After a year of parish ministry, most pastors are ready for a vacation; after a decade, a sabbatical looks grand. After a lifetime in churches, many are ready for a good, long rest.

Robert Boyd Manger is ready for more.

Half a century after ordination, Bob Manger-Presbyterian pastor, seminary professor, author of My Heart: Christ's Home, and elder-statesman of the church-still enjoys ministry. Young ministers seek his counsel and many older pastors model their ministry after his.

What has kept the twinkle in his eye and the devotion in his heart? LEADERSHIP contributing editor Don Bubna interviewed Manger to find out.

What led you into the ministry?

I never had a clear call into the ministry. It was more being confronted by the reality of the one in whom I believed.

Although I was raised in the church by godly parents, it didn't seem to take with me. It wasn't until late in college, after a summer as a deck hand billeted in a freighter's forecastle with hardened old salts, that I realized there ...