One response (to remain anonymous): Thanks for sharing this article. I served with (a denominational agency) for 28 years. The need to balance ministry, travel, and family time is real. I didn't realize how much I needed to do that until one day I was brought into the big office and "retired."
The role of a missional leader requires the balance you modeled so well, George. Thank you for sharing your story, and for articulating to your 'bosses' of the day that investing in ministry requires the investment of time, talent, and treasure. Today, many of the face to face meetings we participated in can occur online, which can ease the travel load. But now, our successors seem to have an increasing amount of troubleshooting or pastoral uplifting sessions to engage in, each of which require an on-site presence. My hope and prayer is that they will be gifted with the same hunger for faith-soaring ministry that you are gifted with.
Sam, yes I would like to have had Zoom in the 1980s. It would have been great, saved a lot of money, and allowed me to be home more. Thankyou for youur comment!
George, I don’t remember this incident, but one thing I know is that you are the greatest mission strategist I have ever met. You designed what became mega focus cities that involved
working with associations in five cities of 1 million or more each year. concrete results came from your work. I regret that you had to be on the road or in the air so many days a year. that wasn’t fair to Betty. I doubt anyone at the home mission board was having as much positive result as you at that time. Of course you had to travel a lot and that did cost money. But look at the results. Jere.
Jere, thank you for your note! This happened while Don was still our boss. You may not have been in that day. Don knew I was spending a lot of money on travel, but he said to keep going and he would do all he could to protect me. And, he did.
I loved our days together at the Home Mission Board, and I believe we did accomplish many things for the Kingdom. I appreciated you as a colleague, and then as my boss when Don moved on to teach. I still appreciate you and wish we lived closer to one another. I would do everything I could with you except run the Peachtree Road Race. And Betty would enjoy being with Faye. George
Yes, and we often wondered if he had himself paged when he arrived at airports so people would know he was there, how important he was, or that he would soon meet them at baggage claim to be picked up.
Thanks, John! Working for that missions agency was a great joy with a lot of Kingdom accomplishments. It still had the pressures of the simultaneous call to ministry and the love of family.
One response (to remain anonymous): Thanks for sharing this article. I served with (a denominational agency) for 28 years. The need to balance ministry, travel, and family time is real. I didn't realize how much I needed to do that until one day I was brought into the big office and "retired."
The role of a missional leader requires the balance you modeled so well, George. Thank you for sharing your story, and for articulating to your 'bosses' of the day that investing in ministry requires the investment of time, talent, and treasure. Today, many of the face to face meetings we participated in can occur online, which can ease the travel load. But now, our successors seem to have an increasing amount of troubleshooting or pastoral uplifting sessions to engage in, each of which require an on-site presence. My hope and prayer is that they will be gifted with the same hunger for faith-soaring ministry that you are gifted with.
Sam, yes I would like to have had Zoom in the 1980s. It would have been great, saved a lot of money, and allowed me to be home more. Thankyou for youur comment!
George, I don’t remember this incident, but one thing I know is that you are the greatest mission strategist I have ever met. You designed what became mega focus cities that involved
working with associations in five cities of 1 million or more each year. concrete results came from your work. I regret that you had to be on the road or in the air so many days a year. that wasn’t fair to Betty. I doubt anyone at the home mission board was having as much positive result as you at that time. Of course you had to travel a lot and that did cost money. But look at the results. Jere.
Jere, thank you for your note! This happened while Don was still our boss. You may not have been in that day. Don knew I was spending a lot of money on travel, but he said to keep going and he would do all he could to protect me. And, he did.
I loved our days together at the Home Mission Board, and I believe we did accomplish many things for the Kingdom. I appreciated you as a colleague, and then as my boss when Don moved on to teach. I still appreciate you and wish we lived closer to one another. I would do everything I could with you except run the Peachtree Road Race. And Betty would enjoy being with Faye. George
Jimmy Allen.
Yes, and we often wondered if he had himself paged when he arrived at airports so people would know he was there, how important he was, or that he would soon meet them at baggage claim to be picked up.
Been there, done that with A/G!
Great message, meaningful and credible, as always!
Thanks, John! Working for that missions agency was a great joy with a lot of Kingdom accomplishments. It still had the pressures of the simultaneous call to ministry and the love of family.