Pastors leave churches. This is not new news. In fact, on average, every four years pulpits turnover in the American church. This painful reality has been addressed ad nauseam from the position of those who sit in neatly curated rows in local congregations. This concern is real. I don’t demean the crisis of pastoral ladder climbing. But there is another side.

Certainly, some are leaving for greener pastures and bigger brands, but most pastors I know are faithful men/women who love God and simply want to serve Him with their lives. So how are pastors to know if they are leaving a church for the right reasons? A higher salary and larger audience cannot be the primary lens in which pastoral opportunity is viewed. So, how then? Let me offer four positions that allow a pastor to leave one position for another while—at the same time—walk in integrity and honor to the One who called him.

1. God calls you

There are clear places in the scripture where God calls a person from one place to another (Abram, Moses, Joseph, Philip, Paul). This can happen in clear, defining ways. God can speak in prayer, visions, dreams, and impressions. Sometimes he will bring a prophetic word through a stranger. More often, however, an uneasiness in soul lingers. A pastor feels disconnected from his people; the passion for that particular city dissipates. These are all indicators that God may be preparing a pastor for a move.

2. You will thrive in a different place

The appropriate illustration is one of a healthy plant in soil unsuited for its roots. By simply moving the plant from one spot in the yard to another can make all the difference in the fruit produced. A little less acidity in the soil or a bit more sunlight will cause expedited growth. This is true of pastors as well. A healthy pastor can be planted in the wrong place. He/she can still be healthy and, frankly, fruitful for long seasons. But in uprooting this pastor and planting him in a different place, with a different people may cause him to thrive in ways that were unimaginable in the previous location.

3. Your church will thrive under new leadership/your season is over

There is a season for everything (Ecc. 3)—even for pastoral tenure. Those who take the challenge of pastoring for long seasons for the sake of shepherding a gospel community don’t think often about the finish line. But every season has an ending. All things are born and all things die—even pastoral tenures. With wisdom, godly counsel, and heaping measures of humility, a pastor can determine that a church will function more effectively without him, than with him.

4. Your spouse/family will thrive in a new setting

Churches are designed to be families, but they often—more often—fall short of this ideal. This seemingly unspiritual and unspoken reality needs to be dragged into the light. Pastors only have one family; only one spouse. If a spouse is terminally unhappy and children critically pained by a church, I believe it is a godly choice to leave one responsibility for the weight of a greater one.

I’d love to hear from you. What are other healthy, godly reasons a pastor has permission to leave a church?