TO COLLEAGUES, FRIENDS, PARTNERS

Please accept my apologies for this not being a handwritten note. I should be doing so to each of you who are readers and supporters who mean so much to me. You are my colleagues, my friends and partners in ministry. People I have served and been served by. Some of you support financially

[1] the work I do and for this I give special thanks.

FAILING AND FEELING

It is true I have retired three times, once as church senior pastor, once as church executive pastor, and once as nonprofit ministry executive director. It adds up to having flunked retirement three times! Each time I have been given an honorary emeritus designation, so instead of an “F,” maybe I got a “D—.” Retirement is a subject I’ve never been good in.

My third and final retirement was just getting under way when Dixie was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Eighteen months later she was with our Savior and Redeemer, the One whom we served our entire lifetimes together. Is there a lesson here? The lesson is, I thought we had more time. I should have flunked sooner. It’s something you might want to think about it.

I feel the loss of my wife, best friend, and ministry partner every day. Before her death she agreed to my telling her story, but only if I filled it with “teaching moments.” Soon after her death, Dixie’s “teaching moments” memoir, Sacred Journey[2], was published. After its publication, I hit the ‘grief wall,’ both emotionally and spiritually. This is where others of you entered or reentered my life, offering up your amazing prayer support, helping me navigate the Valley of Shadows (Psalm 23). So it is important, as the year 2018 nears its ending, I share with you my deep and heartfelt gratitude. The lesson here is, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power.”[3]

WHAT IS AHEAD?

Some have asked what am I doing now, having entered my ninth decade of life? For sure, I am being drawn closer to my heavenly home. Upon my arrival, after resting a bit from the excitement of the journey, I want to see Jesus, greet my friends, then travel around heaven with my wife, who by this time will know all the cool places we should visit, as we look forward together to our Lord’s next assignment.

UNTIL THEN, GOD WILLING

  1. I continue leading a C3 Leaders Forum (C3Leaders.org) each week in my home, about 18-20 business and professional men, growing in our walk withJesus.
  2. When invited, I speak in churches,retreats and conferences.
  3. GAGE, the wonder dog, and I have be entraining since he was 5 months old. First it was so we wouldn’t kill each other. Now, at 16 months, we are training to be a Reading with Rover therapy dog D.R.E.A.M team (Dogs for Reading Assistance Education and More), helping children with reading challenges, autistic children, any child with a special need. Next year, with a bit more training, we will qualify to work with patients in hospitals and hospice centers. It seems GAGE and I are now partners in ‘children’s ministry’ and ‘adult caregiving.’
  4. We enjoyed Thanksgiving with my son and his family in Savannah GA, followed by a quiet retreat in Florida for prayer and reading, personal reflecting and writing.
  5. In California, January and February, I will participate in my second (GAGE’s first) Desert Fathers retreat, the annual Assist International board meeting (https://www.assistinternational.org/),and a one-day Central Valley Conference (Feb. 11)  in Manteca, where people are gathering together to unpack fresh PERSPECTIVE on Living, Learning and Leading at 50+ (for Information: bettyboopshore@aol.com).
  6. I’m also investing time with several colleagues who served in pastoral work with me at Valley Christian Center in Dublin CA, and are now scattered in ministries along the Oregon/California I-5 corridor. It’s important we are together, even for a short time. After all,they’re not getting any younger!
  7. In May and October, 2019, Pastor GaryGulbranson of Bellevue WA’s Westminster Chapel, and my Israeli guide, MosheHesed, will join me leading and teaching in two Best of Israel/Jordan/Petra FOUNDATION OF FAITH Tours. The May program is full,but there are still some openings for a beautiful Autumn in Israel (contact: ward@wardtanneberg.com).
  8. Myblog, Perspective for Leaders 50+, has become my ‘pulpit’ these days where over 1700 readers (16% Builders  65% Boomers 19% GenXers)and others on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter’s social networks join me each week to let life’s ordinary elements of pathos and humor, pros and poetry,reason and faith, facts and fiction, bump up against ancient biblical truths and 21st century life. If you’re reading this on social media, you may subscribe and receive Perspective automatically each week in your email (http//www.wardtanneberg.com).
  9. And like everyone else, it seems, I am working on a new book.

The lesson here? Live your life as it is meant to be. The final third of one’s life is The Resolution, the season of listening to, interpreting with, and inspiring those who follow after us.

So listen well, my friend, speak to influence, be creative, stir the glowing embers in your peers, and leave the Light on for the next generation.

Merry Christmas andHappy New Year!

[1] Ministry donations may be directed to Westminster Chapel/Ward Tanneberg Ministries, 13646 NE 24th St, Bellevue WA 98004.

[2] Sacred Journey by Ward Tanneberg, Hartline Literary Group, 2016. Available in soft cover and Kindle on Amazon.com.

[3] James 5:16