Just weeks from celebrating his 90th birthday, pastor and bestselling author Chuck Swindoll announced last week that he’ll be stepping away from the pulpit of Stonebriar Community Church.
Founder of Insight for Living, a radio preaching ministry that airs on over 2,000 stations and is translated and distributed around the world in 15 languages, Swindoll has served as the church’s senior pastor since its founding in October of 1998.
If you do the math, you’ll realize that means Pastor Swindoll was 64 years old when he began his ministry to the Frisco, Texas congregation.
At an age when most people are winding down their professional lives, Chuck Swindoll was only just beginning the last third of his active, outward facing ministry life.
“As I stand before you today, I find myself filled with a profound sense of gratitude and bittersweet reflection,” Pastor Swindoll told the Stonebriar congregation. “After 26 incredible years as your senior pastor at Stonebriar Community Church, the time has come for me to retire from Stonebriar—and embrace a new chapter in my life.”
He then added:
“I’ve not shed one tear over this decision. How could I? I mean, 26 years. 90 years old. That’s long enough!”
Pastor Swindoll has indeed epitomized and modeled “a long obedience in the same direction.” He was serving as a United States Marine on Okinawa when he felt the call to ministry. After being discharged from the service, he enrolled at Dallas Theological Seminary, eventually graduating with honors, including receiving the “Harry A. Ironside Award for Expository Preaching.”
With his wife, Cynthia, and soon growing family, the Swindolls answered the call for the next 31 years to serve as pastor at churches in Texas, Massachusetts and California. In 1994, he was appointed president of Dallas Theological Seminary.
All along, Swindoll was writing books and managing the distribution of his sermons across the radio airwaves.
I had the privilege of visiting with Chuck Swindoll at a National Day of Prayer event at the White House back in the mid 2000s. While walking out of the executive mansion together, we discovered we were staying at the same hotel. It was a lovely May morning, and Pastor Swindoll invited me to walk with him.
We wound up peppering each other with questions, and I found myself wishing the walk were longer. He was humble, curious, gracious and extremely generous. It took me no time at all to understand why the Lord was blessing his ministry.
Speaking last week, Pastor Swindoll said that even though he’s retiring from the pulpit, he doesn’t believe in retirement from ministry.
“At Insight for Living, I’ll be diving into weekly meetings, encouraging passionate young pastors, recording podcasts, and even writing a few books. Yes, you heard that right—just your average activities for a 90-year-old, right? But I’ve always believed that age is merely a number; what truly matters is our commitment to fulfilling the divine purpose laid out before us. I want to embrace every day, every challenge, and every opportunity to impact lives, because one never retires from the work of God’s kingdom.”
The focus these next weeks is understandably on the passing of the preaching torch from Chuck Swindoll to Jonathan Murphy, whose been on staff since May 1, but will soon be teaching every week.
But one of the many great lessons of Chuck Swindoll’s storied and faithful service has been his willingness to be used by the Lord during a season when most others are pulling back. Instead of playing golf, Pastor Swindoll has been preaching the Gospel. Rather than doing crossword puzzles in an easy chair, he’s been crisscrossing the country sharing God’s Word.
“These have been 26 of the greatest years of my life,” he reflected last week. “Thank you for the honor of being your pastor,” said the aging pastor. “I will carry each one of you in my heart as I move forward.”
Well done, good and faithful servant, Pastor Chuck Swindoll.
Image credit: Insight for Living.
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