Shepherd w/o a flock

[Lacy]

Suzi,

Your post was a real blessing to me. I mentioned in another post how Milton, when blind, wrote, "They also serve who only stand and wait." So "Here I stand, I can do no other." I'm like the old elephant who was tethered to a stake in a field after he had pulled the ropes that pitched the big top at the circus. He did this for many years. He would just go around in circles while he waited for another job. When they retired him, they just turned him loose in the field without tethering him, and, as always, he just went around in circles while he waited for another job. So, after preaching for fifty years, I just sort of go around in circles as I wait for another call.

As to your situation, I felt an anger rising up within me as I remember how the women of my churches couldn't stand up and speak up but had to sit down and shut up instead.
I certainly believe the Bible to be the Word of God. I believe also that apostles, evangelists, pastors and teachers had to deal with the various customs they encountered in different places. Women keeping silent and wearing their head and face covering was a Corinthian custom, just as it is in Iraq an Afganahstan today. The women had no choice; they would follow this custom or they would be out of "unifirm" and out of order. Washing a visitor's feet in Judea was the same sort of custom. And they were many more. If we are going to be such literalists, a little hat on a woman's head misses the prescribed covering as much as sprinkling misses baptism. And if we are going to inforce this rule against women in American churches today, why don't we wash our visitors' feet, demand that our women wear a veil when in public, etc, etc.

We "speak where the Bible speaks and are silent where the Bible is silent" according to our picking and choosing. I very much dislike the loud mouth feminists, some wo believe that "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bycicle," but I detest the custom of forcing the women into silence as if they are not capable of understanding and unable to express a thought. I'll not encourage you to make a scene, but I think I would make a little noise.

God bless you Suzi, and thank you for your good response.

Lacy

[peck]

Lacy,
I have enjoyed reading your thread.It's good to have someone on the board older than I.I'm 67.

Boy wouldn't it be nice to have a preacher's podium on this site.You could give us a sermon and we could make responses.

Hey do you remember the pallets us kids lay on in church.The only verse the boys in class knew was "Jesus wept".No airconditioning and the fans all had advertisements of funeral homes.One seater outside.Potbellied stove.

How precious it would be to listen one more time to the old standby hymns sung by simple people.

I'm offbase but considering your age I thought you might share some precious memories of your preaching years.

God bless you for serving our Lord,...Charles

Lacy,

In my dim memory from early childhood I vaguely remember Davenport IA in 1951 or 52.  Was there a John Deere factory there or near Waterloo?  My father designed ignition systems for JD.  I was busy learning not to eat crayons.  

Morris

[Lacy]

To whom it may be of interest,

Peck wished that you on this board could have read the stories on the iBelieve board. Not only are my stories from the ancient past there, but Peck has some pretty old ones himself--and so do others. You can access them by going to iBelieve.com, "Coffee Shop," "Youth and Old Age" and "Just one more time--what would it be?" Both of these are strrings started by Peck. I wonder if he is "Peck's Bad Boy" of long-ago grade school reader fame. Only Peck and I would remember that, I suppose.

Lacy

[Lacy]

Greetings to all,

I read a poem years ago with a last line which said, "The sheep were safe within the fold; the shepherd, he was lost."

I sat in my study this morning (Sunday), undecided whether or where I would go to church. I had checked my mail and was into our discussion panel, when the church bell of a little church a block away rang for AM services. I jumped to my feet and began getting dressed, excited about the prospect of attending. My wife asked me where I was going, to which I replied, "I am going to church, that bell tolls for me!" So we went to church. We are most often in church but we have no certain place to be.

When I left the cofC, all the doors I had gone through as a minister, an evangelist, "holdong Gospel meetings," and as a brother to many people I had known, closed against me. I found another church and served as a pastor for twenty-five years, until I retired in 1996. Since that time I have preached quite often wherever I am called. If the cofC is too legalistic, the latter church I served is too liberal. I am a shepherd w/o a flock, a church goer, or "church hopper," some would say. I feel that everyone should have a home church and get involved in its work, but, sad to say, I just don't seem to have the heart for it.

How many of you have had similar experiences or even understand what I am feeling. Maybe you will be my congragation today and have a word of encouragement for "your pastor."

