Dr. John has been there to support me and I have been there to support him as well, by support I mean encourage, comfort, chastise and rebuke. To talk, but more importantly to listen; to confess to one another our shortcomings in the ministry and life, to celebrate the many victories and to comfort one another through many abuses that go along with being in the ministry.
I have never had anyone so consistent in keeping their meetings with me, so much so that the one day John was not there and I didn’t hear anything I knew something was wrong and indeed the something turned out to be the heart attack that he had experienced and the subsequent trip into the hospital that prevented him from calling. Through winter blizzards, spring rains and summer heat, through triumphs and disasters we have met.
He drove the greater distance and even when his eyesight should have prevented him from driving, he was so determined, that we still met. On those days, his wife Patti would call me and say, “John is on his way. Will you let me know when he gets there?” As worried as she was about him at times, she never tried to prevent us from meeting, knowing how vital out time was together.
So now another season of my life has finished; John has taken a church in Northern Ohio, too far for us to meet weekly, but I am certain that our brotherhood which stretches back thirty years or so, will be kept intact, if not by our weekly face to face times of ministry. Tuesdays won’t be the same; life won’t be the same; ministry will never be the same without the love, correction and support we have both so dutifully shared together.
I have served with others more directly and for longer periods of time, but my heart has been knit to John’s in such a manner through these regular breakfasts that while I have not missed others at all, I miss him and he is not even gone yet.
As a going away present, I presented him with one of my favorite paintings that I have created called “THE PARSON: “Pastor” _________. (Name omitted to protect the guilty). The figure is that of a Pastor in his robes standing in front of a flawed stained-glass window. The colors are bright and vibrant, however while the preacher has a head, he has no eyes, ears or mouth. I inscribed on the back; this is Pastor _______, he has no eyes because he does not see, he has no ears because he does not hear; he has no mouth for he does NOT have a right to speak.” I told John, “Hang it where it can serve as a warning to you. Hang it where it reminds you of what NOT to be in the ministry. The man, who does not care to listen or to see the hurts of the lives around him, has not earned the right to speak into those lives.”
A calling is without repentance, however when the bureaucracy of the church, the buildings or programs or plans of the church; in short, when “Ministry” becomes more important the people of the church, you are no longer functioning as a Pastor – you have forsaken the ministry because people are your ministry. After all these years together, it’s the most importance advice I can send with my dear brother John. I will miss our times together, but John, you know I love you. Look at the picture of a man I knew and remember the man you are not to be. Amen!
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