Retirement: What should our approach be?

This article was first published by Evangelicals Now on 13 January 2025.

As we entered 2026, I was watching Jools Holland’s Hootenanny. It’s a show welcoming in the new year with musicians performing songs, mostly with the backing of the vast and hugely talented band Jools has pulled together.

Along with the younger performers like Olivia Dean (26) and Jessie J (37), there were quite a few near or beyond what you might call “normal retirement” age. There was Ronnie Wood putting in a reasonable shift at 78 and there was Lulu bringing the house down with an energetic performance at 77. Even the host, Jools, and his regular singer Ruby Wax, are both 67. They could be claiming their state pensions, but they were showing no signs of retirement.

Watching them reminded me of Rod Stewart – aged 80 – headlining at Glastonbury last year. And Bob Dylan is still on his never-ending world tour at 84. Even if you don’t like their music, you have to admire their energy and achievement. I can’t imagine many people doing that in their 80s.

The thing about musicians is that they don’t really need to retire. In fact, they usually don’t want to retire because music and performing have been their whole life. They often don’t see any point beyond that.

Faith & retirement

In one sense, Christians should be thinking the same way. Serving Christ – performing for Him, being creative for Him, worshipping and praying with God’s people, telling our friends and family about Jesus – is a lifelong career. Serving Christ is a task for the whole of our lives. We must never retire from that.

However, we must recognise changing seasons and the different ways we serve Christ in those seasons. We must also acknowledge the temptation to hold on to our past performance or achievements as the things that give us value.

There are different roles we perform throughout our lives. Most of us will move in and then out of paid work. Many of us have children whose milestones signal big changes in our own lives. All of us will experience changes in our physical and mental capacities through the course of our lives. Each of these changes can give us quite a jolt as we look back on things we now miss. But we can also look forward with hope as we transition into a new season of Christian service.

As Proverbs 20v29 says: “The glory of youths is their strength, but the beauty of the aged is their grey hair.” Having energy and strength and ideas is a good characteristic of youth. Wisdom that comes through age also has great value. Serving when we are younger usually parallels the season of working to put food on the table and, often, of raising children. Serving when we are older tends to mean more time to pray and visit and help with church. All of these seasons are good. And all of these seasons are different.

What about those in ministry?

Those of us in Christian ministry also need to recognise the point at which it is appropriate to retire from particular roles.

In Numbers 8v25-26, we’re told that “at the age of fifty [the Levites] must retire from their regular service and work no longer.” They can still serve at this stage, but their role has changed to “assist[ing] their brothers in the tent of meeting in carrying out their duties.”

In Christian ministry, we likewise reach milestones where our life situations and capacities change and we must take a step back from leadership and move into a support role. This is the stage where we move from paid to unpaid, from recognised minister to back-room prayer warriors. Sometimes our Christian brothers and sisters might need to help us realise that we have reached this stage, because we do not want to be like the singer who, despite the worn-out voice, irritable temperament and out-of-date style, nevertheless keeps going to the embarrassment of all!

And yet we can do all this joyfully, because it’s never about ultimate loss. Whilst we take every opportunity to serve, we don’t find our value in our employment status or in our particular ministry roles. Instead, we recognise and rejoice in the value of the young and the old and those in between, because we serve Christ together as one body.

We know that the Lord values each of us and supplies us all with strength for the day ahead. And we anticipate the day when retirement homes are no longer necessary – when, no longer burdened by the trials of this world, we reign with Christ, fruitfully and joyfully serving the Father for all eternity.