Lacy

[SuziQ]

Lacy,
 I started earlier to try to encourage you but my words sounded anything but encouraging.  So, I try again!  As a member of the flock, I cannot know how it feels to be a flockless shepherd.  However, I have often felt like a sheep in a foreign flock.  I was feeling quite "lost" this morning, as our class discussed 1 Tim. (women keep silent), and I got the distinct impression that anything I might have to say would be considered totally irrelevant simply because of my gender.  

In another thread the question was asked, "Why do you stay?"  My answer to that question remains, I am where God led me.  I know I have a purpose...even if I have to serve that purpose with my mouth shut! :)  

I have to believe that your freedom to visit with many congregations and preach in various places allows you to spread seed you may never see grow and harvested.  I know the importance of having a church home. (Even one that wants me silent.)  But I have also been blessed by visiting outside my church home.  And, I have personally reaped benefits from others who drop in at my church home and offer a new or "different" perspective.

I pray you God will lead you where he intends you to be.  In the mean time, do not consider your "church hopping" time wasted.

Suzi

[seekr]

lacy, I know of other flockless shepherds, as these are some of the people God brings into my husband and my life. This one particular man who was shoved out, doesn't mind it as he says he will never go back and can serve without it. I do not believe serving God only comes within the structures we have become used to, but maybe God will use you in the lives of others one on one. When we follow Him it doesn't matter where. The desert times are challenging but also rewarding. I have no church affiliation, other than the people of God, wherever I may share His love and where God places me at any moment as living for Him is a constant in my life, not a Sunday meeting. God may still call you later to a congregation of two or more--does size make it any less "church"?

seekr

[Lacy]

Good comments folks!

I am not depressed or grieving over not being a shepherd any longer. I will soon be 78--a very young 78--and I enjoy my time and freedom. It's just that Sundays are different in retirement. I spent more than a year writing a book that I am trying to get published (see my "Liberation Theology" post). This was a great learning experience. I recomment it to everyone who is studious and loves to learn.

In September I will be in Columbus, OH visiting my four children, seven grand children and three great grandchildren. AND I WON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT GETING BACK FOR SUNDAY SERVICE.

Thanks good people for your encouragement.

Lacy

[Lacy]

Peck,

Thanks for the comment from one old codger to another. Yes, I remember. I remember church services in an old one-room school house, way back in the WV hills--almost too far for human beings to go. One night after preaching and we were all leaving the building with our kerocene lamps and lanterns "Old brother Terry," the preacher, who was 84, hit his foot on a rock and fell. He was a large man and we were so afraid he was hurt, but he was alright. I was always afraid of the dark. An aunt of mine said. "Lacy's afraid the Devil is going to get him." She was probably right. Well, after service one night and everyone had gone, I was left there in the dark, sleeping with my head on the old school desk. Like Jesus' parents, mine came back and got me. (Can you imagine Jesus with his head on his arms, asleep on the temple court during that discussion?) It's a good thing I slept until they got back to awaken me, otherwise I wouldn't be here to tell you this story. At times I was the janitor of that school and got paid $4.50 a month. When I was a teenager, I remember how sinners would walk for miles just to sit on the big rock outside the building and talk while services were going on. I remember one young man saying, "They have the wrong kind of wine in there, otherwise I would go in and drink with them." Now, don't ask me how I know he said that.

One night while the services were in session, the windows were open and people were using their funeral home fans, we heared a terrible noise. Looking up, we saw a horrible creature, with horns and a tail, bounding through the window. Everyone ran out except a very old man, who was unable to get up and go, and myself, who was petrified with fear. I heard the old man say, "Don't take me, I've been on your side all the time!"

Now Peck, you can believe that or not. I didn't believe your story either!

Lacy

[peck]

Hey Lacy,
Great post,if these youngsters on this board want to know first hand information about the past,they need to ask us while we are still around.Hey,I like your humor.

Speaking of open windows in church,I can still remember being so bored that just watching the wasps trying to land on some sisters hat was exciting.Or watching my uncle's horse tied outside the window.

Say,maybe I just wasn't listening but I can't remember ever hearing Jesus and him crucified preached.It was always what we must do,like you know what....And the creek was just below the church.In winter,I 've seen them being baptized in overcoats.(humor)Can sins be washed off overcoats or do they need to be baptized again?

