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One of the congregation members gives Dr. May a hug before leaving. May said farewell to more than a hundred parishioners after giving his last sermon on Jan. 25.

Retirement so far hasn’t been all that restful for Dr. Leland May.

The former Northwest Missouri State University professor left his almost-40-year teaching career when he was 65 but continued the on-the-side interim pastoring job he’d had throughout his years as an English professor. Little did he know that this job — which involved numerous six- to nine-month stints at Baptist churches throughout St. Joseph and the surrounding area — would lead to him retiring from another full-time job a decade later, after several years as pastor of First Baptist Church in Albany, Mo.

“He gave up his retirement for us,” says Kay Holcomb, a member of the church. “He had been our interim pastor at different times, and he just decided, ‘I’ll take them.’”

Having had wonderful teachers growing up, the decision to make teaching his first career priority wasn’t a difficult one for Dr. May. But he also had had ministry experience from the time he was 18 and always wanted that to be a part of his life, as well.

However, although he wasn’t new to pastoral work, his position at First Baptist was new to him in that it was the first time that as a pastor, he was on-call 24 hours a day. He worked days as long as 14 hours serving a congregation that grew from about 110 people to about 200. And he stayed with them until the completion of the church’s new building a few weeks ago — the culmination of a project that began about 10 years ago, he says.

He also brought to the job his background in literature.

“I’ve always liked literature, because literature inspires,” he says. With this in mind, he often incorporated it into his sermons, using O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” to illustrate sacrifice, for example, or quotes such as Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”

The skill for teaching Dr. May showed in his sermons is something that’s stood out to Mrs. Holcomb.

“He could say in 20 minutes what would take others two to three hours,” she says. “You didn’t want to let your mind drift, because you didn’t want to miss anything.”

Just as important to Dr. May as the messages he gave on Sunday mornings were the love and unity he saw in the church and the relationships he developed with people of all ages, including a lot of young men he says he saw grow as Christians. One of these was Jason Newman, who now is a deacon in the church.

“He has been a blessing,” Mr. Newman says of Dr. May. “He taught me that it’s OK to show love and compassion for people and a passion for the Lord.”

Dr. May also is the most energetic person he knows, Mr. Newman adds — which may be why, even in his second retirement, he doesn’t plan to just sit around. Having already written one book — a devotional for college students that was in print for seven years — as well as a number of articles for hobby and religious magazines, he plans to now put his energy into a book about the histories of various hotels and an autobiography about experiencing World War II as a child.

He and his wife, Linda — who he says has been wonderfully supportive during the course of his careers — will be moving to the Ozarks. Maybe there, in between his writing and the reading he plans to do, as well, he’ll also have some time for remembering.

“I always wanted to do both — to teach and be an interim pastor,” Dr. May says. “It’s been a very rewarding life.”

Lifestyles reporter Erin Wisdom can be reached at ewisdom@npgco.com.