The Next Chapter

After delivering his last sermon at age 89, Dad returned to his apartment and sat in his office in deep thought.  Realizing that his sixty years in the pulpit had ended that morning must have saddened him a bit; he had always been a busy and active pastor; now his ministerial journey in the pulpit had ended and the torch had been passed.

Emerging twenty minutes later to join me in the kitchen, Dad sat down and prepared to say grace over his favorite Sunday dinner of roast beef and mashed potatoes.  As he cut and served the roast, Dad commented, “Well, that’s that!  I wonder what will happen now.”  I wish I could say that the last four years of Dad’s life were happy.  But I can’t.  Dad was stricken with Alzheimer’s and valiantly fought for three years before losing his life to this dreaded disease in 2006.

As for me, I finished my schooling and became a licensed pastor, accepting a call to serve as pastor of a small congregation — a position I held for eighteen years before resigning on November 1, 2020.  Twelve days later, my book of devotionals was published by WestBow Press. I dedicated the book to my Dad, the Rev. Richard A. Krell.