Lame Ducks Can Still Fly – Twelve Projects Retiring Pastors Can Work On

There’s something happening in a church near you: the pastor is moving toward retirement.  I’m told that the average age of pastors in America has risen to about sixty. While many pastors continue on in full-time ministry way past the typical retirement age of sixty-five, pastors at sixty are usually at least thinking about it.

That retirement presents a major crisis for most pastors is a given: No other profession that I know of involves so much enmeshment between work and leisure, activity and identity, clients and friends.  Pastors play with their co-workers, work with their friends, worship with their board members and sometimes even pray with their enemies. Many of them sleep in homes that they don’t own, lose track of their extended biological families, have Christmas with those who pity them and take work-related phone calls on their vacations. They often don’t know what in the world to do with themselves when they hand over the keys to the pastor’s study.

But enough of that; I’ll save the identity crisis aspects of the pastor’s retirement for another day.

Today I want to focus on something positive.  Matt Steen, co-founder of a great ministry called Chemistry Staffing (chemistrystaffing.com) recently mentioned the need for soon-to-retire pastors to have “something to move toward” while moving away from their churches. That got me thinking about several somewhat similar life-situations: selling a home (something I’ve done twice), moving to another town (something I’ve done many times), and, especially, wrapping up an interim pastorate (something I’ve done eight times).

Here’s the question: Most of us know that there are things which the soon-to-retire pastor probably shouldn’t work on (see my list below). But what can a moving-towards-retirement pastor legitimately work on?

While this should be a good post for church leaders to consider, the pastor will need to remember that the only person who’s going to take the initiative on this project is going to be himself.  In the church, the pastor’s supervisors (usually the members of a board of some kind), have not been trained for his job, have not done his job and will never really understand his job.

With that said, here are a few things which the retiring pastor usually shouldn’t work on:

(1) Hiring new staff. But there are exceptions to everything. In an unusually long interim pastorate, I worked closely with an elder to hire a new youth pastor.  We carefully warned our hire that his position might not last long.  He was young, single and accepted our terms. The new long-term senior pastor loved him and they’ve both been with the church for almost 10 years!

(2) Any part of strategic planning: Mission, target group, vision, values (unless it would be identifying the church’s current actual values), strategy or branding (logos, colors, web sites, etc.). Like it or not, your successor will likely toss out most of what you do.  If you can get your key people thinking, studying and praying about these things, that is worth your time, but don’t wordsmith anything to perfection and paint it on the walls.

(3) Creating policies is “iffy.” I put a huge effort into helping my long-term church get a child protection program.  In my first interim pastorate, at the urging of the lay leadership, I helped them also, but on the condition that they would make adherence to and continuation of the new policy an absolute requirement for their new pastor, as I did not want to waste my efforts on a manual that would only collect dust.

(4) New initiatives that your successor will have to continue, such as a building program, a brand-new school or day care center, a new ministry that depends on you, etc. Anything you start doing that the new pastor will be forced to continue is questionable for you are setting expectations that he may not like.

(5) Changing the church’s statement of faith or denominational affiliation. Doing this is like putting up brand new wallpaper throughout the home you’re trying to sell. Most potential buyers won’t like it.

 But you don’t have to just “hang on for retirement.” Here are some things that you CAN work on:

(1) On a personal note – on your own time unless the church tells you otherwise – you can: Explore options for your next ministry, find a church to attend and start building relationships there, let your denominational leader know that you’re available to start coaching rookie pastors, prepare your parsonage or the home you own for your departure, get into that hobby that you haven’t had time to explore, write the Great American Novel, repair some relationships (as God gives you the opportunity), etc. More on this in a future post.

(2) Prepare for a helpful exit interview with the board. Don’t miss the word “helpful.”

(3) Train people for ministry – Whom can you train before you go? If you’ve neglected equipping, maybe you can get started now.

(4) Compile a list of EVERYTHING you actually do, including the embarrassing things that you know you shouldn’t be doing, like straightening out the hymn books or literature every week or mowing the lawn. I’m not talking about updating your job description (though you should do that too); I’m talking about listing everything you actually do as part of your ministry so the new pastor knows where the gaps will be.

(5) Train people to do some of the tasks that you’ve been doing but shouldn’t have been doing.

(6) Prepare for a debrief with your successor, assuming he’s wise enough to do this with you.

(7) Compile a good, honest history of the church. The search committee and eventual new pastor will appreciate your work on this.

(8) Make a careful list of the projects you’ve completed and the ones you’ve been unable to complete in your time with the church.

(9) Clarify what your dreams for this church have been and what your values and strategies have been. Share this with the board in your exit interview and with the “new guy” when he’s available.

(10) List what you’ve preached and taught and prepare to explain this to your successor.

(11) Deferred maintenance projects – I’m not suggesting that you take up a hammer, but maybe you can do research for the church regarding that new furnace or roof or air conditioning.

(12) Preach great sermons which prepare your people for the future.

Don’t miss the fact that this second list is much longer than the first.  With God’s help, even lame ducks can fly!