Dear Friends in Christ,

In 2023 I celebrate 36 years in the ministry. When I announced that God was calling me to be a pastor, my grandmother said she would never see me ordained.  It wasn’t that she didn’t want me to be a pastor, she just thought she was too old and would never see the day. While I was still at Concordia College in St. Paul, she told me to go out and pick an Alb and she would pay for it. My aunt and uncle, who were my baptismal sponsors arranged for a lady in their church to make my stoles. They were excited that I was going to be a pastor. A few years later, my mom and my grandmother boarded a train in Minnesota in late April to come out to Ft. Wayne to be at the Call Service. My grandmother heard them announce that I would be the pastor of St. John Lutheran Church, Green Garden Nebraska, Nebraska District. After a few days, they headed back to Minnesota by train. Within a few days of returning, my grandmother was in the hospital and she died of an aneurism that had burst. Before I graduated from the Seminary, we loaded up our family and headed home for her funeral. She passed while the pastors were away for the Minnesota Pastor’s Conference at Madden’s on Gull Lake.

It’s funny what you remember when you look back on milestones in your life. In some ways it seems like that was just yesterday. A few years ago, I attended an ordination/installation for a young man. I was looking at his biography and it said that he was born in 1987, the year I was ordained. Suddenly, I felt much older. The Psalmist writes;

"For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting On those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children's children."   Psalm 103:14-17 (NKJV)

Time marches on. Generations come and go – but our God is everlasting. We still preach Christ and Him crucified.  As our frames become less stable, our eyes begin to fade, as we witness younger pastors taking on responsibilities in congregations to preach the same message we preached and the same message that was preached by so many generations of pastors before us, and there will be future pastors who will stand in those pulpits to share that same message until the trumpet sounds and all who have slept knowing Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior will be raised up with all the saints to be gathered around the throne of the Lamb in His Kingdom.

Looking back, it’s been a good journey. There have been pains and sorrows as I struggled against the forces of evil and my own sinful flesh. I have done foolish things in pride and arrogance. I stepped on toes and went nose to nose with some. But there have been some wonderful things we have been privileged to witness through those years as well. In hospital rooms with faithful families praying for recovery of loved ones and at the bedside of the faithful who were about to enter their eternal rest. Confessions and absolutions, weddings, baptisms, confirmations and other celebrations with brothers and sisters in Christ. We have had a constant and everlasting God who is with us through all of these things to share the joys and sorrows. Our everlasting God holds up before us our sure and certain hope in a future that goes beyond this vail of tears to the eternal kingdom that is ours because our everlasting God took on flesh and blood, willingly submitted Himself to His Father in heaven to go to the cross, suffer and die in our place. In His resurrection, we rejoice. He paid the price, broke the chains of death and gives us an everlasting life with Him. To God be the glory.

In His Peace,

Rev. Jeffrey A. Lee

Mission and Ministry Facilitator for Missions and Congregational Outreach

MN North District - LCMS