50 years ago, I worked full-time for Interstate Brands, a commercial baker during the summer. On the side, I was janitor for the building where our apartment was located. At the end of the summer, I stopped working at the bakery and began my senior year of college. I became a supply pastor, licensed to serve a small congregation about 50 miles from our home. Most weeks my responsibility was to plan and lead worship. This included preparing and printing the bulletins on the machines at the Conference Office. On occasion there would be extra duties associated with that job. I officiated at my first funeral. I journeyed through the end of Pentecost, reign of Christ, Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost with that congregation.

Then I graduated from college and went to work full time assembling and delivering farm machinery. After three months at that job I became a full-time graduate student. During my seminary years I had jobs as a church janitor, a summer camp manager, a pastoral counselor, and a youth minister.

When we completed our seminary degrees, we accepted the call to serve two congregations in southwest North Dakota. Susan and I were job sharing. We had a single full-time job between us. That meant that I had time for other part-time work. I found employment as a radio DJ and a school bus driver. Later in my career I worked as a freelance writer and an educational consultant. I was still writing professionally and doing an occasional consulting gig when we moved to South Dakota. Those jobs weren’t the main sources of income for our family but they provided supplemental income that enabled us to do some wonderful things as a family, including travel.

Throughout my adult life, I have had a lot of jobs that started and ended within a few months. I would sign an employment agreement knowing that the job would be finished when a particular project was finished. On the other hand, my main work - serving congregations - involved long-term commitments. We served our first parish for seven years, followed by ten years in our second parish and twenty-five years in our third pastorate. I learned both the art of long-term service and the art of short-term work.

Those experiences have been important to me as I learn a new art - the art of retirement. Before I retired, I didn’t think much about what it would mean. I looked forward to having more control of my schedule. I thought we would travel a bit. Perhaps I would focus on my writing. I’ve always had writing a book as a goal, but I’ve never written one. Retirement might allow me to collect my journal entries and edit some of them into a collection of essays. Perhaps I might try my hand at writing fiction and poetry. There were some trips we wanted to take that take more time than is possible when we were serving a congregation full-time.

The first year of retirement was full of activities. We prepared our home for sale and moved our household 1300 miles. We did our own moving with a great deal of assistance from friends. We planned a large road trip and after our first year we camped our way across the country from Washington to South Carolina and back. As soon as we returned from that trip, we went back to work half time, job sharing a single full-time position. When we became Interim Ministers of Faith Formation at First Congregational Church of Bellingham, we knew that our time of service would be 18 - 24 months. At the time, I thought that it was a pretty big commitment. I was a bit uncertain about going back to work with only two weeks of vacation each year, but it was a time of transition for us. In the first three months of working at the new half-time position we purchased a home and moved from our rental. Once again we did the moving ourselves, employing some part-time help to load and unload furniture from the truck.

The 24 months was over yesterday. We had our exit interviews, packed up our office, and came home from work. I haven’t lined up another job. People have been asking me what I’m going to do in retirement. I have made some vague comments about travel - and we do intend to travel, but we don’t have any big trips planned right away. We wanted to take a few weeks to rest and catch up with a list of tasks. I’ve got projects around the house and over at our son’s farm that I’ve put off waiting for some larger blocks of time to focus. We want to visit family and go camping with our grandchildren. We want to drive the North Cascades loop and pick some fresh fruit from the other side of the mountains. Crabbing season starts in a couple of weeks and I want to learn more about foraging for food in our new location. I’ve got a long list of activities.

But I don’t have a job. At least not right now.

When I was young, I didn’t mind short-term jobs. There were lots of things that I did for a few months and then moved on to another job. The lifestyle fit me well as a student. I could always find something that provided a bit of income and meaning. I find, however, that at this phase of my life, discovering the next job is different.

One of the things I said at my exit interview was that I surprised myself with this Interim position. I expected that I would be happy to complete the job. What I found, however, was that I kept wanting it to go on. I could imagine myself doing this job for many more years. What I said in the interview was that I thought I could continue for a decade. However, the needs of the church are different and it was time for us to end this job.

For now, when people ask, “What is next?” I respond by saying, “I’m not sure.” I suspect they are thinking about retirement activities. I know I am thinking about where there might be another part-time job as a minister. There isn’t one on the horizon at the moment, but I’m going to keep my eyes open and my ears to the conversations of my colleagues.

You never know what might turn up.