Retirement Reflections

[Michael_Rothaar]

Dear Pastor Johnson,

Having retired last summer after 41 years of ordained ministry, I welcomed your reflections in the April 2013 issue of Forum Letter.

One of many points of resonance was "the process of packing up books. ...not room for all of them at home. ...letting them go is emotionally draining."

While still painful, it was a sustaining thing for me to have found:
Theological Book Network
3529 Patterson Ave. SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49512
Phone: (616) 532-3890

Hours of Operation: M-F 9am to 5pm
(Eastern Time)

Email: info@theologicalbooknetwork.org

Fortunately, there turned out to be a couple of alternatives to going to the expense of shipping my nine cartons of books from my personal library, with titles in theology, church history, and biblical studies.

I learned of this ministry from First Things and welcome opportunities to bring it to the attention of others.

Mike Rothaar

[Richard Johnson]

Mike, thanks for your kind words, and for the information. I just sold a couple hundred books yesterday to Windows Booksellers in Eugene, OR. I haven't done the math, but I think that's more books than I've bought from them over the years.  It was, of course, a painful process . . . sort of like selling your children. And feeling angry at every book the buyer rejected . . . The guy clearly knew what he was doing, though, and what he chose and what he rejected didn't usually surprise me. I was astonished how efficiently and quickly he boxed things up after the transaction was complete. He bought about a third of the books I've resigned myself to getting rid of! Now the bigger challenge is finding room at home for all the ones I want to keep.

[Evangel]

Another thought about what to do with books:

http://www.lcmc.net/blog/archive/310

[Brian Stoffregen]

Unfortunately there are some clergy who retire who have almost no books to get rid of. I won't be one of them; but I visited with a pastor who seemed proud to say that he hadn't read a commentary since leaving seminary.