Alistair Begg announces retirement, search for replacement: 'Pass the baton safely'
Author and pastor Alistair Begg has announced plans to retire as the senior pastor of Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio, on Sept. 14, 2025, five decades after entering into the ministry.
"On September 8, 2024, Alistair Begg announced to the congregation of Parkside Church that he will be concluding his time as senior pastor in September of 2025," the church said in a statement on its website. "He will continue his pastoral and ministry work at Truth For Life. Alistair informed the Parkside Elders about his decision in August of 2024, and the Elders will nominate a candidate for senior pastor in the year ahead."
The elders will nominate a candidate for senior pastor in the year ahead, and the church will vote on that candidate.
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The 72-year-old Scottish pastor and voice behind the radio and online teaching ministry Truth for Life has served as Parkside Church's senior pastor since 1983.
Speaking to the church on Sunday, Begg said he and his wife, Susan, decided to retire a year in advance to "give the church "time to adjust to the prospect of and to prepare in a timely way for what this transition will mean."
"It is not precipitous," he said. "It's not driven by anything of which I am personally aware, other than my ambition to pass the baton safely into the hands of my successor."
"I will have opportunities as time and interest and health [enable] me to be involved in various places and things, certainly to be more committed and more involved at Truth For Life when I don't have the responsibilities and privileges here," Begg said.
Begg said over the years, he's seen many pastors transition out of the ministry. While some "stayed much longer than they should," he said, "a few fellas have gone sooner than they ought, and very, very few have been able to be successful in doing what we hope to do."
"I want to go when I don't want to go," Begg said.
"I'm not jaded, I'm not frustrated, I'm not disappointed, I'm not disgruntled, I'm not disillusioned, none of the above," he said. "In fact, I'm jealous of the opportunities that now fall to the men that follow me. If it were possible to rewind, if I could have it all over again, I don't mean go for another 42 years, but if I could restart and do a better job under God and enjoy the privileges that I've known, I would. … There will be a time for farewells. This is not it."
Begg asked the congregation to join the elders in praying for "clarity and unity" as they seek his successor.
"It is a great privilege to be involved together at this time in this church and to realize that God has plans that far extend our ability to even conceive."
On its website, the church confirmed the pastor is in "excellent health" and "will continue to preach at Parkside throughout this year as well as fulfill his speaking commitments elsewhere."
Earlier this year, Begg sparked controversy after refusing to repent for comments he made in a 2023 podcast in which he advised a grandmother to attend her grandson's marriage to a trans-identified person as an act of love.
"In that conversation with that grandmother, I was concerned about the well-being of their relationship more than anything else," he said at the time. "Hence my counsel. Don't misunderstand that in any way at all.
"If I was on the receiving end of another question about another situation from another person at another time, I may answer absolutely differently, but in that case, I answered in that way, and I would not answer in any other way no matter what anybody says on the internet. ... I'm not ready to repent over this. I don't have to."
Begg's retirement announcement comes just days after he spoke at the Getty's annual Sing! Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, where he lamented the diminishing role of Scripture in congregational life and called for a return to reverence.
"Instead of coming into worship with the express understanding that all of this begins with God in His glory, people come with coffee in hand, saying, 'Let's see if he's got something good for us today,'" he said.
"Expositional preaching gives way to inspirational talks, which gives way to therapeutical endeavors," he continued. "I'm not sure that America understands just how deep the problem is in relationship to biblical illiteracy. You cannot continue to make your journey through life without your Bible, not as a talisman, not as something just to be revered in a corner, but without the Bible as our daily source of knowledge and encounter with God."
Begg called for a return to what he calls "serious engagement with the Bible," where the focus is less on inspirational talks and more on expositional preaching.
"There is a correlation between a collapse in our understanding of God and the expressions that are represented in the pulpit," he emphasized. "You see, the task of the pastor in coming to the scriptures is not simply to provide information about what the Bible says with a few pointers to take home, fill in the blanks kind of stuff. That's not the primary objective in the unfolding of Scripture. The desire, the longing of the pastor and the preacher and the people is that we might have a divine encounter with the living God through His Word, that we might meet God, that we might hear from God. … We don't need to hear what Alistair knows about this or that. We need to hear from God."
"Congregational worship is not just a get-together. It begins with God, not with myself in my need," he told the audience, adding that when the focus shifts from God's Word to personal experience or entertainment, something vital is lost.
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]
