Well when you send your resume out to several hundred churches I suppose you will get a lot of rejection letters. I have! Here is one of my favorites: ( the names have been left out to protect the guilty, stupid or clueless)

Dear Stephen,

 Thank you for expressing interes in the Pastor of Pastoral Care and Assimilation position (I definitely did not express interest in any position by this name.) at ----- Church. The information you provided was very useful in helping us to discern the direction to which our Lord is calling us.

Unfortunately, at this time we feel led to move in a different direction for this position. May God Bless your ministry wherever He leads you. (As long as it is far from here.)

Okay the bit in parentheses is mine but how would one reply to such a thing. Golly Gee I am pleased that my resume helped you decide that you need someone with exactly the opposite qualities and qualifications that you found in my resume. By the way are you guys on the Star Ship Enterprise....Pastor of Assimilation???!!! I have enclosed a special something for you to assimilate.

Okay so maybe I am becoming a little...but only a little cynical...the more responses I get from PCA churches the more I wonder...one guy sent me an e-mail saying I sounded too reformed for his church...I explained that I would not be considered a TR guy but that I am very proud of our reformed heritage. Another guy told me the use of terms such as orthodoxy and orthopraxy made me sound too smart for his congregation. ??? Sorry Bubba!!  Does it help any that I am one of the dumbest guys to ever graduate from seminary?  

I got my cap & gown for graduation today. It has been twenty-five years since I have participated in a graduation ceremony. That one was High School and I was a whole lot closer to not making it to that graduation, Greek and Hebrew not withstanding. I seem to remember more distractions in my life during HS. Those distractions shall remain nameless. The emotions that I have are very mixed. I expected at this time I would be ecstatic having completed a BA and Masters in seven years however there is always a new beginning when something is complete and we have yet to find out what or more particularly where that new beginning will be. I am excited about graduation still but it is definitely different than what I would have expected. I am frustrated that there is not more help forthcoming from the seminary with regard to job placement. There are many opportunities for tent-making Pastors within the CREC but very few paying positions. I have begun to send my resume to Classical Christian schools in areas where I know people who are interested in planting a church.

        Well, I suppose this is enough rambling for now. Please pray that I can pick up some temporary work here until we find out where we are going. I have an interview with Borders bookstore on Thursday.