Leadership Journal

A pastor is wise to wrestle with the leave-decision on an annual basis—a few days budgeted for self-examination, for seeking the insight of reliable counselors.

In February 1999, I made a leave-decision. I informed the congregation I served, Grace Chapel in Lexington, Massachusetts, that in five months I would resign and pursue other avenues of ministry: speaking, writing, teaching, consulting, mentoring.

I felt that my sixtieth year might be the right one to step aside in favor of a younger leader. And at sixty (at least I keep telling myself this), I felt I still possessed an innovative and risky spirit so I could embrace new projects, new ideas, new connections.

When the day came, the church named me Pastor Emeritus and offered kind words and generous gifts of appreciation. It was a good ending. Then they set out to find my successor, and they found a very good one. Today their momentum goes on well without me. In fact, a lot better. That's what this piece is about: leaving a (not "the") ministry, leaving it happily (satisfied about your work), leaving it honorably (in a way that's appreciated), and leaving it appropriately (no burning of bridges).

Recognizing the right moment to leave is among the leader's most difficult decisions. Leave too early, and you're likely to feel yourself a quitter and your work incomplete. Hang on too long, and your good work unravels and becomes counter-productive.

The prophet Jonah once made a leave-decision. On a Tarshish-bound boat, knowing he shouldn't be there but hoping God wouldn't notice, the situation deteriorated.

"Throw me overboard," Jonah cried at last.

Instead, "the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before." Bad decision. When the crew has to row harder than it should, a leave-decision may be called for. For once Jonah got it right, and when he went over the side, things on deck got better.

This raises a bothersome question: when is it time for a leader to go over the side?

Friends in the military tell me that retreat is the most dangerous of all maneuvers. I'm not surprised. It's just as hard to bring a ministry to a satisfying conclusion (for both the pastor and congregation). Discerning the judicious moment is no simple matter.

No book I know dictates the ideal term of pastoral ministry. Some traditions (Methodists in the recent past or Salvation Army corps officers) traditionally thought a two-year term was ideal because the pastor stuck to pastoring and little else. He didn't stay long enough to get too deeply into the fabric of the church or become the darling of the people. But who could ever describe the havoc this quick-transfer system must have caused for clergy families who knew nothing of a stable home, long-term relationships, or a work with a satisfying sense of completion?

On the other hand, my hero, eighteenth-century Charles Simeon (Holy Trinity, Cambridge, England) stayed in one place for 54 years. Many pastorates in New England, where ...