10,000 steps and age 65 are two numbers that have one thing in common.
Origins
Did you know that the 10,000 daily steps rule didn’t come from medicine? It came from a Japanese pedometer company’s marketing campaign back in 1965. It has no clinical basis it was just a catchy round number that somehow became gospel.
The idea of a retirement age of 65 has the same problem.
Retiring at 65 traces back to 19th-century Prussia.
That’s hard to believe but true.
It came from a political calculation, not a human one. The number was deliberately set above the age when most people were expected to live to so that pensions wouldn’t have to be paid out at scale. That was the point. Set retirement age past life expectancy to save government money.
When other nations built their pension systems, many simply borrowed the number. Canada did. 
The result?
Hundreds of thousands of Canadians are expected to leave the workforce every year not because they’re done, but because some false number said so. When people turn 66 we all say “time to retire!”
When Jocelyn and I left our pastoral roles at North Pointe in March 2019, the narrative shaped around the transition was that we were retiring. That was my only regret. I should have done a better job of communicating that we were letting go of something precious and looking for God’s next for us.
The church was in strong and healthy shape. We loved the family of North Pointe. No longer being with them was one of the hardest things we chose to do. There was still fuel in our tanks, but we believed NP could be better served in the long run by younger leaders.
Our Nexts
I was 64 years old. After North Pointe, Jocelyn and I led a team to Israel, I wrote and published a book, and in June I was hired to be the interim lead pastor in Barrhead. That was an awesome 9-month journey from August 2019 until May 2020. We went into COVID together physically distanced.
So, in January 2020 I held two jobs. I was hired as a fulltime team member with the ABNWT District and over the last 6 ½ years have been privileged to help lead adaptive change. Now I serve as Director of Leadership Development, Vitalization, Multiplication and Church Transitions. As well, I am a founding director of the national organization, Church Vitaliztion Canada. My older friend, Gary Taitinger, is the President of CVC and he is going strong.
Active
I’m 72 years in age. Neither young nor old, but active. Being purposively engaged helped me maintain a significant level of mental and physical health. Doing important work is a privilege and I’m grateful to our District leadership for giving me this opportunity.
We know there will be an end to this role, realistically sooner than later. But I want to stay purposeful.
Our youngest son is an actuary. Actuarial math asks at what age is it statistically efficient to retire someone in order to save the pension funds money.
Human math asks how do we keep knowledge contributing, at every age, for as long as someone has it to give.
I hope this post will help you think about your future.
Don’t hold on past your best before date.
Don’t opt out of what you love just because you’re 65.
Keep learning, growing, and contributing.
What do you think? Please join the conversation and post a comment below.
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