I have written about growing older as a church member. I want to address a topic that is looming over our Fellowship and I have no idea if it has even been talked about. I am talking about pastors who stay on in the ministry when they are so out of touch and irrelevant as to be an embarrassment to us all. I am talking about pastors and evangelists and missionaries who will not retire.
Why can a pastor not retire? I do not know. There is no biblical basis for this idea. There is ample old testament evidence to suggest that old kings and prophets and priests all were quite useless at the end of their lives even though they still occupied their office. David was a foolish old king. Paul could only answer letters for the last years of his short life. Church history give us better guidance than the book of Acts in some cases and this is one of those cases.
For some pastors, they have the respect for what they did in shepherding their local church. But they no longer are doing anything fresh or new or groundbreaking. The ship has sailed and they cannot even find the dock. They are using ancient techniques to solve high tech problems. They spend more time managing than innovating.
If you cannot use email or a smart phone, you ought to retire. If you are fighting old battles that are irrelevant today you ought to retire. If your church has heard your personal stories enough that they can tell those stories for you you ought to retire. If you cannot drive your own car you ought to retire.
At the very least I think that our pastors and board of elders need to talk about finding a way for old preachers to retire. Pastor Mitchell was pathetic during the final years of his life. Why not quit while you are ahead? Do not do your church the indignity of dying in the pulpit. You can endure to the end in retirement as well as being in charge.
Ignoring this issue will not solve this problem.
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