The Loneliest Choice of All
Calvin C. Ratz
When I have learned to do the Father's will, I shall have fully realized my vocation on earth.
Carlo Carretto
The relocation saga begins for most pastors with a bedeviling question: "Is it time to resign my present church?" The future of one's ministry, the trust of a congregation, the needs of spouse and children, and the opinion of peers all seem to heighten the emotional stakes and blur objectivity.
In this first chapter, Calvin C. Ratz writes candidly about the decision that brought him to his present pastorate at Abbotsford Pentecostal Assembly in British Columbia, an hour outside of Vancouver. Now in his forties, married, and the father of two children, Ratz has faced the shall-we-move? dilemma enough times in his ministerial career to have sorted out the factors and identified important questions to consider.
It happened while we were unloading the car and trailer. Our family had just spent a week sailing on Lake Champlain in Vermont, and we were in the middle of trucking dirty clothes, ice coolers, and camping gear back into our home in Montreal when the phone rang.
A man three thousand miles away whom I had never met, the chairman of a pulpit search committee, came to the point quickly: Would I consider meeting with his group to discuss becoming senior pastor of their church?
If that board could have seen me at that moment, they would have questioned their decision. I hadn't shaved in a week; I was sweaty, dirty, and wearing a ragged pair of shorts and no shirt. I was in no condition to deal with a major spiritual decision.
Once again it was time to go through the agonizing process of determining whether to leave a congregation and assume new responsibilities elsewhere. I hadn't sought the invitation; it had come to ...
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