EGN NEWS DESK
(CP) Author and pastor Alistair Begg has introduced plans to retire because the senior pastor of Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio, on Sept. 14, 2025, 5 many years after getting into into the ministry.
“On September 8, 2024, Alistair Begg introduced to the congregation of Parkside Church that he shall be concluding his time as senior pastor in September of 2025,” the church mentioned in an announcement on its web site. “He will proceed his pastoral and ministry work at Truth For Life. Alistair knowledgeable the Parkside Elders about his determination in August of 2024, and the Elders will nominate a candidate for senior pastor within the 12 months forward.”
The elders will nominate a candidate for senior pastor within the 12 months forward, and the church will vote on that candidate.
The 72-year-old Scottish pastor and voice behind the radio and on-line educating ministry Truth for Life has served as Parkside Church’s senior pastor since 1983.
Speaking to the church on Sunday, Begg mentioned he and his spouse, Susan, determined to retire a 12 months prematurely to “give the church “time to regulate to the prospect of and to arrange in a well timed manner for what this transition will imply.”
“It just isn’t precipitous,” he mentioned. “It’s not pushed by something of which I’m personally conscious, aside from my ambition to go the baton safely into the palms of my successor.”
“I’ll have alternatives as time and curiosity and well being [enable] me to be concerned in numerous locations and issues, actually to be extra dedicated and extra concerned at Truth For Life when I haven’t got the obligations and privileges right here,” Begg mentioned.
Begg mentioned through the years, he is seen many pastors transition out of the ministry. While some “stayed for much longer than they need to,” he mentioned, “a couple of fellas have gone earlier than they ought, and really, only a few have been ready to achieve success in doing what we hope to do.”
“I wish to go once I do not wish to go,” Begg mentioned.
“I’m not jaded, I’m not annoyed, I’m not dissatisfied, I’m not disgruntled, I’m not disillusioned, not one of the above,” he mentioned. “In reality, I’m jealous of the alternatives that now fall to the boys that comply with me. If it have been attainable to rewind, if I might have it another time, I do not imply go for one more 42 years, but when I might restart and do a greater job underneath God and benefit from the privileges that I’ve identified, I’d. … There shall be a time for farewells. This just isn’t it.”
Begg requested the congregation to hitch the elders in praying for “readability and unity” as they search his successor.
“It is a superb privilege to be concerned collectively at the moment on this church and to comprehend that God has plans that far lengthen our potential to even conceive.”
On its web site, the church confirmed the pastor is in “wonderful well being” and “will proceed to evangelise at Parkside all through this 12 months in addition to fulfill his talking commitments elsewhere.”
Earlier this 12 months, Begg sparked controversy after refusing to repent for feedback he made in a 2023 podcast through which he suggested a grandmother to attend her grandson’s marriage to a trans-identified individual as an act of affection.
“In that dialog with that grandmother, I used to be involved concerning the well-being of their relationship greater than anything,” he mentioned on the time. “Hence my counsel. Don’t misunderstand that in any manner in any respect.
“If I used to be on the receiving finish of one other query about one other scenario from one other individual at one other time, I’ll reply completely otherwise, however in that case, I answered in that manner, and I’d not reply in some other manner it doesn’t matter what anyone says on the web. … I’m not able to repent over this. I haven’t got to.”
Begg’s retirement announcement comes simply days after he spoke on the Getty’s annual Sing! Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, the place he lamented the diminishing function of Scripture in congregational life and known as for a return to reverence.
“Instead of coming into worship with the specific understanding that every one of this begins with God in His glory, individuals include coffee in hand, saying, ‘Let’s see if he is bought one thing good for us in the present day,'” he mentioned.
“Expositional preaching offers technique to inspirational talks, which supplies technique to therapeutical endeavors,” he continued. “I’m undecided that America understands simply how deep the issue is in relationship to biblical illiteracy. You can not proceed to make your journey via life with out your Bible, not as a talisman, not as one thing simply to be revered in a nook, however with out the Bible as our each day supply of information and encounter with God.”
Begg known as for a return to what he calls “critical engagement with the Bible,” the place the main focus is much less on inspirational talks and extra on expositional preaching.
“There is a correlation between a collapse in our understanding of God and the expressions which are represented within the pulpit,” he emphasised. “You see, the duty of the pastor in coming to the scriptures just isn’t merely to supply details about what the Bible says with a couple of tips to take house, fill within the blanks sort of stuff. That’s not the first goal within the unfolding of Scripture. The need, the longing of the pastor and the preacher and the individuals is that we’d have a divine encounter with the residing God via His Word, that we’d meet God, that we’d hear from God. … We need not hear what Alistair is aware of about this or that. We want to listen to from God.”
“Congregational worship isn’t just a get-together. It begins with God, not with myself in my want,” he advised the viewers, including that when the main focus shifts from God’s Word to non-public expertise or leisure, one thing important is misplaced.
© The Christian Post
