Dennis Ginoza
Retirement Speech
June 19, 2009 Annual Conference
University of Redlands, California
(Dr. Bill Klements, professor at Claremont School of Theology, chose not
to speak, he just greeted Bishop Swenson, received his pin and sat down.
From the audience there was applause and laughter. The MC, Derek Nakano
said, “Dennis, don’t think you have extra time.” Laughter. When Dennis Ginoza
Took his turn, he began by thanking Dr. Klements for his extra time. It was
humorous moment.)
God is good! Audience responded: “All the time!” Dennis: “All the time!”
Audience responded: “God is good!” Dennis, “Hey, you’re good!”
Bishop Swenson, members of Annual Conference, my
good friends and all who wonder who this character is, and all
good Methodists: This is my 40th consecutive Annual Conference.
Do I hear an Amen? Audience: “Amen!”
One thing I will miss in retirement is greeting the
people every Sunday with Good Morning in different languages.
Help me out folks! Good morning! Buenos Dias! Bon Jour!
Bon journo! Malolele! Chau An! Guten morgen! Kalymera! Salam
Alikim! Ohio goizamas! And Aloha!
38 years. In 38 years I have received insight and guidance from
what people have said. Dwayne Zimmerman said, “One thing you
don’t do your first year in the church: Don’t fire the choir director.”
Lyle Schaller says, “Every new idea is rejected three times.” He
was right! Don Locher said to me, when I was appointed to Reseda,
“Dennis, just love them.” Elton Trueblood: “Be tough with ideas,
but be kind with people.” Yogi Berra: “It ain’t over till it’s over!”
My Old Testament professor at Earlham said there are three things
We must read: the Bible—the good book, the newspaper, and
Shakespeare. Once a Baptist minister said, “The main thing is to
keep the main thing, the main thing.”
A few years ago, someone said, we all have to learn three
Languages: English, Spanish, and computer.” May we have the
video, “sil vou plait.” Please!
Video: images of 38 years: Calexico, Santee, Reseda, Chula
Vista, and Fallbrook. Fallbrook 15 years.
I have here a yo yo. A yo yo is a fundamental teaching tool.
One of the things I will miss is the children’s message. Once
There was a man who got lost in New York City. He stopped his
car to ask for directions. “How do I get to Carnegie Hall.” The
stranger said, ‘Practice, practice, practice!” If you want to get good
at anything, practice, practice, practice.” This is the same with our
faith. In the game of baseball, I learned, you have warm up.
otherwise you’ll mess up your arm. It’s the same with people.
And...every day we must walk with God. (Dennis walks with yo yo).
John Wesley said, “The world is my parish.” Dennis goes around
the world with the yo yo.)
Jesus said: “Go ye into the world and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them.” (Dennis
goes around the world with the yo yo).
This is my wife Sylvia, of 30 years, or was it 37? It
will be 37 years on September 2. Without her, all this
would not be possible. (Applause)
Martin Luther King said, “I have a dream.” I have a
Dream. I have a dream that I will see the glory of God, the
glory promised to us. (Dennis releases his butterfly
Balloon. The Fallbrook members present release ten
balloons in the audience.) Dennis says: I am free at last,
I am free at last!” And all God’s people will say: Amen!
The Fallbrook people echoed, “Aloha!”
(Dennis was selected to pass the legacy of ministry
from the retirees to the new class being ordained in
full connection.”)
Friday, September 4, 2009
First Look At Retirement
FIRST LOOK AT RETIREMENT By Dennis Ginoza
When the word got out that I was retiring from the ministry, I received varied responses: “You’re too young to retire?” “What are your plans?” “Are you going back to Hawaii?” “You deserve it!” The most often asked question was: “What are your plans?”
My quick response was, “First I want to do nothing.” Then I said, “I will be on vacation.”
Retirement was far from my mind five years ago. It seemed just a long way off. I had much to do, my ministry was not done, and there were things I still hoped for to be done in ministry.
A number of years ago, one of our pastors retired and at the Annual Conference, in a video, it showed an image of him in the swimming pool, floating on the water with a cold drink in his hand. The next image showed him and his wife in his car on the road with a sign on the back saying, “Florida, here we come!” Two years later, I was at a Logos conference in Pasadena and he walked into the restroom. I asked him, “What are you doing here?” He said, “I failed retirement.”
As my retirement approached in June, I had a remarkable send off. Our son Jeremy received his medical degree in May, so my wife Sylvia planned my retirement celebration that same weekend so Jeremy and other family members could attend. It was a celebration with many surprises. It was more, “This is your life.” There were video clips of my mother (age 94) and family members sending congratulations, a fashion show, my old high school lettermen jacket worn by a young boy, a Sunday morning skit by our sons Jeremy and Aaron about whether they should get up and go to church—on these I had no clue. Pastors and members from other churches added to the joy. My last Sunday at the Fallbrook Church was also a celebration and much like a graduation.
