On this day we celebrate you and your years of faithful service here at Bethel as well as the years you spent in your first two pastoral calls. We recognize how God has blessed us through you, and we are grateful to God for sending you to us. As you begin your retirement, though your role will change, we nevertheless invite you to continue to receive and share God's wondrous gifts of grace and to work beside us as servants in God's kingdom. May God's richest blessings be upon you.

In 1994 the New Jersey Synod began a period of significant retirements. Over a four-year span some twenty-six Synod parish pastors would be moving toward retirement. In the face of such a significant period of transition in our life together, I invited these twenty-six pastors to join me for dinner along with their spouses so that we might discuss what was to take place, share experiences and concerns, and work together for the sake of the mission of the church on this territory. Twenty-two of the pastors were able to be present. What follows is the information that I presented then. I present it now to all of the pastors on our Synod roster as a way to share my expectations of us in this regard, as we continue through these transition years.