Planning for the Unplanned: Intentional Steps Towards a Fulfilling Retirement

Retirement: is it a distant dream or a looming reality? Join Todd Rhoades, co-founder of Chemistry Staffing, as he navigates the complexities of retirement preparation for church leaders. Inspired by insights from a recently retired pastor, this episode unveils the challenges and opportunities that come with leaving a life dedicated to ministry. Discover how to transition seamlessly by starting your planning early, developing interests beyond church work, and maintaining vital community connections to avoid the dreaded post-retirement void.

Prepare to unlock a fulfilling new chapter that doesn’t mean leaving your passion for ministry behind. Todd shares practical steps, like exploring part-time ministry roles such as mentoring younger pastors or offering pastoral care, to keep purpose and connection alive. Whether you're serving a large congregation or a small rural church, retirement can be a season of enrichment with the right approach. Tune in for a wealth of wisdom that ensures your retirement years are as impactful as your ministry years.

Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com

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Is Your Church Hiring?
If your church is searching for a new staff member, reach out to Todd for a conversation on how he might be able to help.

Are You Looking for a New Ministry Role?
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Oh boy, here's a big topic. Let's talk about retirement here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast today. My name's Todd Rhodes and I'm one of the co-founders over at Chemistry Staffing. Also, if you haven't picked up on it, I'm your host here today on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:24

Now, retirement might seem like a distant horizon for some of us, but the truth is it's a season I'll need to prepare for, whether we're leaving a really large church or a small rural congregation, or just on staff at a church. I just turned 60 this year and I'm already starting to think. I didn't think about it when I was 59. Having the six in front of the zero in my age got me thinking. This is a new decade, right, and the way I've expressed it is man, I don't ever see myself wanting to retire, but I want to be able to retire. Does that make sense? If I want to, all right.

Speaker 1: 1:03

A recent article in the Alabama Baptist really got me thinking about this. It highlights the importance of the intentionality when it comes to planning for retirement, especially for pastors who have dedicated their whole adult lives to ministry. The author, who recently retired himself, shares some really valuable insights from his own journey, and he talks about the challenges of transitioning from a life of constant activity and ministry and purpose to a more open ended schedule, and he emphasizes the need to make really some deliberate choices about how to spend your time and energy in this new season. What can we learn about his experience? He's been there, done that, doing that. Right now, how can we prepare fulfilling and meaningful retirement? First of all and I think I've got six different things here that I took away from the article First of all, start planning early. Right, don't wait until you're on the verge of retirement to start thinking about your finances and your health and your goals for this next chapter. You got to start early. How early? Five years, 10 years, 20 years, if you're planning financially, 20 years is not too early to start planning for your retirement. So start planning early.

Speaker 1: 2:16

Second, cultivate some hobbies and interests outside of ministry and man, I see this all the time. Retirement's great and it's a great opportunity to explore some new passions and reconnect with some old hobbies or simply enjoy more leisure time. But many times pastors have literally put their whole heart and soul into a ministry and it's hard. First of all, it's hard to walk away, but second of all, they don't have any hobbies, they don't have any interests. Find a hobby, find an interest, something that interests you. Second of all, they don't have any hobbies, they don't have any interests. Find a hobby, find an interest, something that interests you outside of ministry, outside of your church work, and start to cultivate that now, because if you retire and everything you've done is gone, you're going to have a huge empty void and it's going to be really difficult to transition. I've seen it happen.

Speaker 1: 3:04

Number three stay connected to your community. Retirement doesn't mean isolation. If you can and it's not always the best thing, but sometimes it's very healthy to stay involved in your church. Maybe you can volunteer your time, maybe not in your church, but locally in one of the community's nonprofits or something, but maintain your relationships with friends and family. Maybe you're relocating for your retirement, but make sure that you get connected to your new community. Then Okay.

Speaker 1: 3:33

Number four consider part-time ministry opportunities. Many retired pastors find real fulfillment in continuing to serve in some capacity. It might not be in the church that you served in, probably not, but maybe you're mentoring younger pastors, maybe you're leading Bible studies, maybe you're preaching. Maybe you're mentoring younger pastors, maybe you're leading Bible studies, maybe you're preaching. Maybe you're determining that in this next phase of ministry you're going to be an interim pastor man. That is work that is incredibly challenging but incredibly fulfilling. Maybe you can offer pastoral care, but consider maybe some part-time ministry opportunities. You want to retire. You don't want to work full-time, but you may find some great fulfillment in some part-time ministry opportunities. You want to retire, you don't want to work full-time, but you may find some great fulfillment in some part-time ministry opportunities. All right, two more.

Speaker 1: 4:15

Number five continue to prioritize your spiritual and emotional well-being. This is going to be a huge earthquake of a change for you. It can be a time of reflection and growth, but make sure that you make it a time of prayer and Bible study. Make sure that you keep up on your spiritual disciplines and nourish your own soul through this time. You're going to lose a lot of your support system around you from the church because you're not going to be kind of there involved in that. So make sure that you prioritize your own spiritual and emotional well-being and then finally embrace that change. Retirement it's a significant life transition. Be open to new experiences and new relationships and new ways of serving God and others. Just know that it's going to be different and you need to embrace that change. So here's your bottom line Retirement is not an ending. It's a new beginning. It really is, and if you take those intentional steps to prepare for the season, it can be a time that really brings some fulfillment and purpose and joy.

Speaker 1: 5:21

One of the things that we do at Chemistry Staffing is we help pastors come up with their succession plan. It's very important that if you are resigning or retiring, and you're a senior pastor in particular, that you have a succession plan in place, and that plan, we always say, has to be on paper. It has to be on paper. We do this with churches all the time and we would love to be able to help you. If you're a pastor considering retirement, kind of start walking with you and mentoring you through that time and that transition, and working with your board and your church staff as well to make sure that there is a healthy transition and a seamless transition between you and the next person that you hand that leadership over to. So if you'd like some more information on how we do that and how to start your succession planning, you can reach out to me at podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I'd love to hear from you Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. All right, thanks so much for listening. We'll be back tomorrow again on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Hope you'll join me.