Paulette and I had been very active in our church in North Carolina, almost to the point of burnout. When we retired here in Ocala, we started looking for a new church home, eventually deciding on Joy Lutheran. We were committed to regularly worshiping, but we also, partly consciously and partly subconsciously, wanted to not be as involved in church activities. We told ourselves that we were following Luther in being saved by faith and not by works, but really we were semi-retiring from church. Like us, almost all of Joy’s members are retired and almost all have moved here from somewhere else. I have sensed that we are also not unique with respect to wanting to reduce church involvement in retirement. In many ways our attitudes are justified, for after all we’ve “Been There, Done That.”

Joy, however, is a moderately large church with many activities. It has three weekly services, a fairly large music program, two buildings and large grounds (including a beautiful memorial garden), Bible studies, many valuable ministries and committees, LMM and WELCA groups, and outreach activities. All of these require many members of our congregation to fully function.

How do we reconcile the many needs of our congregation with not wanting to repeat the church roles we had before retirement? Let me propose a partial solution: we step out of our comfort zones and do something different! As an example let me describe what has worked for me. My education was in mathematics, and I taught math for 44 years; as a result I am most comfortable with STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) activities. As an aside, I should admit that I am terrible at arithmetic; my skills lie in doing math that only uses letters. My comfort zone lies on the opposite side of the spectrum from art, music and writing. So what happened to me at Joy? I joined the choir and having been writing weekly contributions to this blog for over two years. Not only that, but I feel blessed doing it.

I suspect that something similar might be true for you. If you also feel that you’ve “Been There, Done That,” volunteer for something you haven’t done, something out of your comfort zone. For example, if at services you’ve only sat in the pews, volunteer to be a reader or a member of the altar guild. Or, if you’ve always been a follower, volunteer to lead (or at least serve on) one of our ministries, or even the Council. Doing something new and different fits well with retirement.

Please read Matthew 28:16-20, the Great Commission, where Jesus sends the disciples out preaching and teaching to all the nations of the earth. God loved them unconditionally, but he still commissioned them to roles way out of the comfort zones of their simple, hard-working lives. God also loves YOU and me unconditionally and sometimes asks the same of us.

Jim