Monday Morning Manna: Retirement – Again
When I retired from the faculty of Southwestern Baptist Seminary in 2007, I said to anyone who would listen, ”I’m retiring from a position, not from a calling.” Since then, one of the things that has kept me busy fulfilling my calling is serving as “Spiritual Life and Leadership Mentor” for the WestCoast Baptist Association (metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada). Now, due to a combination of age, health issues, family concerns, and decreasing financial resources related to Disciple All Nations, Inc. (from which all my ministry travel is paid), it is time to retire . . . again. Once again, I am retiring from a position, not from a calling. I frequently said to my students, “The word ‘retirement’ is not in the Bible.” I’ll never forget the day a student brought me some new translation (more likely a paraphrase) that I had not seen before and showed me the word “retirement” in the Old Testament. However, it related to the retirement of the Temple Prostitutes, but it was there. So, I had to adjust my comment to say. Depending on your translation (or paraphrase), the word “retirement is not in the Bible.” Either way, even if the word is there, the call of God has no such retirement date. So, I will keep on preaching, teaching, traveling, writing, mentoring, serving, etc. as circumstances and finances allow. My current guide passage is Psalm 71:17-18 – “O God, You have taught me from my youth; and to this day, I declare Your wondrous works. Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, your power to everyone who is to come.”
Since I will no longer be serving on the WestCoast Baptist Association staff, my Monday Morning Manna will no longer be posted on the Association web site every Monday morning. If you would like to keep reading it, here are some ways to keep on doing so:
1. Send me your name and e-mail address and you will receive the Manna every Monday morning via e-mail. Send it to dcrawford@swbts.edu or text to 817-637-4967.
2. Request to be my Facebook friend (www.facebook.com/dan.crawford), and I will accept, thus allowing you to read the Manna every Monday morning via Facebook.
3. The Manna is also posted on my Twitter account (@DrDanRC) and my LinkedIn account (linkedin.com/in/dan-crawford-78165417) and if you follow me on either of these social media, you will have access to the Manna every Monday morning.
Dr. Dan R. Crawford, Senior Professor, Chair of Prayer Emeritus; Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas. Head of Task Force for the Teaching of Prayer in Theological Education for America’s National Prayer Committee.