I'm Back

Wow, I really didn't realize how long I had been gone from blogging. I truly did miss it and every time it seemed I started something came up and drew me away. During the month of January I was on Sabbatical leave, and it was a glorious time, and also a very challenging one.

Before my recall vote, which in the Nazarene church, means the church board comes together with the d.s. and determines whether or not to extend your pastorate for another four years ..... they did in my case; the d.s. informed me that he was going to ask the church to give me a two-month sabbatical since I had been here over 10yrs.
When it was offered by the board I asked if I might take a month this year and one next year and they agreed, and I said I would like to take January 2011 and 2012. Now one thing that I had to determine was what my 'goal' would be during this Jan.2011, and I chose to search for my spiritual roots on my father's side. I knew some of my genealogy on both my father and mother's side, but wanted to focus on what my spiritual roots were, and the overhwelming majority of religious persuasion came from my father's roots....and so I began.

As I researched my roots, and more and more information became available it was awesome ... and to this day new information continues to surface. My father's roots go back to the Swiss Anabaptist, through Germany and finally to France .. where under the pressures both from the 'established church and protestant reformation, and Napoleonic crusades they launched out for America. They didn't take the usual route through Ellis Island, instead they came up thru New Orleans, up the MIssissippi and then onto the Ohio River to Butler County, Ohio. To make a longer story a wee bit shorter, after settling in Butler County many of them eventually continued on to better promised farmland to Tazewell Cty, Illinois. Then around 1912 a land agent from Pioneer Ohio visited the area and sold them on the fertile grounds of northwestern Ohio, 'come back east young man!,' and my grandpa/grandma packed up family, household goods and livestock, boarded trains and returned to Ohio only on the opposite end of the state this time [Butler being in the south and Pioneer is in the north, though both are in western Ohio]..... and eventually I arrived!

But I ventured from my goal of finding spiritual influences ... since my fathers roots are grounded in anabaptism and the amish-mennonites there were many, many pastors in the family on both grandpa/grandma's sides, and even today I continue to find pastors/bishops in the family roots. I attribute this to many things, mostly the fact that even today pastors tend to associate with pastors, in my own nuclear family my son is an ordained associate/youth pastor and my oldest daughter is a pastors wife, and my middle daughter is heavily involved in church along with her husband, so there is definitely a social/cultural more to being in ministry ... also a big reason for their coming to America was for religious purposes than they didn' come seperately they came in many family groups and those groups tended to stay close together.

One of the benefits of this continuing journey is the acquisition of family artifacts and certificates of birth/marriage/death that give a certain air of authenticity that you can see and touch, which is extremely humbling. Last week I watched a show on tv that highlights movie stars and their finding their roots and it was about Rose O'Donnell and how she went to Ireland and there found the 'poorhouses' that her ancestors lived in during the potato famine until they were
fortunate enough to be picked to migrate to Canada .... and how she wept to think of the pain, suffering and horrors her family had gone thru and how fortunate she is ... that episode brought tears to my eyes as I remember the literal persecution my family went through in Europe and then the prejudices they endured even here in America ... compared to them I've been most fortunate.

Also something I've found out is that most pastors in the amish-mennonite tradition had to juggle ministry, family and farming at the same time .... full time pastors just simply rarely existed ... also pastors were drawn by lot. Now there is the pre-pentecostal example in scripture where two disciples are chosen by lot in the Upper Room, and though I have no proof, I'm fairly certain these had great influence on those early times ... and this method in itself brought on an almost overwhelming sense of responsibility, for the people themselves had chosen you to this esteemed postition and they were not slow in holding you responsible.

As time goes along I will continue to write about those experiences, for they have and they are making a definite difference in my life ... and one day it is my dream that maybe a grandchild, or great grandchild will become curious about their heritage and I will have this wonderful foundation for they to begin with ... for the journey never stops it just keeps gaining momentum one generation at a time!!