Can a Long-term Pastor Stay?

One of the most common questions I receive is whether or not a long-term pastor can stay on the church staff he pastored after he leaves his position as lead pastor?

Important factors to consider in relation to retaining a legacy pastor on a church staff

Reflecting on this situation from the perspective of the outgoing lead pastor needs to be a part of the process. The key here is understanding that it is far more meaningful and personally satisfying for some pastors and their families to stay closely connected to the church that they had helped to establish and lead as they age, than it will be for them to simply leave.

This is because many have spent a large chunk of their life enmeshed in the spiritual and physical community of the church. This means that they have laid down deep roots for their families and friendships in these communities and forcing them to leave can lead to great sadness and an overwhelming feeling of loss and separation at just the time in their life when they will have wanted to be close to their children, grandchildren and closest friends. Pastors who have experienced forced breaks from the church they served for a generation or more often report that they felt that they were treated unfairly and without human decency which can lead to feelings of deep resentment and bitterness.

On the other hand, keeping a long-term pastor on staff or even in an emeritus role can become highly complicated on both the organizational and relational front as church officers, church staff and church members will automatically feel a need to be highly deferential to their viewpoints and opinions. This will be true even if the outgoing pastor tries to keep as much distance as possible from the decision making and leadership arena of the church.

Church leaders should also recognize that keeping a long-term pastor on staff will also cause some candidates for the pastoral role to withdraw their interest as they do not want to face the headache of trying to establish themselves as a leader under the looming shadow of the church’s former leader.

Whatever the decision, it’s become abundantly clear to me in the cases that I’ve studied that the success of any endeavor to keep a long-term pastor inside the church they formerly led depends on the spiritual maturity levels of all the key leaders, but mostly on the departing pastor as he and his family are facing the most change and loss.

Bridges and Bridges explain that departing leaders will experience a deep sense of fear and loss when even the idea of a transition away from their existing role is broached. "Changes cause transitions, which cause losses, and it is the losses, not the changes, that they're reacting to...It's a piece of their world that is being lost, not a piece of ours."[1]

While taking on a reduced role in the same congregation may be extraordinarily fulfilling to the former lead pastor, doing so puts tremendous pressure on the successor pastor who must navigate a number of relational and organizational complexities related to the continuing presence of the former pastor.

It is essential that the decision about the future role of an exiting long-term pastor be the first matter addressed in developing a succession plan and that if that plan involves his remaining in the church he once led that the leaders, staff, exiting lead pastor are well prepared and in agreement on what the framework for managing his presence will look like. Whatever that framework is must be sealed with covenantal pledges by the outgoing pastor and his wife and carefully managed by the offboarding team, a topic I will take up in a later chapter.

[1] Bridges and Bridges, Managing Transitions, 26-27.