With Deep Thanks to Our Retired Ministers

The honor belongs to God.

Every soul that came to Christ, every marriage mended, every burden carried through a long night — that was His work, and the praise for it is His alone. No minister has ever saved anyone.

But God chose to do that work through people. Through men and women who answered when He called, who drove the miles, sat at the hospital beds, preached to small rooms on hard weeks, and kept going when there was nothing left to go on but obedience. For that yes, and for everything it cost them, we are grateful.

Much of what they gave was never seen. The prayers before daylight. The families they raised on very little. The counsel given at kitchen tables that no one else ever heard. The years they kept showing up when the crowd was thin and the encouragement was thinner.

Some who read this came to Christ because one of them would not give up on them. Some are pastoring today because one of them believed they could. Those churches are still standing. That fruit is still bearing. And it will still be bearing long after all of us are gone.