Beloved author and pastor Alistair Begg has announced he will be retiring from the position of senior pastor of Parkside Church, located in Cleveland, Ohio, on Sept. 14, 2025. Begg has served for almost fifty years in the ministry and has impacted countless lives during his time shepherding the people of God.
“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 revealed in a statement published 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 of the church have stated they will be nominating someone for the senior pastor position over the course of the year ahead. That individual will then be voted on by the congregation.
Check out more details on Begg’s departure from The Christian Post:
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 stated. “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.”
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“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 further explained.
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,” the pastor went on to say. “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.”
He then requested the people of the congregation join with the elders in prayer for “clarity and unity” as they search for someone to fill the position.
The church, wanting to prevent needless speculation concerning the reasons why Begg is retiring, went on to confirm that he is “excellent health” and will “continue to preach at Parkside throughout this year as well as fulfilling 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 remarked 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.”
Be praying for Begg, his family, and his church as they navigate this new chapter in their lives.