God bless you brother(hey,being old is not as classy as I thought was going to be)....Charles

[Lacy]

Peck

The chopped a hole in the ice in Lick Creek at Elton, WV to baptize my mom just before I came along. I was baptized in a baptistry in Davenport, IA on Dec. 31, 1950, and had to drive home to East Moline, IL (seven miles, I think) in a '31 midel A without a heater (the best car I could buy for $150 while in GI training with Remington Rand), in sub zero weather.

I wouldn't desparage baptism--after all the Lord commanded it-- but I think perhaps my understanding and motivation at the time was, either this cold or else the heat!

Lacy

[spurly]

Lacy,

Are you still getting invitation to preach and fill-in.  I hear of many preachers, who after they retire, they never really stop preaching.  Every Sunday they are in another place presenting the gospel.

I know it is not the same as leading one flock, but you can be a blessing to many.

Kevin

[peck]

Lacy,
I really enjoy your stories.They are so interesting.You have so much to share with us.

I wish this board could have read your stories on the believe board.Doris,your brother,your time away from home.I like nostalgia.

God bless,Charles

[janine]

I vaguely recall references to "Peck's Bad Boy".  Do you guys remember "Penrod and Sam"?

Anyone who has homeschooled may recall both from looking up older, and thus cleaner, literature/textbooks.

[Booty]

I wager were you to arrive here, a flock without a shepard could quickly be found!

[Beverly Nuckols (hocndoc)]

Please read all of this, if you start it. And forgive all the mixed metaphors - that's really the way I think.

How would you like a congregation where the members are bragging about a popular member's incestuous relationship? Or where they were baptizing for the dead and the rich, popular members were coming in when everyone else is at work and eating up all the bread and getting drunk on the wine? Or you could shephard  that church across the way where they are forcing grown men to be circumcised.
And count your blessings that no one has decided you are such a disturbing influence on the local flock that you should die.

I don't know how preachers do it. I worry that you are never "off." Even if you find a preacher for your wife (preacher's wives have my sympathy, too), you probably have such high expectations and standards that you find it hard to just let go and stop being worried and concerned.

And why not, I could just kill them as a doctor - if you fail they could go to Hell!

But, you know what? You have a Shephard, too. And He can do things that we can't and he even knows which efforts will end in good and which won't.  So, be easy on yourself. Take a "busman's holiday" (Call it a sabatical, if you want) and enjoy letting God be in the driver's seat, while you get to watch the scenery and  your fellow travelers instead of the road.

[janine]

Considering some of the wretched preachers and wretcheder preaching I've seen brethren put up with, why wouldn't they want a willing and able guy like yersef?

Surely a well-spoken and willing man, with quirks to be put up with, is better than an "only-God-could-use-him" man, who is not cut out to preach... but oh, look, he checked off all the appropriate blanks on the preacher screening form!

[Lacy]

Spurly,

I moved to this location a year age, where I met a fine young preacher who serves two churches near here. He had to go to the hospital for a couple of days and asked me to fill in for him. These are the only two churches I have served during this time.

I was farely well know many years ago in the coC in WV, OH,MI and IL where I had served churches. But that all ended in WV years ago when I came to an understand Paul's teaching in Romans on justification by faith. I preached it the way it was written and a brother wrote me up in his paper for preaching "false doctrine." I haven't preached in the coC for thirty five years. I am still with the coG (Anderson, IN). After  I retired in '96, I preached quite regularly for a couple of years, but since I moved to this location there aren't the opportunities available as in my former location.

These free years have been a great learning and growing time for me. Preachers get so cagen in and accustomed to performing according to the rules that they never grow beyond what they are allowed. Now I am free and live only to please the Lord and to enjoy life. I have my study/computer room and a nature trail through the woods just a block away. God spends time with me here in my room and I spend time with Him out there on the trail. My good wife and I come and go as we please and enjoy life together. It is all quite wonderful! And when God calls I will answer.

Thank you for yout concern and support.

Lacy

[Lacy]

Janen,

No, I don't remember Pinrod and Sam. Must have been before my time, don't you suppose? I do remember "Little, what's his color, Sambo," however.

Bless you,

Lacy