Many pastors today are resigning from full-time ministry…or at least thinking about it. Many wish they could, but don’t know what they would do if they left pastoral ministry.
As someone who has left the pastorate, I want to write several posts which share some of what I have learned along the way. I will share some of the benefits of resigning, and also suggest some ideas for how you can make a living away from professional, paid pastoral ministry.
Drawback to Resigning as Pastor
In this post, let me state that if you leave professional, paid, pastoral ministry, you will most likely miss it, especially if you love it.
I loved pastoral ministry. I loved the churches I worked in. I loved the people I worked with. Not a day goes by in which I do not desperately miss many elements of pastoral work. One of the reasons I left and (so far) have not gone back into full-time pastoral ministry, is because of a conviction I have that I cannot get paid to be a pastor.
If you love pastoral ministry, and you decide to leave, you will experience a similar sense of loss, and maybe even despair, depression, and feelings of uselessness. I have felt all of these.
I hope that someday I can once again function as a pastor, but without getting paid for it. I am not yet in the position to do that, but am moving in that direction, and over the next few posts, want to share some of what I have learned so far.
Resigning is your Choice
Please do not think I am telling you to resign. I am not. You should only consider resigning if you feel God moving you in that direction. If you do feel this, then I hope my posts can give you some sense of what to expect and how to proceed.
If you do end up leaving, remember this: Resigning as pastor doesn’t mean that you actually stop being a pastor.
In an amazing twist of divine fate, resigning as pastor may actually help you become a better pastor. Your paycheck doesn’t make you a pastor. God does. “Pastor” is a spiritual gift, and even though you may no longer be called “pastor” by people you meet at church, or have the corner office, or get a paycheck for using your spiritual gift, you are still a pastor.
Since this is true, I have found that resigning as pastor actually freed me up to be a better pastor.
How?
In the next couple of posts, I’ll explain more.
Until then, have you left the pastorate, and if so, what have you learned? Are you thinking of it, and if so, what is holding you back?
Jeremy, You did the honorable thing. So many pastors are trapped. Some want out, but don’t know how to support their family if they leave. Others realize they are not leading their people in following Jesus, but in supporting an institution that has strayed far from Jesus. Jesus is kind of the founder or something like that, someone to whom we give passing reference.
I think you love people and you miss the people. You can still have that, without the “official” position. Get to know your neighbors wherever you are, the people in your block, people from work, people at the store, and so on. After awhile, some of them will recognize that you, in effect, are their wise counsel, their friend, their spiritual mentor, the one to whom they can pour out their heart, the one who is there when they’re feeling lost.
The institution and all the people it has convinced it is the only way to true religion will continue to throw bricks. When you no longer take their money and depend on them to give you power and authority about all they can do is call you heretic. Laugh, and then do a new thing. Love the people who don’t dance to their flute. The pied pipers and the hordes who follow them don’t want to admit they’re leading people, not lemmings, and they’re all about to go over a cliff into the sea.
Do a new thing that does not fit in the old wineskins.
After 6 years of being out of the “clergy” I never want to go back. I tried going back to the IC just as just a regular member, but I was disgusted.
Yes, I am too when I go back, but I keep hoping for redemption.
Sam,
Thank you for the encouragement and wise advice. What you describe is what I am working at doing, but I get impatient!
Your posts over at Grace Ground have helped a lot in my thinking and direction during this process. Thanks!
Hi Jeremy..
I love this post..this is very timely for something I have in mind..actually i want to ask your advice for something but it’s a little personal to post here..would it be all right if i email you?
Angelina
Yes, Angela, send me an email! Questions AT tillhecomes.org
Well, I just want to say that I do share your feelings and also your hope for the future. As God’s sons we will always have a place in His Kingdom, I think some of the mayor problems we face when we resigned from the ministry is the sense of lost! But I found myself now in a place were I found the Jesus that I always preached to other people for about 15 years including 8 1/2 years in as a missionary in a Third World Country with my wife and three children (two of them born overseas), the Jesus that speaks to you, the Jesus that wants to make you happy and give you hope, the Jesus that saved me and I knew but not to this level of intimacy. I do see, that it will take time to get back to any type of “formal ministry” in whatever area of the Body of Christ, and I do know now that as Moses had his burning bush experience we all will in God’s timing. Take care…
Moises,
Yes, I experienced that sense of being lost. I still do from time to time.
If I might ask, where is this place or what is this community that you are currently in where you see Jesus? I am very intrigued.
luis fuentes commented on Till He Comes:
pastor moises villeda soy paco es usted que estubo en guatemala frente al 4 cuerpo de la policia saludos y bendiciones
si yo soy