"These Are the Days"

My Story

I have been pastor of the Middletown, Indiana, Church of the Nazarene for more than 31 years.  What has transpired has not been the result of any well laid out plan or carefully defined professional strategy.  It just happened. I never really planned to stay, but I also never planned to leave.  So here I am, and hopefully what I have to share can be an encouragement and challenge to you.

Giving a lifetime of ministry to Middletown was certainly not a choice I made.  In fact, Middletown is a place that only God would have chosen.  I sure wouldn't have.  Middletown is a bedroom community of about 2500 people, nestled uncomfortably in the center of the Indiana rustbelt.  In 1978, Anderson, our nearest city, had over 19,000 well-paid General Motors employees.  Now, there are none.  The decline has also occurred in the other two cities near us, Muncie and New Castle.