Seven Thoughts about Retiring Pastors Who Stay at Their Churches

Every seven seconds a baby boomer retires, about 10,000 a day. That is the pace of potential retirement taking place every day since January 1, 2011. At the pace will continue until the end of 2029.

A lot of baby boomer pastors are retiring. Concurrently we are seeing many of these pastors retire and stay in the church where they retired. Frequently, I am asked my thoughts on this issue. Allow me to share seven of those thoughts in this post.

  1. Don’t expect retired pastors to sever all of their church relationships. That would not be a fair expectation. That is one of the primary reasons pastors hang around post retirement.
  2. If the relationship is healthy with the new pastor, the advantages of having the retired pastor in the church can be numerous. The retired pastor can offer wisdom and experience that can benefit the new pastor. The retired pastor can also be the advocate of the current pastor.
  3. Because the church needs to allow the new pastor to develop an identity as the shepherd/leader, it is advisable for the retiring pastor to take an extended break from the church. I typically advise retired pastors to take at least a year off from attending the church where they retired. This will give new pastors time to establish their leadership and personal approach to ministry.
  4. The longer the tenure of the retired pastor, the longer the break should be from the church. While I recommend a break of at least one year for all retired pastors, that break should be longer for those who had long tenure at the church. I define long tenure as more than seven years.
  5. Retired pastors should not try to be the pastor to church members. That is the role of the new pastor. Though a cry of help from a church member may be tempting to answer, retired pastors should point church members to the new pastor. Otherwise, a true transition will not take place.
  6. The retired pastor should not be perceived to be second guessing the current pastor. Retired pastors create an “us vs. them” scenario when they express displeasure at something the current pastor is doing. Members then are compelled to take sides. It is disastrous for churches.
  7. The current pastor should not denigrate the former ministry of the retired pastor. Again, this approach creates the division noted above. It is a classless act.

I know this topic is on the minds of many of you readers because you share that with me via comments and social media. Now is the opportunity for you to weigh in on this issue. Let me hear from you.

Posted on October 26, 2015


With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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96 Comments

  • It seems to me these men need to learn the ministry is not about THEM! A former pastor that remains in the church should come along side the new pastor & work with him any way he can for the cause of Christ. Instead of claiming ,”MY church now”, the new pastor should embrace the knowledge, help & experience the former can offer. BOTH should be an EXAMPLE to the congregation of what it means to work together as brothers in Christ, for the cause of Christ, & the building up of the body. Why would we expect the congregation to act any different when they see pastors acting like power & control is their right?

  • My predecessor in my current parish had been made miserable for nine years by the handful of folks who held the power (it’s a small church). She was not able to stand up to them, and the church was split pretty much down the middle: her friends vs. her enemies. She retired and stayed in the area. Soon after I arrived, I met with her and she stated her desire to return to the parish. I told her I thought that was not a good idea, given the division in the parish. Every day people marched into my office and said things like, “If she comes back I’m outta here!” OR “If you don’t bring her back, I’m outta here!”

    My predecessor did not understand why I asked her not to return for the foreseeable future, for the sake of the congregation. She then started a pretty intense campaign of lobbying her friends in the congregation to get me to change my mind. I literally would receive e-mails and remarks about this several times a week. It took FIVE YEARS for this to stop.

    The former pastor had the opportunity to attend any of 14 other churches of our denomination in the area (the Episcopal church is big in Virginia!). She had friends among the clergy of every one of them. My sense has always been that she wanted to return to our church in order to (1) be taken care of emotionally by her friends, (2) to have a kind of triumphal re-entry. Unfortunately, the church didn’t stop having fights, supposedly about her and her behavior, for a long time. Her returning would have been extremely painful for her and would have only prolonged the division in the church.

    I am 7.5 years into my ministry here at this point and at last my predecessor’s needs and desires are no longer the focus of the church. I know that two of my members still talk with her on the phone every day and run errands for her, etc. (She is not disabled or financially needy, by the way, and she has four grown children nearby.)

    After experiences like this and worse, a number of my colleagues and I have vowed that we will promptly move away when we retire, and that is my firm intention. If for some reason I cannot physically move — though I am planning for that — I will certainly not return to this congregation EVER unless I am specifically asked by the current pastor for some special occasion (an anniversary-of-the-church celebration or something like that). Being willing to leave gracefully and permanently is part of the call. It is a big sacrifice for the leaving pastor, but when have we not been called to sacrifice? Get out of the way and let the new pastor lead — we must. And we must also remember that our primary identity is not as a pastor but as a follower of Jesus.

  • I would say this is rediculous, and have we not grown more than this spiritually; however, I saw this year a pastor moved to a church 50 miles away call and weigh in on every decision made by the pastor in her old church.

  • Thanks Tom for the article, i suppose it also helps in pastors who have lost their Jobs and chose to remain in the congregation, they carry a lot of hurt and pain while still trying to figure out their next move and end up being hurtful to the leadership and the bod, so its not just for retired pastors but also support pastors who are simply laid off for various reasons

  • I followed a pastor who retired after 34 years as Sr. Pastor. (I was 34 when I got here) I was present for his last Sunday, and he was there the next week for my first Sunday. He has remained on staff in a part time capacity doing the work he loves and continuing to benefit the kingdom. We are just over three years in, proving that it’s never “our church.”

