ESSEX, IA (September 22, 2009) \u2013 Jim Ressegieu says there\u2019s a reason he retired from his job at a multi-state energy company rather than just quit.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.covchurch.org\/uploads\/OG\/FS\/OGFS01fKCZsfURL8jPXmwA\/Ressegieu-9.17.09.jpg\")
Karen and Jim Ressegieu<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWhen you quit, they give you 10 minutes to clear out your desk, and the security guard escorts you to the door. When you retire, they throw you a party.”<\/p>\n
The real reason Jim, who is 66, retired from the company in 2001 was because he sensed the call to ministry. It didn\u2019t take him long to respond.<\/p>\n
He served part-time from 2001-2003 at Community Covenant Church in Omaha, where he was a charter member. He has served at Faith Evangelical Covenant Church in Essex since 2004.<\/p>\n
Every week he drives more than 60 miles to Essex from his home in La Vista, Nebraska, just south of Omaha. He will spend up to several nights in the parsonage.<\/p>\n
Little of his road to ministry has been traditional.<\/p>\n
Although Jim has been a lifelong member of Covenant churches, his wife, Karen, was \u201cshocked\u201d when he told her he felt the call to pastoral ministry, he recalls. Jim was equally surprised about the turn his life was taking.<\/p>\n
\u201cI liked my job, and I was making good money,\u201d he says. \u201cAll of the sudden there was something in me that said, \u2018Jim you’re done here, and you need to go to seminary.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t the first time he had considered pastoral ministry, however. When Jim was in high school, William Freeman, his pastor at First Covenant Church in Omaha, encouraged him to attend North Park College and then North Park Theological Seminary.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe absolutely wanted me to do that,\u201d Jim recalls.<\/p>\n
Jim visited the school and sites in Chicago with several classmates on a weekend. \u201cI went to Chicago – and I hated it. I hated North Park. And I came back and told Reverend Freeman, I\u2019m not going to Chicago, and I\u2019m not going to North Park.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went on to get bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in communication and spent his professional career at the utility company.<\/p>\n
But in 2001 – almost 40 years to the date that he had traveled to Chicago and hated it \u2013 the call to ministry came. At the time, Jim was attending Community Covenant Church in Omaha.<\/p>\n
His pastor was Martha Freeman \u2013 William Freeman\u2019s granddaughter-in-law.<\/p>\n
She suggested he and Karen visit North Park. He wasn\u2019t sure whether this was going to be a d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu experience.<\/p>\n
As the couple pulled into the parking lot across the street from the school, Jim thought, \u201cI’m afraid someone is going to come up to me and say, \u2018What are you doing here at your age?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
He adds, \u201cWe walked across the street to Nyvall Hall, and we weren’t 10 feet inside the door, and someone came up to me and said, \u2018Hi, I’m Dave Trosper, and I’m a retired highway patrol officer.\u2019 \u201d (Trosper has since pastored two Covenant churches). Within minutes, Jim met several others who had retired from their careers and were considering pastoral ministry.<\/p>\n
Jim\u2019s report to Martha Freeman was different than the one he gave to her grandfather-in-law 40 years earlier. \u201cBy Saturday afternoon, I called my pastor and said this is where I’m supposed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being at the seminary was not easy, however, because Karen remained in Omaha, where she works at the University of Nebraska. Roughly every third weekend, she would travel to Chicago.<\/p>\n
Jim\u2019s schedule his final year of seminary \u2013 when he served Faith Covenant part-time \u2013 would be daunting to most people. Every Saturday, he took the El train to Midway Airport – which could easily be an hour and a half commute – and flew to Omaha. On Sunday, he preached and did visitation. On Monday mornings, he flew back to Chicago, rode the El back to the school, and then attended class that night.<\/p>\n
These days, he is passionate about serving the small congregation, which has an average attendance of 40. Most of the members are older than Jim and Karen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we walk into a room, we lower the average age by 10 years,\u201d he quips.<\/p>\n
Spending time with congregation members is the best part of serving the church, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love to teach and I love to preach, but what I absolutely love to do even more than those is visit with my parishioners.\u201d<\/p>\n
He visits each of the shut-ins at least once a month. \u201cWhen I took Clinical Pastoral Education, I vowed that if I ever have a church, none of my shut-ins would ever feel estranged from the church,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Ressegieu says the parishioners always look forward to his visits. He is not being prideful, however.<\/p>\n
Every time he visits a member, Ressegieu brings cookies baked by Karen, who views her time in the kitchen as a way of sharing in the daily ministry. She makes hundreds each month.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy congregation likes me, but they love her,\u201d Jim deadpans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have been so loving to us,\u201d Jim says. \u201cThey just keep giving. Sometimes, I’m almost embarrassed and sometimes it brings tears to my eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jim has no plans to retire from the church. \u201cThere is nothing else I could see doing. Why should I do anything different?\u201d<\/p>\n
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