Mike Slaughter
I have been spending these days reflecting on life’s seasons as I approach my 70th birthday this month. How do we arrive at this life stage so quickly? It seems like only yesterday that we were in our 40’s and dropping our kids off at college. Now they are in their 40’s.
Forty-five years were spent as a local church pastor. While I hesitate to use the word “retired” in regard to my “next,” I am loving having the opportunity to mentor next generation pastors and to teach in their churches on weekends, which I was unable to do in the past. I tend to see the growth and experiences of my life measured in each of the decades. I am humbled that God gave me the opportunity to make my life matter by serving God and people.
Age for me has brought a growing experience and understanding of God – and thankfulness for my interactions with mentors and tormentors. Both have helped to shape the person I have become and am becoming. With age has come a growing sense of grace and humility, thankfulness and appreciation. I am holding to each moment, without holding too tightly, realizing that my identity is not based on what I did, successes and failures, but on who I am in Christ. Identity goes beyond personal accomplishments, failures, dogmas and doctrines, partisan or nationalistic ideals.
Corrie ten Boom grew up in the Netherlands. She is best known for her book, The Hiding Place. As followers of Christ, her family sheltered Jews in their home during WWII. The sacrificial act of bravery resulted in her and her sister being sent to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, where her sister Bessie died. Corrie was later asked about the legacy she wanted to be remembered by and inscribed on her tombstone. Her reply was simply, “a sinner saved by grace.”
I recently told my wife Carolyn about my wishes for a memorial inscription. “Follower of Jesus – Lover of God and All People.” It is only what we do for God and others that lives beyond us!
Mike Slaughter, pastor emeritus and global church ambassador for Ginghamsburg Church, served for nearly four decades as the lead pastor and chief dreamer of Ginghamsburg and the spiritual entrepreneur of ministry marketplace innovations. Mike is also the founder and chief strategist of Passionate Churches, LLC, which specializes in developing pastors, church staff and church lay leaders through coaching, training, consulting and facilitation services. Mike’s call to “afflict the comfortable” challenges Christians to wrestle with God and their God-destinies. Mike’s latest book Revolutionary Kingdom: following the Rebel Jesus is available on Amazon and Cokesbury.
3 comments
Join the conversationAnne Trudel - August 17, 2021
I actually misread the title of your blog and thought, “Well, Mike’s going off in retirement.” LOL Thanks for this post. Love your idea for an epitaph.
Jason Moore - August 19, 2021
I’m so grateful for you and your ministry. I am a part of your legacy!
Kathy Postell - August 22, 2021
I so know what you mean Mike, I have not yet reached my 70th birthday, but it is knocking on the door. As I get older I find the things that I thought mattered, didn’t. I have found that nothing trumps Love of God and Man. I have tried so hard to be obedient to the Lord’s command to love one another and today at 68 years of age having traversed many trials with love and dignity including the care of my husband and his relocation to heaven I am living a life of abundance not of possessions but of love. I thank you for your service and I thank you for your wife for showing your care and compassion and love with me and my husband. Today my mantra is Love tops Law and I have had many opportunities to practice that with those in my sphere of influence. I thank God every day for walking with me through all the shifts in my life.
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