LAMPLIGHTER

Summer 2023

Turning the Page

by Pastor Joel Leyrer

It seems natural to become reflective upon reaching certain milestones in life. With retirement from 42 years in full time parish ministry (and 25 years at St. John’s) only a stone’s throw away, I was asked to provide some personal reflections on this segment of life now coming to a close. So, that’s what I’ll do.

I don’t know that 14-year-old boys are often given to deep, introspective thoughts (at least not this one), but I do remember one time lying on my bed in my dorm room as a high school freshman at what is now Luther Preparatory School in Watertown, Wisconsin, but back then was called Northwestern Preparatory School. The thought occurred to me that if I was going to become a pastor, it would be a long, long, journey. Eight years on the same campus in Watertown followed by four more years at a Seminary seemed like an unfathomable amount of time. And I wondered if I would make it. Or if I could make it.

Well, the Lord saw me through, and I did. An old slogan claimed that if you joined the Navy you’d see the world. In a sense, the same could be said for the ministry. For us it wasn’t the world, but it certainly was the country. We had the privilege of living in the deep South and serving saints at a mission congregation in central Georgia.

Then a mid-sized church in the lower Midwest city of Indianapolis. Then a larger one in a small town on the edge of the prairie in south-central Minnesota. And for the last quarter century, our congregation here in Wauwatosa.

Lots transpired over those years and in those places. The very mention of each location evokes immediate memories of names and faces and personal life events.

Here at St. John’s, those remembrances include interactions with many saints who now reside in glory as well as fellow called workers who now serve in different parts of the Kingdom. One blessing of a long ministry in the same place is the privilege of watching families grow up before our very eyes and the honor of being involved at watershed and significant spiritual moments in their and their children’s lives. Over the course of 25 years, a community of faith the size of ours produces an almost limitless collage of memories—not to mention memories of those events that took place within our own Leyrer family.

Becoming and then being a pastor is never a solo affair. The engine of any minister is fueled first and foremost by the grace of God, but then by the influence, prayers, and encouragement from others God places around them.