Ministerial Retirement

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7: 21 – 23)

I want us to look at the aspect of a minister stepping aside from active ministry and explain why it is so difficult. Why many ministers decide to come out of retirement to take back the positions they had willingly and legally surrendered. And why many change church constitutions to ensure they will serve until they die when they realise that even ever-shifting the retirement age always catches up with them.

Allow me to become vulnerable for the purpose of this message.

The other day I was looking at my ministry, and especially support since God ordered me to ‘retire’ from active ministry and settle away from the action.

Four years ago, I paid rent, bought all the food, paid fare every day and still was educating my children. And I did not have any debts.

I was producing and giving out my books, producing and giving Audio Bibles and doing a lot of other money intensive ministry. And as you may know I do not raise support.

Today, I do not pay any rent, I rarely travel, do not buy all my food (not all the time since my garden is small), and the family is small since many are now out in pursuit of education.

Yet I now have some debts and at times really strain to put food on the table.

I remember during the Covid fiasco I had three children in high school. Remember when they would be in school for two weeks and then go for midterm or holiday.

The fare alone that was required for that drama was huge since they all schooled far from home.

Yet God always provided, not only the fares, but the fees and other related expenses.

Last year, God ordered me to stop sending out any ministry reports since as we know they can be the prompts for people to continue ‘remembering’ me.

God still provides. But it is a trickle compared to the support I enjoyed when I was visible.

God still meets needs, but how He does it now is incomparable to how He did it when I was visible.

I am not complaining at all. I want to give the context to my message.

A minister not only has a message. He is many times the embodiment of that message.

That is the reason Christ became flesh and dwelt among us.

God is taking me through this to enable me help ministers who are struggling with letting go, especially to allow them to understand why they must let go for God to launch them into their new season.

And I have started with my favourite verses so that we can face the reality of our choices.

You see, those ministers go to hell probably because they continue doing when they were ordered to stop. They continue functioning in the field they had been ordered to leave.

That is what I want us to look at.

To most people, visibility is the only evidence for ministry. Sadly, it is true even for ministers.

Activity and visibility therefore take the position of growth and obedience.

For example, have you ever heard of someone looking for an intercessor to support? Yet we know that the intercessory ministry is a pillar in any successful ministry.

Simply because the intercessor will always be found in a closet, hidden from all except God.

Very few believers pray concerning their giving. They are always looking for visual clues concerning their giving, meaning that the more flowery the display the more convinced they will be to support.

It also explains why most foreign mission organisations and churches find it easier to support conmen who are adroit at making beautiful and visually enticing reports and appeals than a genuine minister in the gutters transforming society, one life after another.

Our faith never leaves the surface and so can never deal with real issues for the most part.

That is what this minister is faced with when considering retirement or when like God did with me is called to become a Biblical elder.

Since he knows the rules he has played by all his life, he is scared to death (probably beyond death) when he is faced with that kind of oblivion.

Since he used to completely forget the people before him who retired, he knows without doubt that he will be forgotten as soon as he leaves that office or pulpit.

A pulpiteer gets more than that salary (or whatever his structure calls it). There are loaded envelopes they get after praying or dedicating this or the other. There are those gifts, some huge, some not so huge, that a member is prompted (many times from the pulpit) to give. And those extras are many times more than the salary.

Now all those will disappear, simply because he had taught his congregation to give by sight.

I hope you are getting me this far.

Allow me to give another observation using public officers and politicians.

Ever realised how rare it is for a politician to bounce back after a defeat, only four or five years later?

You see, when one is in office, there are very many unofficial perks he will enjoy by virtue of that position.

He then learns to live in that new reality.

When he exits that position, not only do the official perks stop, the unofficial ones, which are many times more than the official ones, dry IMMEDIATELY.

Not only that. His position ensured that he was surrounded by friends and partners from morning to night. His phone never stopped ringing from all those people looking to benefit from his position.

Now nobody looks for him. In fact, even his closest friends start running away from him because he has become worthless in their mathematics. None of all those who were calling him at every pretext receive his calls or respond to his texts.

He has all of a sudden become worthless and invisible to everybody.

The saddest part is that in the drive to endear themselves to him, they had gradually alienated him from his real friends who loved him for who he was and so could tell him what he needed to hear.

He is therefore left all alone in the world.

There was this time I used to frequent this high-end hotel where the who is who frequented.

It was very sad seeing all these past political and civil service bigwigs looking so despondent and lonely, having their cup of tea all alone.

Though I am writing about a politician and senior civil servant, I know this is also about a senior pastor and bishop somewhere.

They have seen it and do not want to risk it since they know without doubt that this is what they have packaged for themselves. He who lives by the sword will die by the sword.

That is the reality about retirement from the worldly side.

