What’s Next for an Aging Pastor?

00:00:00.000 | Well, what's next for an old pastor?

00:00:08.080 | We get this question on occasion.

00:00:09.800 | Here's the most recent one, an email.

00:00:11.360 | "Hello Pastor John, I'm 51 years old and have pastored the same church for 17 years.

00:00:16.200 | I love being a pastor and I wish I could never retire from this work, but I know this is

00:00:21.040 | probably not the best idea for the long-term health of my church.

00:00:24.840 | My question is this, what happens to us old pastors?

00:00:28.560 | What should happen to us?

00:00:29.960 | I don't have a ministry like yours, I can't publish a book any publisher would want, and

00:00:34.440 | I get no invitations to speak at conferences.

00:00:37.680 | What work is there left for me to do?"

00:00:40.160 | Well, I think often about this question, probably because of my age, 74, and the fact that I'm

00:00:46.760 | indeed privileged to be part of a ministry that grew up alongside me while I was pastoring.

00:00:55.140 | But I often imagine what it would be like, what I would be doing if there were no one

00:01:01.980 | giving me structure to my life and expecting me to earn my salary at Desiring God.

00:01:08.400 | This is the position of thousands of pastors who finished their pastorate at 65 or 70 or

00:01:15.300 | 75.

00:01:16.300 | They have good years left, but what should they do?

00:01:19.940 | And the first thing I want to say is foundational, and then more specific.

00:01:26.200 | Don't believe in the world's view of retirement, which usually revolves around recreation,

00:01:32.660 | fishing, golfing, cruises, resorts, shopping.

00:01:38.940 | There's not anything like that in the Bible.

00:01:44.040 | Ponder for 40 or 50 years and then indulge yourself with worldly leisure and play for

00:01:51.380 | the last chapter of your life as you prepare to give an account to the judge of the universe

00:01:57.600 | while putting all the accumulated knowledge that God has given you over the years on the

00:02:02.000 | shelf unused.

00:02:03.500 | That's insane.

00:02:04.500 | It's not biblical, and we are being duped by the world to buy into it, I fear.

00:02:11.200 | So Paul came to the end of his life saying, "I am ready to be poured out as a drink

00:02:15.720 | offering.

00:02:17.040 | The time of my departure has come.

00:02:20.200 | I have fought the good fight.

00:02:21.560 | I have finished the race.

00:02:23.080 | I have kept the faith.

00:02:24.360 | Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous

00:02:29.760 | judge, will award me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved

00:02:35.240 | his appearing."

00:02:36.240 | That's 2 Timothy 4, 6-8.

00:02:38.960 | The race that he's talking about, the race of life, the race of ministry, did not end

00:02:45.160 | for Paul till he hit the finish line.

00:02:47.560 | And the finish line was death.

00:02:49.320 | The final bell in the fight that he was fighting, that final bell is rung at death.

00:02:56.600 | So the foundational thing I want to say is this.

00:03:00.520 | Don't think in terms of retirement.

00:03:02.920 | Think of pulling back from one kind of ministry when the time seems right, but pursuing other

00:03:11.560 | ministry when that happens.

00:03:14.240 | And I think it's possible for anybody and everybody.

00:03:18.080 | And I'm tempted to list here formal kinds of ministry like interim pastorate, staff

00:03:23.360 | positions in senior care, diaconal services for the sick, counseling, discipling young

00:03:29.480 | men, serving in an inner city, service ministry, doing more extensive evangelism, and on and

00:03:35.920 | on and on.

00:03:36.920 | Missions of all kinds would be happy to take a 70-year-old to do certain things.

00:03:41.760 | I'm tempted to go there, which I just did, but I'll stop.

00:03:45.960 | It seems to me that the real issue is, are you committed to what Paul calls abounding

00:03:53.920 | in the work of the Lord?

00:03:56.280 | That's a phrase from 1 Corinthians 15, 58, which is not addressed to vocational ministers,

00:04:03.600 | but to the church as a whole in Corinth.

00:04:07.000 | It's based on the hope of the entire chapter of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, not

00:04:12.840 | the hope of retirement.

00:04:14.400 | Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of

00:04:20.040 | the Lord, always abounding, abounding, abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the

00:04:25.880 | Lord your labor is not in vain.

00:04:28.080 | So abounding in the work of the Lord means doing lots and lots of it.

00:04:31.680 | That's what abounding means, filling our days with work that has the Lord as its conscious

00:04:39.800 | source and the Lord as its conscious goal.

00:04:43.040 | That's the work of the Lord.

00:04:45.720 | And what I would want to say to every pastor coming to the end of his pastoral years is,

00:04:51.640 | are you steadfastly committed not to drift, not to coast into heaven?

00:04:59.320 | Are you saying with Paul, forgetting what lies behind?

