This project, aimed at the production of a text in practical spirituality, explores ways retired ministers can claim vocations of creative personal and communal transformation. Generative and imaginative ministerial retirement involves the interplay of preparation, commitment to new visions of vocation, and long-term images of hope and agency. In short, a healthy transition leading to vitality, vocation, and mission in retirement requires preparation, imagination, and hopefulness. To this end, I will integrate theological reflection, spiritual formation, and practical counsel, grounded in a theological case study approach based on interviews with pastors at various stages of the retirement process: preparation for retirement, the transitional moment to retirement (the final day at their congregation or institution), first years of retirement (one to three years), ongoing retirement (the next ten years), and elderhood (beyond eighty).

I will focus on several key issues in health and generativity: letting go, looking forward and forgiveness; preparing yourself and your congregation for your retirement; imagining a new self; spiritual growth; claiming new identities and vocations; rediscovering the importance of mission, service, and activism; discovering relationships beyond the church; reclaiming sabbath; embracing aging and living with diminishment that comes with the aging process. Intentional preparation and active embrace of the seasons of retirement can be a blessing to the pastor, her or his circle of relationships, and the larger community.