When I have learned to do the Father's will, I shall have fully realized my vocation on earth.
Carlo Carretto

The relocation saga begins for most pastors with a bedeviling question: "Is it time to resign my present church?" The future of one's ministry, the trust of a congregation, the needs of spouse and children, and the opinion of peers all seem to heighten the emotional stakes and blur objectivity.

In this first chapter, Calvin C. Ratz writes candidly about the decision that brought him to his present pastorate at Abbotsford Pentecostal Assembly in British Columbia, an hour outside of Vancouver. Now in his forties, married, and the father of two children, Ratz has faced the shall-we-move? dilemma enough times in his ministerial career to have sorted out the factors and identified important questions to consider.

It happened while we were unloading the car and trailer. Our family had just spent a week sailing on Lake Champlain in Vermont, and we were in the middle of trucking dirty ...