We greatly enjoyed this excellent article from our friend Bob Russell and wanted to share it with you. We post it here with permission of Bob Russell Ministries. You can find his weekly articles and other resources at bobrussell.org.
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, wrote: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). That includes retirement. In some occupations, retirement is voluntary. In others, it is mandatory. The appropriate age is different for a pro football player than a Walmart greeter. Regardless of the nature of your employment, there will come a time to step down and make room for younger leaders.
Retirement is in the Bible
On occasion, I’ve heard Christians insist, “There’s no such thing as retirement in the Bible.” They argue that church leaders should go full force until they die. “Better to burn out than rust out!” they quip. Yet, while the Bible commands us to be “faithful unto death,” the principle of retirement is actually in the Bible.
Numbers 8:23-26 reads: “The Lord said to Moses, ’This applies to the Levites: Men twenty-five years old or more shall come to take part in the work at the tent of meeting, but at the age of fifty, they must retire from their regular service and work no longer. They may assist their brothers in performing their duties at the tent of meeting, but they themselves must not do the work. This, then, is how you are to assign the responsibilities of the Levites.’”
Notice God required the priests to retire at age fifty! However, that does not mean the older priests were to quit altogether. Although they were to stop performing the rigorous and stressful labor that was required of a priest – handling and slaughtering livestock, for instance – they were to continue assisting the younger priests in fulfilling duties at the tabernacle.
I speak from experience. Retirement is terrific!
I retired as Senior Pastor of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, when I was 62. I had served in that role for 40 years. While I was still healthy and alert, I retired for two reasons:
First, the future of our church would need younger, more energetic leadership. Churches were just beginning the trend of establishing satellite campuses. I had been the senior pastor through five new construction building programs for our church and numerous other stressful situations. I felt I did not have the energy to go through another significant project. I concluded that I needed to step aside for the good of the church.
Second, I retired to start another meaningful chapter in my life. I wanted to encourage younger pastors, speak at other churches and events, and continue writing while I still had the health to do it. So I needed to step away from the pressure of pastoring a megachurch. I had witnessed other older ministers stay at their church too long, and they ended up tearing down what had taken years to build up. Another megachurch minister later acknowledged, “I preached at my church for 44 years. It should have been 40.”
Rare is the person who retires in a timely fashion. Consider college basketball, where there have been more Adolph Rupp’s than John Wooden’s. John Wooden of UCLA retired on top after winning his 10thNCAA national championship. Contrast that with legendary Kentucky Head Coach Adolph Rupp. Despite having led the Wildcats to four NCAA championships, at the end of Rupp’s career, he had not won a championship in over a decade. Frustrated fans murmured that the game had passed him by and wished for him to step down.
As of June 2023, I have been retired for 17 years, and it has been the best chapter of my life. I wish I had known how enjoyable it would be to live into my late 70s. I am still active, mentally alert, and healthy. I enjoy being with my grandchildren and playing golf. I go to fitness training three times a week. I get up early each day to study the Bible. Each year I am able to preach 35-40 times throughout the country and facilitate numerous mentoring retreats for younger pastors. And each week, I spend time researching and writing an article for this blog
Yet recently, I have noticed that preaching requires significant energy, and I feel more drained than when I preached two decades ago. A few months ago, I was a guest preacher at Southeast Christian, and during the first hour, I inadvertently left an important paragraph out of my message, and I was upset by that. I would have rarely made that mistake years ago, but I did the very same thing the second hour! The repeated mistake was a subtle reminder that my alertness is slipping away.
Comedian Mark Lowery once said he was at that age when he had to make a daily decision, “Do I want to tie my shoes or do I want to breathe!” The Bible tells us that “We waste away.” Slowly, our body weakens. Our energy wanes. Our patience diminishes. Our mind slows. It is nearly imperceptible at first, so we do not notice it. But it happens.
To make the most of retirement.
Be realistic. Everyone ages. We all reach a point of ineffectiveness.
Get your self-worth from your identity in Christ and not your occupation.
Set a retirement date in advance and stick to it. You think you will know when it is time, but most do not. Be proactive. Make an unemotional decision long in advance.
Retire to something, not just from something. It is not enough to step away from the pressure. You need something meaningful to do.
Stay active! Identify your “sweet spot” and find ways to use your primary gifts in service to others. Author Bob Buford calls it “moving from success to significance.”
Learn to be content even though you are not as important in the eyes of the world as you once were. Who cares? You still matter to your family, your close friends, and, most importantly, to God. You are not in competition with anyone.
Be joyful and make the most of every day. Say with the Psalmist: “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalms 118:24 KJV).
Increasingly focus on eternity. Regardless of what happens to your mind and body, the best is yet to be!
“Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly, we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17).
At age 22, Bob became the pastor of Southeast Christian Church, a newer church whose 120 members were still meeting in the basement of a house on the east side of Louisville, Kentucky. Forty years later, in 2006, Bob retired from Southeast, which had become one of the largest churches in America.
Through Bob Russell Ministries, he continues to preach at churches and conferences across the United States, offering his insights on church leadership and providing mentorship to pastors. An accomplished author with over a dozen books to his name, including “After 50 Years of Ministry: 7 Things I’d Do Differently and 7 Things I’d Do the Same,” Bob has also contributed over 600 articles to his blog at BobRussell.org, where he consistently offers Biblical guidance on contemporary issues.
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