When I was preparing for my retirement speech at Annual Conference, given just three minutes, lots of thoughts ran through my mind on how I could capture 38 years in the ministry. One morning I woke up, ran through my thoughts, wrote them down and had my speech in hand.
I thought of all the people who affected my life. I decided that I would do something no one had ever done before. One of the things I knew I would miss was giving the children’s message. So I did tricks with my yo yo. Another thought that ran through my mind was Martin Luther King’s speech: he had a dream and he was free at last. This was how I felt—free from the many chores and details of ministry and always being accountable for every task. Not anymore. My closing was releasing a butterfly balloon, as in a resurrection, “I am free at last!” In the audiences were friends from Fallbrook and other churches and they released ten balloons. That too was never done before.
2
In the course of time, as I reflect, I can see myself going through stages, first approaching retirement and engaging in retirement. Upon retirement, the first stage is Moving, relocating from one home to another. That is a major task, intense, frustrating especially when you have to downsize, tiring from moving boxes upon boxes. Moving also includes finding a comfort zone, when you can relax from the labor, though not all the boxes have been opened.
Following the physical move, having served at the Fallbrook United Methodist Church for the last 15 years, I found another stage, Letting Go. Letting go of a people, a church and its ministry, to open the way for the next pastor. This stage is not only physical and behavioral, but it is emotional. It is letting go of a bond cherished, a responsibility very much a part of the person, being a pastor. This letting go however doesn’t mean that many friendships are lost.
There is a stage that follows letting go, actually it is an overlapping stage with letting go. It is a moment of grief, sadness, a feeling a loss. As I said to my wife, “I feel I lost a leg.” In this metaphor, feeling the loss of a leg is just that, a metaphor. In time, one realizes, I did not lose my leg. I still have it. A new metaphor emerges, with that leg, now I am walking a different road.
After the stage of grief, I found myself Re-engaging. You can call it, filling your time, re-directing your life and energies, a kind of re-discovering of self. On the highest level, it came to me in a question: “What do I want my life to be in the next 20 to 25 years? This is the new road I am walking.
In this period of re-engaging, I have not sat still. It is connecting with people with whom I want to spend more time with. It is looking at the next day and month with my wife as to what we can now do, for enjoyment, relaxation, and enrichment. This has a mundane note—establishing our home and refurbishing it . For me, I found this engaging as I spent hours building closet shelves, installing new blinds, fixing and adding sprinklers, planting a flower garden, planting a lemon tree, building a patio roof, restoring old wood and re-painting .
In Re-engaging, as a pastor having served in ministry, it is finding a church home. One feels like a butterfly, visiting churches, churches where we know pastors and learning about what’s out there. But yes, as a United Methodist pastor, I am connecting with a Charge Conference which will be home base.
In Re-engaging, we will travel. Our first trip will take us to Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota, seeing friends, sights, and places we have not been before. Re-engaging includes being a sheriff’s chaplain with the Fallbrook deputies and meeting with chaplains from across San Diego County. In one of my ride alongs, the
3
deputy said to me, we are checking on a “dead body.” We responded to a situation where a man had died in his sleep the night before.
In retirement, as someone said to me, “Now you can do whatever you want to do.” How true that is. I now feel rested, sleeping as I need it, without pushing myself to the brink to complete a task even when I felt exhausted. I have books to read, so enjoyed “Three Cups of Tea,” an idea and approach that can change the world. Duke Snider’s “The Chosen Few,” identifies the top five Dodger players for each position; a reading for pure enjoyment. As long as I can remember, I have watched every Little League World Series Championship game. How about the Blue Bombers from Chula Vista winning the world championship. I share with them the excitement for I hold the memories of my early days I played baseball on Maui. I got to see the San Diego Padres win their game against the Cubs from box seats behind home plate. Thanks to a friend who rebuilds porsches, I did a first, drive a porche around the curves of Fallbrook.
As one author Lynn Grabhorn wrote, “Excuse Me, Your Life Is Waiting.” This defines in many ways, Retirement. For me, it also means, how best can I serve, how best can I live, and how best I can dream dreams and work toward them.
My belief in God remains unfaltered, it’s just a different road. Or might it be, it’s the same Road, it’s just a different wagon that will take me to where I am intended to be.
9/2/09
Fallbrook, California
When the word got out that I was retiring from the ministry, I received varied responses: “You’re too young to retire?” “What are your plans?” “Are you going back to Hawaii?” “You deserve it!” The most often asked question was: “What are your plans?”
My quick response was, “First I want to do nothing.” Then I said, “I will be on vacation.”
Retirement was far from my mind five years ago. It seemed just a long way off. I had much to do, my ministry was not done, and there were things I still hoped for to be done in ministry.
A number of years ago, one of our pastors retired and at the Annual Conference, in a video, it showed an image of him in the swimming pool, floating on the water with a cold drink in his hand. The next image showed him and his wife in his car on the road with a sign on the back saying, “Florida, here we come!” Two years later, I was at a Logos conference in Pasadena and he walked into the restroom. I asked him, “What are you doing here?” He said, “I failed retirement.”
