By Thom S. Rainer
Tens of thousands of pastors and other church staff members are becoming retirement age each year. We have not seen anything like this phenomenon. These church leaders are reaching retirement age, but they still have many years of active ministry and life left in them. How will they respond? How will churches respond?
We are watching this trend with fascination at Church Answers. Let’s look at some of the key issues unfolding.
- Some churches are fine with older pastors remaining in their roles. Others are not. We see many churches where the members don’t think twice about having a 60-something or 70-something pastor. They see their pastors as fully capable and fully energetic to continue leading. Other churches are ready for the older pastors to move on. This latter disposition is exacerbated when the church is struggling and/or in decline.
- Too many retirement-age pastors don’t have options because of financial realities. I’ve addressed this issue in an earlier post. Though my observations are anecdotal, well over half of the pastors with whom I have conversed are woefully prepared financially when they hit their mid-60s. It’s usually a case of churches failing to care for pastors and pastors failing to plan for themselves.
- The most common option for pastors leaving their role is to become interim or part-time pastors in other churches. The opportunities for this ministry are increasing regularly. At any given point, we could have over 50,000 churches seeking an…
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