¶359.1: Every clergy member of an annual conference who will have attained age seventy on or before July 1 in the year in which the conference is held shall automatically be retired. -- Book of Discipline, 2004.
My associate pastor at my home church just retired (again) at the age of 77. When he reached retirement age, he retired from the Conference and was hired as a church employee. He is a man of boundless energy and passion for ministry. I wonder about the advantages and disadvantages of universal forced retirement.
Should the UMC retirement age be raised, lowered, kept the same, or abolished?
Saturday, July 15, 2006
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5 comments:
... when they pry it from my cold, dead hands ...
Should a person called by God to be a minister even retire if still in good health?
There should not be a forced retirement age. As long as one is willing and able to minister he or she should be allowed to continue.
I think all pastors should retire at 65 with a good pension. I think that if they are still able and willing to operate as a pastor - it should be on the terms of a lay speaker (local preacher) in the local church. They should not be appointed more than one year at a time, and must be submitted to another elder - not a lone pastor.
My desire is that there would be loads and loads of younger people well gifted and able to take on the mantle - but that we should be generous enough to include retired pastors in our church's life.
I believe in a mandatory retirement age but understand that this is also cultural. Because a pastor is not longer an acting elder does not make him or her ministry-less but it does give the new pastor the chance to follow the vision God has given her /him. (with an incumbent pastor it's very hard - esp if old-guard parishioner keep turning to him/her)
My experience is that retired pastor continue to serve their churches, but no longer in a paid capacity or with the authority that comes from that. I think that's good.
There are some who should retire at age 30....
And some who are doing God's work at age 80.
The forced retirement age seems so arbitrary.
How about annual meetings with the BOM after age 70 to determine fitness?
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