"Listen, Young Gary Taber"

Gary Taber began his ministry with the SECC in 1974 and will retire on March 31. He has served at the La Sierra University Church as youth pastor, the Santa Ana Broadway Church as an associate pastor and he was the sole pastor at Bonita Valley for over 5 years, the senior pastor at Escondido for over 18 years and at Corona for almost 18 years. After 47 years of full-time pastoral ministry Gary retired this month with his last sabbath at the Corona Church on March 6, 2021.

Gary married Vivian Ellison on June 3, 1973. They have two grown children, Julie and Mark, and one grandson, Liam. They have moved to San Diego to be near their family in their retirement.

Gary loves to study the Word and gets excited when new insights or a deeper appreciation of the Word are the result. In his study he seeks to gain a greater understanding of God, His grace and to deepen his own relationship with God. He prefers to preach from biblical books. In this way he is challenged to under-stand the message God is giving in His Word.

Four key concepts have defined his relationship with God and his ministry: God’s grace, righteousness by faith, knowing that he is Abba’s child and he be-longs to God and learning to spend extended periods of time alone with God. Pastor Gary enjoys hiking, golfing, reading and working in his yard.

Taking a page from Kobe Bryant I will write a blog focusing on what I would say to my younger self. Perhaps some of it will be helpful to those who are starting or even who have been in ministry for some time.

To a young pastor Gary, first I want to commend you for some very good decisions you will make that will impact your journey with God, your family and your ministry.

What was beneficial?
Your Journey with God was impacted by your decision to:
· Be mentored, personally or through the messages/books of Morris Venden, Henri Nouwen, Lloyd John Ogilvie, Paul Jensen, Chuck Miller, Wayne Anderson, Alan Fadling and Phillip Yancey (the Bible and Ellen White are obviously understood)
· Become part of the Journey offered by SECC to pastors. For there you will learn about the importance of extended communion with God, an understanding of grace that is deeper, broader, higher and wider than you ever knew, that you are a beloved son of God (not just intellectually, but in your heart), about biblical spiritual disciplines and about prayer
as being more about developing a relationship with God than getting an-swers to my requests.

Your family benefitted by your decision to:
· Remain in Escondido throughout their school years. This enabled them to be part of a community that watched them grow, was part of their growth and, I belief greatly reduced the impact of being a PK by being moved at crucial periods in their lives.
Arranging our work schedules so that Vivian and I would be at home with our children and not sitters. This was a professional and financial sacrifice on the part of Vivian.
· Not using your family, including Vivian, as illustrations in sermons un-less you first got their permission. An even then, only doing so infre-quently.
· Being at as many of Julie and Mark’s school and other events as possi-ble, rescheduling church events except in cases of emergencies or abso-lute necessity.
· Telling your kids in their teen years blame you for why they couldn’t do something or go somewhere against family rules.
· Financial Peace seminar

Your ministry benefited from your decision to:
· Be mentored by your father-in-law Lloyd Ellison, going to the Journey,
· Having time in the Word and time in prayer prior to every Church Board and staff meeting that would last 20 to 30 minutes. Learning to be the people of God before doing the work of God. This kept your meetings spiritual and prevented them from becoming contentious.
· Having long-term pastorates that enabled you to grow with the church and the church to grow with you.
· Attending the seminar that taught you active listening skills, especially story listening. This helped you in your Bible study, family communica-tions, pastoral counseling, helping people in grief and hospital/sick visit-ation.
· Not just say, “I will pray for you” when people share their pain or joy, but to do it in the moment. Asking them to step into your “office”, wherever you were.

What you did to create misgivings:
What I wish you had done differently (I will limit this to ministry items)
· Not spent as much time trying to win over people in opposition to right-eousness by faith, grace, spiritual formation and those who were born aginners (people who are against everything and are born that way.
· Spent as much time praying for God to bring people He was working with to bring into His kingdom as I did praying for members and seeking ways to be with them.
· Discipled people to more effectively to do the ministry of the church.
· Learned about the importance of personally knowing the Holy Spirit and not just knowing about Him much earlier in my ministry than during the last year of ministry.
· Learned how to do a better job of listening to God’s heart for people in planning both church and personal activities (taught at the Journey).
· Done a better job of casting a vision for the church in ways that impacted members and the church activities.
· Made calling at least 3 people every work day a top priority to affirm them in their ministry in the church (or just as members if not actively involved) then praying with them using the prayer filters you learned at the Journey.

I am sure that some of the above might need more information than space in the blog allows. Feel free to e mail me if you would like a better explanation or more information (got1951@yahoo.com). If you have questions about the Jour-ney you could also ask Jon Ciccarelli or Ken Curtis.

In His Grace,

Gary Taber

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