As my retirement approached in June, I had a remarkable send off. Our son Jeremy received his medical degree in May, so my wife Sylvia planned my retirement celebration that same weekend so Jeremy and other family members could attend. It was a celebration with many surprises. It was more, “This is your life.” There were video clips of my mother (age 94) and family members sending congratulations, a fashion show, my old high school lettermen jacket worn by a young boy, a Sunday morning skit by our sons Jeremy and Aaron about whether they should get up and go to church—on these I had no clue. Pastors and members from other churches added to the joy. My last Sunday at the Fallbrook Church was also a celebration and much like a graduation.
When I was preparing for my retirement speech at Annual Conference, given just three minutes, lots of thoughts ran through my mind on how I could capture 38 years in the ministry. One morning I woke up, ran through my thoughts, wrote them down and had my speech in hand.
I thought of all the people who affected my life. I decided that I would do something no one had ever done before. One of the things I knew I would miss was giving the children’s message. So I did tricks with my yo yo. Another thought that ran through my mind was Martin Luther King’s speech: he had a dream and he was free at last. This was how I felt—free from the many chores and details of ministry and always being accountable for every task. Not anymore. My closing was releasing a butterfly balloon, as in a resurrection, “I am free at last!” In the audiences were friends from Fallbrook and other churches and they released ten balloons. That too was never done before.
2
In the course of time, as I reflect, I can see myself going through stages, first approaching retirement and engaging in retirement. Upon retirement, the first stage is Moving, relocating from one home to another. That is a major task, intense, frustrating especially when you have to downsize, tiring from moving boxes upon boxes. Moving also includes finding a comfort zone, when you can relax from the labor, though not all the boxes have been opened.
Following the physical move, having served at the Fallbrook United Methodist Church for the last 15 years, I found another stage, Letting Go. Letting go of a people, a church and its ministry, to open the way for the next pastor. This stage is not only physical and behavioral, but it is emotional. It is letting go of a bond cherished, a responsibility very much a part of the person, being a pastor. This letting go however doesn’t mean that many friendships are lost.
There is a stage that follows letting go, actually it is an overlapping stage with letting go. It is a moment of grief, sadness, a feeling a loss. As I said to my wife, “I feel I lost a leg.” In this metaphor, feeling the loss of a leg is just that, a metaphor. In time, one realizes, I did not lose my leg. I still have it. A new metaphor emerges, with that leg, now I am walking a different road.
After the stage of grief, I found myself Re-engaging. You can call it, filling your time, re-directing your life and energies, a kind of re-discovering of self. On the highest level, it came to me in a question: “What do I want my life to be in the next 20 to 25 years? This is the new road I am walking.
In this period of re-engaging, I have not sat still. It is connecting with people with whom I want to spend more time with. It is looking at the next day and month with my wife as to what we can now do, for enjoyment, relaxation, and enrichment. This has a mundane note—establishing our home and refurbishing it . For me, I found this engaging as I spent hours building closet shelves, installing new blinds, fixing and adding sprinklers, planting a flower garden, planting a lemon tree, building a patio roof, restoring old wood and re-painting .
In Re-engaging, as a pastor having served in ministry, it is finding a church home. One feels like a butterfly, visiting churches, churches where we know pastors and learning about what’s out there. But yes, as a United Methodist pastor, I am connecting with a Charge Conference which will be home base.
In Re-engaging, we will travel. Our first trip will take us to Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota, seeing friends, sights, and places we have not been before. Re-engaging includes being a sheriff’s chaplain with the Fallbrook deputies and meeting with chaplains from across San Diego County. In one of my ride alongs, the
3
deputy said to me, we are checking on a “dead body.” We responded to a situation where a man had died in his sleep the night before.
In retirement, as someone said to me, “Now you can do whatever you want to do.” How true that is. I now feel rested, sleeping as I need it, without pushing myself to the brink to complete a task even when I felt exhausted. I have books to read, so enjoyed “Three Cups of Tea,” an idea and approach that can change the world. Duke Snider’s “The Chosen Few,” identifies the top five Dodger players for each position; a reading for pure enjoyment. As long as I can remember, I have watched every Little League World Series Championship game. How about the Blue Bombers from Chula Vista winning the world championship. I share with them the excitement for I hold the memories of my early days I played baseball on Maui. I got to see the San Diego Padres win their game against the Cubs from box seats behind home plate. Thanks to a friend who rebuilds porsches, I did a first, drive a porche around the curves of Fallbrook.
As one author Lynn Grabhorn wrote, “Excuse Me, Your Life Is Waiting.” This defines in many ways, Retirement. For me, it also means, how best can I serve, how best can I live, and how best I can dream dreams and work toward them.
My belief in God remains unfaltered, it’s just a different road. Or might it be, it’s the same Road, it’s just a different wagon that will take me to where I am intended to be.
9/2/09
Fallbrook, California
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