When Should Pastors Retire?

After a lifelong ministry and dedication to the church, you have one essential question left to answer — when should I retire? Some pastors long to step back and spend more time with their families. Others cling to the pulpit for as long as possible.

No matter which side of the coin you’re on, you should consider whether the Spirit is leading you to retire or if your service isn’t finished yet. Hopefully, these tips, plenty of prayer and time in the Word will guide you toward the right decision.

Signs It’s Time to Pass the Torch

These reasons may signify a need to retire or slowly transition from lead pastorship.

1. Your Congregation Is Dropping Hints

Some congregations appreciate an older pastor, while others are less interested. Keep your finger on the pulse of your church to sense their feelings.

2. You’re Struggling to Keep Up

If the shepherding and preaching workload feels less doable than it once was, it’s a good sign it’s time to retire. Pastorship is essential in the church and deserves someone who can keep up appropriately.

3. Church Growth Is Stagnating

As the pastor, the last thing you want to do is hold your church back from growth. One of your focus areas should be outreach. If your efforts aren’t reaching the newer generations, it may be time to let someone younger take on the role of the shepherd for your congregation.

4. You’ve Stopped Growing

Pastors need continual growth — taking coursework, reading new books, attending conferences and studying the Bible avidly — so becoming stagnant in the job isn’t an option. Your congregation will be able to tell.

5. Your Family Has Become Less Supportive

Has your once-supportive family started asking you to retire or step back from some of your obligations? They often know you better than yourself. Perhaps it’s time to listen.

Reasons Pastors Put Off Retirement

As a general rule, pastors who stay in their role longer than they should do so for one of four reasons or even a combination. If any of these sound like your situation, you should do some heart-searching to ensure you’re still shepherding with the right motives.

1. Lack of Identity

Being a pastor is a fulfilling calling, but it’s also isolating at times and requires a singular focus, unlike any other occupation. You don’t stop being a pastor when you leave the office for the day and head home. There are church meetings to attend, home-bound church members to call, hospital visits to make, sermons to plan and many other essential duties.

It’s common for pastors to lose themselves to the job completely. When you’ve devoted so much of your life to leading a congregation, you tend to forget who you are outside of it. You worry about what your days will be like without being a pastor.

2. Finances

It’s no secret that pastors are severely underpaid for the number of hours they put in. However, being called to lead a congregation is never a decision about money in the first place — you go where God sends you and He provides. Young pastors need to begin saving for retirement early on. Otherwise, you reach retirement age but don’t have enough money to leave your post. It helps to consult resources to help plan for retirement like a calculator. 

If you’re still clinging to your role as a pastor because you feel you have due to your finances, it may be time to trust in God to provide for you in retirement as He did during your leadership in the church.

3. Fear of Letting Go

You’ve likely spent years — if not decades — building up the same church, preparing it as the bride of Christ, keeping her pure and ready for the Savior. Now that you’ve reached retirement age, it can be difficult to imagine passing the reigns onto someone with less experience and who may have different ideas for the church than you do.

In these instances, you should pray for the Lord to remove your spirit of fear and help you move on if it’s His plan. Perhaps, you could stay on as an assistant pastor to train the new leader before leaving.

4. Unfinished Business

Many pastors stay longer than they intended because they feel they haven’t yet fulfilled their calling. Perhaps they think God is leading them to continue in their current mission.

In this case, you should spend time in prayer, bury yourself in Scripture and speak to those whose wisdom you can rely on. Maybe your job in the church isn’t finished or He has other ministerial plans for you. Retirement may start a new phase of outreach made possible by your newfound free time.

Train the Next Generation

If leaving the church you’ve been at so long fills you with apprehension, transition out slowly and train your successor. Discipling others is a crucial component of the job anyway. Why not ensure the next pastor has all the tools they need to succeed and keep the church growing?