Forty-seven years of full-time pastoral ministry — that was the record of Pastor Jones (not his real name) when retirement finally came. And all those years had been given to only three churches.
When Pastor Jones graduated from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the late 1950s, he was called to what people at the time considered a good country church in Alabama. Sunday School attendance was strong. The buildings were in good shape. The community was stable. And the church wanted to take care of its pastor. Along with a salary and pastorium, the church included $400 a year in his retirement program through the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Annuity Board (now GuideStone Financial Resources). That is what the convention suggested, and that is what the church did.
Pastor Jones served that church for almost 20 years. He worked hard and was known as a good preacher who loved his people. But his pastoral skills could not compensate for the people who moved out of the community. Every year, the church baptized new believers but more members died than were added to the church roll. The budget seemed to grow by about the same amount as expenses, so there was little new money to support the pastor. Retirement contributions remained at $400 a year.
In his mid-40s, Pastor Jones was called to a first Baptist church in a small town two counties away from his rural church. First Baptist had sold its pastorium, so it agreed to help him buy a house but helping with the house meant it could not provide anything for his retirement.
Again it was a happy ministry. Pastor Jones’ care for people and his Bible-teaching ability endeared him to members. And he became well known in the small community, even serving on the local school board.
Nearing his 60th birthday, Pastor Jones started thinking about retirement. His home was almost paid for, and he and his wife had built up some savings, but they had not been able to plan for retirement. Raising a family seemed to take all they could make. The answer was simple: He would have to continue serving as a pastor well past the normal retirement age. That meant he would have to find another church, because he would not be able to keep up with the physical demands of ministry in his current church and community for another decade or more. It was better to act now, he reasoned, than to wait until a crisis developed.
God led Pastor Jones to a church in a neighboring town. It was a smaller situation where life was a little slower. He would not have as many community demands as he did as pastor of First Baptist Church. He could work out of his strengths: caring for people and teaching the Bible.
It was a good 12 years at the church — the one from which Pastor Jones retired. He and his wife were frugal. They pinched pennies, trying to make up for the lack of preparation for retirement, but medical bills were a growing concern as they both faced unanticipated health challenges.
After his 72nd birthday passed, Pastor Jones knew it was time to retire. His house was paid for. He had some savings. He hoped he could do supply preaching in the community to help financially, but he knew it was time for him to retire from full-time pastoral work.
Pastor Jones soon learned that after one has been retired about six months, invitations begin to dry up. Churches want to hear from young men with energy and vision more than listen to older men tempered by experience and wisdom. And then the Great Recession hit. Those savings he had counted on, those investments that were supposed to help him financially, all dropped precipitously. He was left with barely enough to buy food. Paying utility bills was a challenge. There was not enough money for medicines or other expenses.
That is when concerned friends brought his situation to the attention of GuideStone, the SBC agency that helps pastors and others prepare for retirement and provides other financial services.
GuideStone’s Mission:Dignity (formerly Adopt An Annuitant) is a program designed to help retired pastors and their widows. In fact, almost 2,100 retired pastors or their widows with critical financial needs now receive supplemental financial support through the program.
Pastor Jones’ situation was carefully reviewed and documented. Thankfully he met the guidelines of the program and now, in his late 70s, receives a monthly financial supplement to help pay utilities and other necessary expenses.
Many retired church workers do not meet the guidelines, meaning no help can be given to them. They live from month to month with the challenge of making too little money stretch too far.
Whose fault is it that Pastor Jones ended 47 years of full-time pastoral service without adequate resources for retirement? No one’s and everyone’s. In the 1950s, the SBC urged churches to put $400 a year in a pastor’s retirement fund. Later the SBC quit using dollar amounts and urged churches to put an amount equal to 10 percent of a pastor’s salary into his retirement fund. Some listened. Most did not.
State conventions encouraged churches to provide a retirement account for pastors and other church workers by providing protection benefits (life insurance, disability, etc.) for those people enrolled in the church annuity program. Again some churches put in only the minimum to get the “free” benefits from the state convention.
Churches know that as employers, they have a responsibility to their pastors and other staff members. But when budgets are tight, churches frequently balance them on the backs of staff members by cutting salaries and benefits, including retirement. How many churches cut staff portions of the budget before missions, for example?
A few churches are just plain stingy. They want to buy their pastors as cheaply as possible, so they refuse to provide medical insurance, life insurance, retirement or other benefits.
Pastor Jones and others like him also are responsible. It may seem noble to forgo raises or decline retirement support at the time, but how does it feel years later when there aren’t enough resources to pay bills or necessary living expenses? God expects all of us to prepare for the future.
Churches, pastors and other staff members need to encourage each other in doing good, including preparing for retirement. Every church budget should include adequate support for the pastor and staff members for today and tomorrow.
If all encourage each other, then perhaps the day will come when good and godly men like Pastor Jones with 47 years of faithful service to churches will not come to the later chapters of life without adequate resources to support them.
Until that time comes, thank God for Mission:Dignity, for those who contribute to make the fund possible and the help it provides for needy pastors and their widows.
For more information, visit www.missiondignitysbc.org.
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