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\u201cEverything that works will some day need to change,\u201d Wilson says. \u201cDon\u2019t treat it as forever.\u201d<\/p>\nCHETEK, WI (December 10, 2008) \u2013 Everett Wilson, who will conclude 46 years of serving Evangelical Covenant Church congregations on December 31, says pastors starting in ministry should remember that nothing stays the same except the commitment to love people in the local congregation.
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\nWilson, 72, has been serving Prairie Lake Covenant Church in Chetek for the past eight years. He previously pastored churches in Michigan, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Saskatchewan, Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything that works will some day need to change,\u201d Wilson says. \u201cDon\u2019t treat it as forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Except, that is, the pastor\u2019s commitment to loving the local church.<\/p>\n
Before Wilson began formal interviews for his current position, he told the search committee that he already loved the church. \u201cThat has been consistent for me over all the years,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got very angry sometimes, and sometimes people got very angry with me, but it was a relationship of love,\u201d Wilson says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think of the ministry as a \u2018classic profession,\u2019 like law and teaching and medicine,\u201d Wilson says. Although techniques change, \u201cWhat you\u2019re doing is the same from generation to generation. We still preach, we still counsel, we still teach, we still bear rule.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson is quick to note that bearing rule does not mean the pastor is in charge of the church. \u201cIt means you are more like a referee.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson says the biggest change he has experienced in himself since he left seminary is, \u201cI\u2019m not as sure that I know as much as I did when I started.\u201d<\/p>\n