But why will those who refuse to exit go to hell?

There is a position for strength and a position for wisdom.

Why was Eli unable to correct his sons? Why was Samuel unable to deal with his sons? Why couldn’t David deal with Amnon, Absalom, Adonijah? Why did he need to transfer the judgment of Joab and Shimei to Solomon?

Again, you will allow me to use me. And I do so because I have been in ministry since my teenage.

The way I used to deal with sin is completely different from the way I do it in my old age.

Have I softened my resistance? Of course not.

I am even more resistive because I have seen the consequences as I have been growing. I have seen the dangers of sin beyond the commandment.

But I have become softer in my approach. I am less antagonistic because I have learnt through experience that there are more effective methods of dealing with sin, one of them being testimonies.

And he said unto them, Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: ye make the LORD'S people to transgress. If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the LORD, who shall intreat for him? (1Samuel 2: 23 – 25a)

Eli had overstayed his position. He was therefore dealing with his sons like a counsellor instead of leader. Because that is what his age could do.

That is the direct danger of postponing your retirement for the perks. The sharp edges of authority become smoothed out to the point of ineffectiveness that we see with Eli.

I have written extensively about inter generational ministry transfer.

From the scriptures, a spiritual leader does not transfer leadership to his children, but to the generation between his and his children’s. This is the generation that will transfer the same to his children.

Let me explain.

A priest served from thirty to fifty years according to God’s order to Moses.

For this priest to hand over his position to his sons, he must have gotten married and started getting children in his teenage, even before getting into the priestly position. And that is a rarity.

This then means that he will retire and hand over to somebody not from his loins, though a Levite.

Another dynamic we must examine is the possibility of a father handing over to his son.

It is very difficult for a father to relate to his grown children with the authority he would have with an outsider. And we have enough examples in the scriptures, beginning with the few I have mentioned.

Stretch that beyond fifty and it becomes even more difficult.

We use the rod on our small children. But we will talk with our mature sons more or less as equals since our empire is legally theirs.

That it is close to an abomination for a pastor or bishop to hand over his church or ministry to his children because that is the clearest indication that the said institution was personal property since that is why it was inherited.

Unless the said son had grown elsewhere and had other spiritual heritage. In short, he had developed his spiritual stature elsewhere.

But a disciple is something else. This is someone you have developed and watched gaining spiritual stature. You have transferred your spirit to him as Elijah did with Elisha and so can be sure he will take the ministry even higher than you could have.

The fear of retirement is therefore tied to the failure of ministers of discipling anybody because they fear the disciple taking over from them since the disciple will be just like them.

Allow me to say this as an aside.

Our president is a miracle worker. And you will allow me to explain what I mean.

He was able to, in less than two years, transform the intense love people had for him to the opposite. People who were ready to lose everything to get him the position are now ready to lose everything to get him out of it.

I have said that I blame the spiritual leaders for that and have explained in some past posts.

Interesting enough, all these spiritual ‘fathers’ are past retirement, which is very instructive.

Old age does not confront. It uses other methods to correct. And that is why they are called elders and not leaders.

The error is that our spiritual elders took the role of spiritual leaders because they have refused to exit the scene, leading to the discontent and pain we are experiencing today.

I am convinced that it could have been completely different had we had young prophets in that season since they could not have been scared of speaking truth to power and populace concerning the choices being made.

Even looking at prophets will confirm this.

Jeremiah in his younger years was being sent to one place or the other. But in his later years we see him sending Baruch with his messages, sometimes having him write them down. Much later we see him being approached for prayer and guidance.

And we see the same with Elisha.

How does that align with your ministry?

You will see the same when you read Paul’s letters and can just by glancing through them know his age when he wrote them due to the way he was dealing with issues.

There is something I think is important for me to say.

The elder’s passion for what he has been called does not wane though it might appear so. It probably increases, only that earlier methods stop being employed.

Remember Samuel hacking Agag to pieces?

It is only that age has tempered that passion and narrowed its release.

Mzee, do not be deceived to continue holding on that position against what God is saying. Listen to the God who called you to that position and do what He says since the people advising you against leaving are selfish leeches keen on benefitting from your rebellion without caring what God is telling you.

And even the great reduction of support serves another purpose in God’s scheme of things as I am learning. Again, allow me to give an illustration.

Suppose someone left a sports car with you and told you that you could use it for the month he will be away?

How many will leave it sitting there in the garage because they have another car or are busy?

That is what happens with money.

In retirement, God is training us to slow down. And money is like that sports car.

It is hard to difficult to have plenty of money and not create avenues to use it.

God will therefore slow the provision to give us space to learn to listen more as we are slowing down.

I am sure that after learning the lessons, He will then release the provision to enable me to effectively function in my new position.