A Discipleship Guide for Lutherans
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This is a pretty blunt blog, but I think the thought is too important and present too often to not put out there.
A few months ago there was a piece in The Christian Century where a pastor shared that upon retiring, church was simply no longer on the radar. It was meaningless and not worth the time to attend worship. So, after years of working in the church this pastor felt some genuine relief at the chance to simply stop going.
I have chewed on this for a while. It hasn’t been an obsession as much as something that nags at me when I teach or reflect on church renewal. For many years I have worked with congregations and pastors moving toward the vitalization of ministry. Often this is one on one with the leaders of a single congregation. At other times it is a project connected to my denomination or a judicatory where we are working with more than one congregation at a time in a group effort.
As I write this, I am flying back from work with eleven congregations. My mind goes back to a previous project. I remember working with a team of people in an earlier endeavor where we did team coaching via conference call and the pastor never made the meetings. I mentioned it one time to the group and asked what they thought was going on. A woman finally spoke what they were feeling: “We have about $70,000 in the bank and we use about $20,000 each year to supplement the budget so we can have a full time pastor. “Our pastor is 61 years old and is simply going to stay here until he is 65 and we are out of money. Then he’s going to get his Medicare and retire and we will be left here with nothing.”
I have never forgotten that conversation. So when I read about pastors who think church is not good use of their time and are committed to not going when they retire, I am frustrated by such thoughts. It smacks of the same consumer mindset that plagues much of our society today: “What’s in it for me?” It’s not that they don’t go to church when they retire that bothers me. It’s that they basically stayed beyond their usefulness long enough to hunger for the day when they could stop going – and kept taking a pay check along the way.
The real issue is not that church is not worth our time. Nor is this an issue that plagues every or even most pastors. But the issue is that some of us either don’t know what to do or aren’t willing to work at doing what matters. We simply take our time and our checks and wait until retirement frees us from this dilemma.
If you think that looking ahead to retirement offers the chance to stop being involved in church, for the sake of the church and for the sake of your own spirit, tender your resignation and move on to something else soon. The church of Jesus Christ can’t afford such leadership in a time like this, just so some of us have something to do until Medicare arrives.
This is my forty-second year of ministry. And yes, I'm ready to do something different. However, I will work my ass off until the day I hang it all up. I have known pastors through out my career who have retired way before they told the congregation, or began medicare. Each of them have neglected their congregations into decline from an average worship attendance of around 300 to fewer than a couple of dozen. I have followed several of these predecessors in congregations I have served and the people have been shocked that growth was possible again. They believed it was their fault. Many of these pastors supported these conclusions by telling the people they were not welcoming enough, friendly enough, or just didn't have what the community was looking for. Quite frankly it is more than frustrating, it is repulsive. I have about a year left in me, but for this last year, my church council has accepted a goal of 75 new families joining the congregation for 2019-2020. This goal, is both ac
David, I am glad to hear this. I have met other pastors who have given 100% all the way out. But your experience of following coasters is all to common and I have to say very distressing. Keep setting and pursuing goals (and I hope you have some new ones for when you retire that give you life as well!). Thanks for the comment - it reinforces what I am seeing as well. Blessings.
Lighten up Dave. Just because a pastor looks forward to retirement does not mean that they quit practicing their vocation with a high degree of professionalism. And, in a church with a shortage of pastors we need these pastors to stay put until retirement or even a couple of more years. The problem with renewal lies elsewhere
I am not at all criticizing all pastors, so looking forward to retirement is not the issue. If you read the blog, you noted that the pastor I was reacting to wrote in the Christian Century that he was glad to retire so he could stop being involved in church - it was a waste of his time. He was clearly done with church long before he retired. Second, I also said that this doesn't apply to most pastors - many are doing good work right to the end. But I stand by the clear observation that I see a significant number of pastors who coast out, retire mentally before they stop being paid, and that this is hurting the church. One of the core things in renewal is leadership. When the leaders stop pressing forward, all organizations go stagnant. That is a simple fact. So while the problem with renewal is complex and lies in many places, none of it ever happens without key leaders like pastors being assertive and proactive. Blessings and keep pressing forward! Thanks