I am sitting at a potluck eating a dessert of peach crumble and listening to a guy across the table drone on about safety procedures at his workplace. My mind wanders. I look at him and think, This guy sure looks old. Why is he talking to me like a peer? Bags under his eyes, hair falling out, greying beard. In the midst of the conversation I ask, “How old are you?”

“Fifty,” he answers. Suddenly, I am hit with the realization that this “old guy” is my age!

A few months ago, a pastor friend of mine, reflecting on his own impending 50th birthday, posted Numbers 8:23-26 on Facebook: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘This applies to the Levites: Men twenty-five years old or more shall come to take part in the work at the Tent of Meeting, but at the age of fifty, they must return from their regular service and work no longer. They may assist their brothers in performing their duties at the Tent of Meeting, but they themselves must not do the work. This, then is how you are to assign the responsibilities of the Levites.’”

Though my pastor friend may have posted it as a whimsical thought about early retirement, I began seriously considering these words. What was the Lord’s intent in commanding such a thing? I wondered. We uphold much of the content of Numbers and Leviticus as valuable. What is the latent value of this command?

We consider Torah instruction on many things to be pertinent. For example, tithing, prohibitions on tattoos, acceptable marriage relationships and clean and unclean foods are all sourced from these ancient books. What about this command to turn from a worker to a mentor at age 50?

As a minister in training, I can’t count the number of seminars I have sat through that exalted the Jethro Principle—you know, when Moses’ father-in-law rebuked him for carrying all the work himself and then had him divide the people up into groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Essentially, the idea of small groups for effective administration springs from here.

Perhaps here in Numbers 8:25 is another foundational leadership principle that God has given for kingdom growth.

Imagine if our church were to implement this idea, and all ministers of the gospel were given church leadership roles only after age 25 and were invited to step away from all pastoral leadership roles after age 50 to let others lead. Imagine how different our global church would be if 50-year-old church leaders didn’t pastor, but instead assisted younger people in leading the movement! What if all conference and division leaders were made up of the best of the 25-50 age group, and after 50 they set aside all agendas except to develop those younger than themselves through a coach/mentor relationship?

As impractical as footwashing is, we do it because it is in the Bible, and when Adventism was young, they decided it “should be done.” What if the 25/50 rule was our norm because, “though inconvenient, it Biblically should be done.” Protestants round the globe would envy our leadership renewal system! No one would dominate positions of power for decades. All would learn to focus their attention toward mentoring the young so the movement could progress at Spirit speed. Leaders would shine in their peak season of effectiveness and then step aside so someone else could take up the torch. Odd, but somehow wonderful. Also somewhat scary for those turning 50!

What would a pastor do after 50? Likely become a tentmaker! Perhaps they would be partially church supported, as the Levites were and partially working in the secular work world. How transformative it would be for church evangelism to have these seasoned pastors putting their wisdom forward as laity. Really, this is how some denominations thrive, by tapping their business and professional leaders, creating an elder mentoring system, and turning their paid clergy into trainers for lay ministers.

Perhaps this 25/50 rule catches my attention because that is really what I am doing now. GoTential has about 45 tentmakers scattered across the globe, and my job is to advise them. They are “doing the work,” and I, a former frontline missionary, am advising and assisting them. The thought of a seasoned minister hanging it up to focus on the young is revolutionary indeed. Oddly, it was God who thought it up—pretty progressive for someone as “old” as He.

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