    The church has continued to mature, reach lost people, and grow. It takes more than one man to lead and shepherd the flock. I am thankful for more than his support, I’m thankful for what is now 37 years of humble investment in the kingdom through New Union.

    There is much to learn feel the guys who have proven themselves faithful for decades. Especially if those decades were in the church you now lead.

  • My wife and I served in a rural Church for 12 years. When we accepted their call as pastor the Church was reeling from a split with only 25-30 people attending with a massive debt because of a new building. God blessed the Church with growth through salvation’s, over 200 in 12 years. They even planted a Church in a neighboring community.

    Then I had a heart attack with extensive damage to my heart. I struggled to remain their pastor but I could not hold up to the strain so I retired.

    We knew it would be difficult for the next pastor if we remained so we now attend another Church but I still feel the call to preach so I do pulpit supply. Here is the catch, because of my call to preach and doing pulpit supply we cannot fully integrate into the new Church, and we are now isolated from our friends of 12 years.

    One of the worst positions I was ever placed in was when a young man I baptized as a boy and performed his wedding lost a baby and asked me to do the funeral. I talked to the current pastor and he told me to accept, but it was clear he was not pleased.

    Being retired is not all it is cracked up to be. “I must decrease so he can increase”

  • Once during my 20 year tenure as pastor at my last church, I asked a retired pastor in the community to supply preach for me one Sunday while I was on vacation. The following Monday he called me and said, “Brother Dan, I didn’t get my check yesterday. Where’s my check?” I thought he was joking. He wasn’t. Our treasurer had forgotten to write the honorarium for him and planned to mail it. However, the retired pastor wanted it – now. I assured him the check was forthcoming. He called me again on Wednesday to angrily tell me he still hadn’t got the check. I patiently told him it was in the mail. That was the last time he supplied for me,

    I am currently working full-time and no longer a pastor, but I have a passion for helping churches and encouraging pastors. And when I supply preach, I promise – I will not call the pastor the following week and ask, “Hey, where’s my check!”

  • I have been blessed to have numerous retired pastors as church members. Their wealth of knowledge, wisdom and counsel were tremendous helps to me. My ministry was multiplied and blessed through their contributions. Unfortunately, I had one retired pastor who was determined to be the most beloved pastor the church had ever known. He constantly undermined me and my successor and made it impossible for anyone to be effective in that church until after his death.
    I thank God that there was only one like that and there were many who were a blessing. Retired pastors can bring joy unlike anyone else in the congregation. Yet, they can also bring pain unlike anyone.
    My hope is to someday be one of those many who are a blessing to the current pastor.

  • This is a challenging topic. I serve as a judicatory leader, Bishop in our tradition. I have seen many sides of this issue. Sometimes a retired pastor stays in the congregation and it is an unmitigated disaster. Sometimes it works out. Most of the time, I am finding it much better to ask the retiring pastor to leave the congregation and join another church. Then, in certain circumstances, largely at the initiation of the new lead pastor, I will enter into conversations about the retired pastor returning. I have found the following to be essential:

    1. The newly installed is an individual who has a healthy sense of confidence. They are comfortable and not threatened by the former pastor.
    2. The retired pastor has a clear sense that they are now in a new role. The are no longer the pastor, and quite clear about that.
    3. The congregation has a healthy set of expectations of its membership not to force either the new pastor or the retired pastor into awkward situations. (Triangles)

    Most of our retired pastors move on and find they enjoy being a member of another congregation. I would say that 9 times out of 10, that’s the best route to take.

  • The issues in all of this is what gives any person significance in their personal estimation of who they are. When people seek significance from serving as a pastor, it becomes very hard for them and their wives to retire and leave a church. They view this as a loss of significance and will intentionally or unintentionally interfere with the ministry of the new pastor and even the ministry of the wife in order to retain significance. Add to that a ministry definition that incorporates enabling as a method of ministry that seeks to give the provider of ministry good feelings for enabling others regardless if it is what is best for the person in need, and you have a former pastor and wife who have truly missed their call. Their significance needed to be in the fact that the Lord had anything for them to do and their ministry definition needed to follow the example of the Lord in being selfless and doing only that which is best for a person in need, not enabling to make ourselves feel good for having done something.
    I encourage all pastors and wives or widows to truly leave and find their next place of service. It may be in a new role, but it will still have the significance of the high calling of serving our Lord. Think what a blessing a retired pastor might be to a young pastor in his first church if that retired pastor has no history with that church. Trust our Lord for your significance and purpose. He will not fail to guide you to His chosen place for you.

  • A friend of mine took the church of the retiring pastor. A year or so later, the retired pastor stopped by to visit. During testimony time this man stood and said the worst mistake of his ministry was letting this man be the new pastor!

    Smile! God loves you! Have a nice day!

    Christians can sometimes be mean as the devil.

  • A young relative recently took over as pastor of a congregation whose prior pastor had been there for decades. Though it was not planned, the way things worked out, our relative ended up doing the funeral for the prior pastor within months of taking over. That was just such a perfect way to transition it all……