Paul Cole stands beside the pulpit on his last Sunday as pastor of Town & Country Christian Church, and as he watches the congregation come down the aisle and find their seats he can't seem to stop grinning.

It may be an ending, but it's a joyful one. Members of the congregation seem to feel the same way. Cole may be retiring, but the love that emanates from him and his wife, and the love their church members have for them, hasn't weakened a jot.

"I've been a member of this church basically all my life," said Clain Schultz. "I'm really going to miss him. He opens up his heart and cares for everybody around him. He and his wife have been an inspiration to me and my family."

"Paul is a very dedicated person, and he really believes strongly in what he's doing," former CPA Elsie Rogers said. "He and Margaret (his wife) are good people. They're going to be hard to replace."

"Paul is a wonderful prayer warrior," said Cherie Lau, who is the church's pianist. "We're glad to have had him 19 years."

'Prayer warrior' is an apt description of Cole. On that last Sunday, as the service began with prayer requests, he sat behind the pulpit with a slip of paper clasped in his hands earnestly praying. He led the congregation in prayer before the sermon, and then broke into prayer several times during the sermon, and finally closed with another prayer.

Cole's last sermon was on Matthew 8, and he focused on the unnamed centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant by simply saying the word.

"I read this and I read this and I read this and it astonished me too," he said. "(Matthew 8) Verse 10: When Jesus heard this he was astonished" and told his followers he hadn't found anyone in Israel with as much faith as the centurion who, despite being a pagan, believed that Jesus could heal his servant without even coming to his house, but could do it by just saying the word.

"A powerful confession of faith!" said Cole from the pulpit that last Sunday. "Beloved, are we on that plane? Are we up to the speed of that centurion? I hope we are, because if we are, we can mend a broken world."

A Time for Rest and A Time for Work

Cole, 70, has been studying the Word for at least 50 years. He attended Midwest Christian College from 1968-1972 to earn his bachelor of arts degree, then got a bachelor of theology in 1973. He moved to Lincoln, Illinois, where he earned his master of divinity.

When Margaret met Paul he was minister of the First Christian Church of Mooreland. He came into the Stock Exchange Bank in Woodward, where she worked. She was 46 and a member of Woodward's First Baptist Church.

"I asked him if he was coming to the First Baptist Church singles meal in a few days," she said, and the rest is history.

"I always said I wouldn't marry a minister," said Margaret Cole. "Life is hard for ministers."

Hard, yes, but good.

"It's been a good life," she said. "Paul's very faithful. He's very faithful in prayer; he's very faithful in reading his Bible. He's always been faithful to me. Even when we dated I never had to worry."

And now that they're in their 70s, it's time to do something new, she said.

"See, I'm 72 and Paul's 70, so we better do the things we want to do while we still can," she said, "because there's going to be a day when we won't want to cross the street."

They want to visit family, fix up their house, take care of their health, handle some financial issues and, well, rest.

But work is always pressing, retired or not.

"There's a lot of work to do," said Paul. "I'm serious, the garage has a foundation problem and the water's coming in, and the east wall and the door and the guttering, but the foundation problem is the main problem. The house – the bathroom needs to be repaired, the floor needs to come up, the windows – air comes in around the windows. It's going to be a lot of work and a lot of money."

Fortunately, he's got construction experience in his background.

"I'm pretty good" at doing those kinds of jobs, he said. "If I can have a little help, I can do it. Now, the foundation, I'll definitely have to hire someone for that."

They also want to attend a huge missionary convention that will be in Oklahoma City in 2023 for the first time since 1973. Paul Cole attended it back then, too.

"I hate to use the term burned out, but I just need a change of pace," said Paul.

"I want to spend more time with God, kind of bring my spiritual life up to where I want it, maybe spend an hour or two a day. And just odds and ends, a lot of odds and ends. If we want to travel we can travel; Margaret needs new shoes, and I need new shoes and we have a hard time finding them, we end up going to Oklahoma City for those; and just going to the doctor and making sure we're in good health. Far as we know, we're in good health.

"And I love gardening. We're spending about $150 to go to a gardening show in Tulsa in two weeks, something I've wanted to go to for a long time. It's a two-day seminar on gardening. And I love gardening. I could go out and spend four or five hours a day in the garden. But see, the thing is keeping up with it. Last year, I lost a garden again; it went to weeds. I just couldn't keep up with it. Obviously, you have to put the church before the garden.

Kathleen Lourde

Left: Paul and Margaret Cole share a laugh with Jim Scribner. Right: Paul Cole and Justin Williams, who've worked closely together for years, share a moment together after morning worship last Sunday. It was Cole's last Sunday to lead the service as pastor.

"But this year I'm really looking forward to it. Before, I could only garden at night, but now I can garden in the morning."