Several years ago I preached a sermon at Southeast entitled “International Harvesters” in which I lamented the declining number of young men entering the ministry, especially as preachers. Naturally, I encouraged believers to pray about this situation, praying that God would lead young men and women to the mission field and into the ministry.
One of the ways we can mitigate this problem is for older Christians to enter the ministry as a second career after they have successfully wrapped up a career in the secular world. Some time ago Bob Buford wrote a book called “Half Time” where he laid out a coherent strategy for serving God in full time ministry after retirement.
My administrative assistant Don Waddell has done exactly that, and I used Don as a positive example in my International Harvesters sermon. Seventeen years ago Don Waddell retired from the Air Force after 28-years of service in which he had been a fighter pilot, Pentagon staff officer and commander. He had a retirement home in Florida and planned to live a life of leisure with his wife, Nancy, his kids and grandkids. However, he and Nancy came to visit their home church, Southeast, in 1994 and were so moved by the Holy Spirit that they sold their Florida house, joined our church staff where Don has made an important contribution for the past 17 years.
While the church has been unable to use all of the skills he acquired in the Air Force (such as dropping bombs and shooting down airplanes), his organizational and administrative talents have been invaluable to the church. In addition his life experience and heart for people and the Gospel have served him and the church well. For these reasons, when I retired from Southeast in 2006, I asked Don to be my administrative assistant. His previous professional experience, his heart for ministry and the extraordinary gifts God has given him, have enabled Don to work as a minister at Southeast and as my assistant for six years.
I want to encourage you to consider how you might serve God in a fulltime capacity after retirement. I know the allure of living out your lives in leisure, retiring to Florida or spending your senior years fishing or playing golf, is strong. But I also know that serving God is extremely rewarding and benefits the body of Christ in many ways.
One of the things Don has done as a member of the Southeast staff is write a regular column in the Southeast Outlook covering a wide variety of topics. His columns are actually quite good and very funny. Invariably, they challenge us to look a life from a Biblical perspective and apply Biblical truth to our daily walk with Christ. He has compiled 70 of those columns in a book called “Laughing on the Way to Heaven,” and I encourage you to get a copy and read it. I also encourage you to consider going into the ministry after you retire.
You can order a copy of Don’s book:
1) through Bob Russell Ministries by clicking here.
2) online through the LivingWord (www.livingword.org)
3) or as an ebook through Amazon (Kindle) or Barnes and Noble (Nook).
The retail price of Don’s book is $16.99 but it’s on sale for $12.25 if you order through Bob Russell Ministries “Resources” page here. (Scroll to the bottom of that page to find it.)
