RESIGNATION chapter 149

It was early May 1972 when I knew our time was up in Vancouver. Pastor Brooks had tendered his resignation and all the staff was expected to resign as well. The purpose was to give the next senior pastor the freedom to choose whom they wanted. I understood the rules, but I wasn’t happy. I liked my ministry and wanted to stay.

The board accepted my resignation and was open to me staying until they found a their next senior pastor. However, I was to move before that person actually arrived. I was dismissed with some harsh criticism. They were unhappy that I had not filled every ministry position, as had my predecessor. That was said in spite of telling me they did not want any arm-twisting. They were disappointed that I had not finished adding the baseboards and unfinished trim at the house. I didn’t even bother saying they never ask me to that that. It was an unstated expectation and if they had asked I would have told them I lacked the skills.  No one really knew how nervous I was at making house repairs.

The only person that really affected was myself. They had already made the decision to send Al off to Richmond to plant a church. This was almost a forced decision bu8t one he wanted. There was a large Bible study group and they wanted their own church. The only conflict was that Tenth Avenue did not want to lose that large group of people, but they wanted Al to move on. Anyway, Al had a place to go. He was no longer in contention to become the next senior pastor.

We had no idea what we were going to do. It was very clear that the Canadian Pacific district superintendent was not going to help. He didn’t want me at Tenth Avenue in the first place and wasn’t bothered by me leaving. I felt like the only place I could go was back to the Canadian Midwest district were Rev. Orthner was still the D.S. But that did not look promising. The only church large enough to afford me was the one I left and they had a man. Besides, you can’t go back.

Near the end of May we left for Oakland, California to attend the general council of the denomination. I figured I would look around and see what contacts I could make and maybe something would turn up. If that didn’t happen we had decided we would move back to Red Deer and I would try and get on with Alpha Dairy.

On the drive down Don Patterson and his wife traveled with us. When we stopped at the U.S. border we got held up because Don had been born in China. He said that always happens, “I don’t look Chinese enough for them.” His parents had been missionaries to China.

While there I was putting out feelers everywhere and to everyone I knew — which wasn’t very many people. My contacts were limited. I was talking to David Rambo President of Canadian Bible College and Rex Boda the academic dean about my situation. They invited Della and I to join them for lunch the next day. We had a good time and at the end of the meal they suggested I get my masters degree and come back to CBC and teach Christian education.

They wanted me to return to school, get my Masters degree and than come and teach at Canadian Bible College? Della and I just looked at one another. Me, back at CBC! After all my problems, the idea was intriguing. Could this be God’s plan? Was Vancouver some sort of temporary transition place for us to make this move? The catch was they could not help pay for my education, but they would guarantee a job when I had graduated. I told them I had never thought of teaching and had no idea where to go to school. I didn’t even have a bachelor’s degree, only a BRE. If they would do the research and find out where I could complete my education in the shortest amount of time at the lowest price, we would consider it. They said they would look around and see what they could come up with, but it might take a few weeks.

The next day we had lunch with Walter and Doris Boldt and told them about the offer. He felt very positive about this and promised that if we decided to go to school, he would send us $50 a month to help with expenses. We took this as a sign from God that doing this was the right decision.

It was something to think about, but we would have to wait until we heard back from Dave or Rex.