fact that military service helped them grow up to be responsible adults.

The other day I was watching a show that, surprisingly, made reference to “Dutch Calvinism.” To say the least, I was shocked because ordinarily reference to Christianity is dominated by either a generic evangelicalism, which at times mirrors spiritual mysticism more than biblical Christianity, or Roman Catholicism, which is one of the more common forms of Christianity, at least socially (not theologically) considered.

One of the regular complaints I hear from graduates is that they believe their seminary education did not adequately prepare them for the various counseling challenges they face in the pastorate.

I served on a presbytery credentials committee for nearly a decade. The credentials committee has the task of vetting candidates for the ministry. One of the regular questions that we asked prospective candidates was, “Is your wife in agreement with your desire to pursue the ministry?”

It seems like far too many people treat relationships of all sorts as being disposable. As soon as they hit a rough patch of any sort they decide to pull up stakes, move on, and find a new relationship.

Serendipity is one of my favorite words for two reasons. First, it’s not a word you often hear people say and has a unique sound. Say serendipity ten times fast!

I was in college when I ran across a rep from a credit card company. Money lenders are shrewd. They know that college students don’t always have the money they want or need, and so getting a young financially inexperienced college student to sign on the bottom line is a relatively easy thing to do.