"Black Socks With Sandals."

"Black Socks With Sandals."

By: Pastor Jack Schneider

“What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short… For this world in its present form is passing away.”  [1 Cor.7:29,31, NIV]

Apparently I’m a trend-setter. Oh, certainly not with style -- my wife and grown-up kids still have to pick out new clothes for me if I want to look decent. In fact, they still threaten to sew “Garanimal” tags into my clothing so I can match up outfits; you know, tiger shirts go with tiger pants, lions with lions, etc… I’ve made progress through the years, though. I know enough not to wear plaids with plaids and never, never, black socks with sandals!

So what’s the trend? At our Synod Convention in St. Louis I found two former classmates who are following my lead in retiring. One, Jim, decided after a lengthy, positive conversation this was something he needed to do. The other had made his commitment about the same time as I, retiring from Lutheran Hour Ministries in St. Louis after ten great years of seeing God’s Word change lives around the world. That’s Bruce, and at the convention he reminded us that of the 7 billion people in the world, 4.8 billion of them do NOT know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. To give you an idea of the enormity of 7 billion people, let’s turn that into dollars, and I’ll challenge you to begin spending at the rate of $1 per second, 60 seconds per minute, 60 minutes per hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And it would take you 217 years to spend it all.

Classmates spend time talking about “the old days,” sure. But we also spend time talking about the challenge of today with so much yet to be done. Retirement doesn’t mean we stop the Great Commission in our own lives or even “hand off the baton” to someone else. It has to do with re-prioritizing the time and energy God gives us at this stage of our lives to be good stewards, more effective coaches and mentors with those around us.  How do you touch 4.8 billion people who don’t know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?  By training and equipping teachers, pastors, evangelists, church planters, DCEs, deacons, missionaries, every imaginable door and pathway that God can use to touch and change the lives of these people with His love and grace through the Gospel.

We at St. Paul are an incredible part of that mission. What a privilege, and what a joy! Almost yearly we take another step of creative faith in some venture, either in mission or education or training. In September Ed Torea will become a Vicar through Concordia Seminary’s Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology on his way to ordination as an LCMS pastor. It takes time, but that’s how you touch people.

It’s a trend we, and they, can live with!

- Jack