FACING CHANGES

The last half of my ministry in Vernon saw a few changes.  Several new families came to the church during this time period.  Some of them became deeply involved in the ministry, i.e. board members and Sunday School, youth, children's, music ministries, etc.  This was all very encouraging.

Another change in early 1966 involved a move for my family.  The landlord, from whom the church had rented a house for forty-five dollars a month, wanted to move into that house.  His wife had died and the house that he was living in was too big for one person.  The board decided it was time to buy a house that would serve as a parsonage.  As they began to search for a suitable house, they looked at some houses that were under construction.  I went through one of them, which I fell in love with.  It had three bedrooms, living, dining, full unfinished basement and two fireplaces, one in the living room and one in the basement.  The total cost was $13,500.00 with only a fifteen hundred dollar down payment.

Backyard of parsonage.  My mom hanging out clothes

I debated for two or three  days whether I should share the following.  However, since Zachary (see the first posting April 22, 2016) asked that I share my pastoral journey, I figured that I needed to include the down times and difficult experiences as well as the good times.  Hence the following paragraphs.

The mindset in a lot of churches, half a century ago, was like the proverbial saying.  "Lord you keep him humble and we'll keep him poor."  One of the members of the board said that if the church bought a new house for the pastor to live in that he would leave the church.  So instead of buying the brand new house, the church bought a two bedroom older house for $11,500.00, two thousand dollars less.  Two years later they paid close to three thousand dollars to have a family room added, plus another bedroom.

A few months prior to this the board wanted to give me a fair size raise in pay.  Another board member, at the time, said that he figured that the pastor should not be paid more than what he could carry in his wallet in case the church was short of funds and then he could pay the pastor his salary.  So there was a very small raise.  As soon as that board member was no longer a member of the board, I received about a 25% increase in my pay.  Thankfully these couple of board members were the exception.

Parsonage Christmas 1968 - 2702 40th Street, Vernon

Here is a story which I've often shared about a board member who was always a great encourager.  Early in my ministry at Vernon, we were short of cash.  That was before the days of credit cards.  It was a Friday morning.  I was in my study at the church, but unable to concentrate because we needed some cash and we didn't have it.  So I went into the sanctuary and walked around crying out to God for some money.  After spending some time in prayer I felt the burden lifted and that God had heard my prayer.  I went back to my studying.

I had heard many testimonies from students as to how they had asked God for money and God answered by sending money to them through the mail.  So figuring that was how God was going to answer my prayer, I checked the mail box at the church and at home that day.  There was no envelope with money.  Well, back in the 1960's we still had Saturday mail delivery.  No money came at either place Saturday.  

While we were eating our supper that Saturday there was a knock at our front door.  A board member's wife was there and thrust an envelope into my hand while saying, "You guys must have been praying about this."  In the envelope were two twenty dollar bills.  That was equal to about four days work. When I assured her that I had been praying about some extra cash, she proceeded to tell us that at noon that day while she and her husband were eating lunch that one of them broke the momentary silence by saying, "I was thinking of the Goldsmiths."

"So, was I,"  said the spouse.

"What were you thinking?" the first one asked.

"I was thinking that they needed some money."

"So was I," said the other.

"Then let's give them some."  I've never forgotten that incident and have wondered how many more times, in the years that followed, would God have met my need if I had prayed instead of using a credit card. I should explain here that I have been calling these leaders board members.  In those years we had a small board of elders, which basically looked after communion and interviewed prospective members, and a larger executive board, which was the governing board of the church.  It was not until the C&MA became autonomous in Canada in 1980 that the churches had one board, which from then on was called the elders board.

I know this posting is getting awfully long, but I have to tell you about one more big change.  Our daughter, Sharilyn Joy, arrived.  Leona began to feel labor pains about midnight.  I took her to the hospital around 3:00am the morning of September 2, 1966.  Throughout that day her contractions would come and go. There was even talk of sending her home.

That night, I received a telephone call at the hospital from a retired Baptist pastor whom I had met only once and that was when he spoke at a midweek  service.  He was passing through Vernon, the night of September 2nd, and decided to give me a call.  When he phoned our house, the lady looking after Dan and Brian told him I was at the hospital with Leona.  When I shared with him that Leona first experienced labor pains almost 22 hours before with no sign of an imminent birth, he responded by saying, "Let me pray with you."  That was the first time that I could remember anyone ever praying with me on the telephone.

Less than hour after he prayed, Sharilyn was born.  Her arrival took the doctor by surprise, seeing that things had been so slow all day long.  Need I say we were mighty thankful for the safe arrival of this little bundle of joy.  However, I learned a lesson that night that affected my future ministry.  I learned that you don't have to be physically present when you pray for someone.  Since that pastor's memorable  telephone call and prayer, I have prayed with hundreds of people on the phone.  Not too many years ago, I prayed with a person and I said, "Lord, we're asking You to do a miracle."  The person that God used to answer that prayer phoned me about three minutes after I hung up.  He had been trying to phone me while I was praying for a miracle.

Rev. Bill Rose dedicating Sharilyn

I have witnessed many changes during my years of ministry.  Many were for the better, some have left me with questions.  Heraclitus, a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher is credited with saying, "The only thing that is constant is change."