Craig McKnight: Hellbent for Hockey
The trauma of transition is sometimes a major mortar attack on pastoral offspring. Husbands and wives may be agreed that a move is within the plan of God for their lives and ministry, but convincing the kids can be tough. That can make the grownups start questioning their earlier decision.
Jerry and Arlene McKnight thought they had handled the thousand-mile move from Winnipeg to Dearborn, Michigan, as well as could be expected. No one likes to uproot, of course, and crossing the border to begin ministering in the United States was an extra consideration. But the opportunity as associate pastor of this large Lutheran church was exactly what Jerry was cut out to do.
Both husband and wife had known rocky adolescences; they had not even become Christians until after their first child, Melissa, had been born. That had made them eager to raise their children with care. They also wanted to implant a positive attitude toward Christian service.
They could understand the reluctance of Craig, their second child, to leave Canada in the middle of high school. His younger brother, Kurt, was not as upset—but Craig had a hockey career on the line. A muscular blond left wing, he had scored forty-two goals and made thirty assists as a sophomore. Did American high schools even know what hockey was?
All during that fall, as the Michigan church concluded its search and extended its call, the debate at the McKnight house churned. Craig resisted strongly. But one day as Jerry was in the car with him, he said, "I've been thinking some more about it, Dad, and if you really think it's God's will for us to move, I'm willing to do it."
Jerry was grateful for that and said so. As things turned out, Craig's junior season was salvaged after all. The house ...
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