00:05:03.040 | Now, for me, that would mean don't begin to sit on the laurels of 33 years of pastoral

00:05:11.040 | ministry and try to sort out how good or bad it was.

00:05:15.440 | Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, are you pressing

00:05:21.000 | on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus?

00:05:25.360 | So my suggestion is that you mainly think not in terms of formal ministry with a title,

00:05:33.000 | though that's great.

00:05:34.000 | If a door opens, do it.

00:05:37.200 | But that you mainly think of what the New Testament calls "good works."

00:05:44.240 | These were mainly efforts on the part of ordinary Christians to do some good for others.

00:05:50.360 | It may have been very individual, personal, or it may have been that it developed into

00:05:56.920 | a very significant caring institution like orphanage or hospital or school or recovery

00:06:04.200 | center or emergency shelter, whatever.

00:06:07.520 | But mainly, the emphasis in the New Testament was Christians have in us an impulse to do

00:06:17.040 | lots and lots and lots of good.

00:06:19.080 | We get up in the morning, I want to do something good for somebody today.

00:06:22.840 | I'm not content to sit around and watch TV or play games.

00:06:28.280 | There is in me this Holy Spirit-given energy.

00:06:32.200 | I want to do some good in the world.

00:06:35.700 | So I would say ponder often texts like Hebrews 10.24, "Let us consider how to stir one

00:06:42.680 | another up to love and good works," or Titus 3.14, "Let our people learn to devote

00:06:48.800 | themselves to good works so as to help causes of urgent need and not be unfruitful," or

00:06:55.080 | Titus 3.8, "I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in

00:07:01.080 | God may be careful to devote themselves to good works."

00:07:06.400 | These things are excellent and profitable for people.

00:07:09.080 | Or Titus 2.14, "Christ gave himself"—this is amazing—"Christ gave himself for us

00:07:17.160 | to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are zealous for good

00:07:23.880 | works."

00:07:24.880 | He died so that so-called retired pastors would be full of good works.

00:07:30.400 | Or Ephesians 2.10, "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works."

00:07:36.920 | That's why you're made, and you didn't stop being made for this when you turned 70.

00:07:42.720 | Let me close by doing for you or for pastors in general who are approaching this transition

00:07:49.960 | what a wise father in the faith did for me when I was 28 years old.

00:07:54.320 | I was jobless.

00:07:55.520 | I was eager for ministry and had no place calling me, and he wrote to me.

00:08:01.640 | I was in Germany at the time, so it was hard to make contacts with people back in America.

00:08:07.000 | And I wasn't sure what I was going to do.

00:08:08.400 | I had a wife and a child to support, and there were no doors opening.

00:08:11.720 | What am I going to do?

00:08:13.680 | And he wrote to me, and he said, "Read 2 Corinthians 4.1 in the Greek, and what you'll

00:08:19.720 | notice is this.

00:08:22.320 | 'Therefore, having this ministry,'" and then he translated it this way, "'just as we received

00:08:30.120 | mercy.'"

00:08:31.120 | "Having this ministry, just as we received mercy, we do not lose heart."

00:08:36.680 | And he said in the letter, "Just as we receive mercy" means that just as God was merciful,

00:08:45.640 | John, to save you and keep you, so he will mercifully give you a ministry.

00:08:54.480 | And I was so helped by that in my faith.

00:08:57.680 | Yes, amen.

00:08:59.320 | If your heart is all in to fill your days with good works as God has given you gifts

00:09:06.520 | and health, God will not leave you without a significant work to do.

00:09:13.620 | He does not waste his children.

00:09:16.400 | I think 2 Corinthians 9.8 carries the implication not only of God's supply of grace to have

00:09:24.560 | what we need for good work, but to have the good work itself.

00:09:28.480 | So I'll read it.

00:09:31.040 | And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all

00:09:39.720 | things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

00:09:46.720 | Amen.

00:09:47.720 | Thank you, Pastor John, for giving hope to so many men nearing the end of their pastorates.

00:09:51.920 | It's a wise word.

00:09:53.720 | Well, whether you listen in the car, at the gym, doing chores, thanks for inviting us

00:09:57.440 | into your day.

00:09:58.440 | If you've not done so yet, you can subscribe to Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast

00:10:02.040 | app in YouTube or in Spotify.

00:10:04.000 | And to find other episodes in our archive or to submit a question to us, go online to

00:10:07.840 | DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

00:10:12.400 | Public school, private school, online school, homeschool.

00:10:17.040 | What are the pros and cons of each of these options?

00:10:19.400 | And how do we decide on the right option for our kids?

00:10:22.600 | Another question we haven't gotten to yet in APJ.

00:10:24.720 | We will next time on Monday.

00:10:26.640 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:10:28.040 | We'll see you then.

00:10:28.640 | [END]

00:10:30.640 | [END]

00:10:32.640 | [END]

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What’s Next for an Aging Pastor?

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