Book outline

In parallel to writing sections of the book, I’ve been developing an outline of the chapters. I've listed them below with the current status of each in parenthesis. The chapters I include will likely change as I write some of them and realize there is something else that deserves its own chapter. I expect that the order may change as I can better see how they relate to each other. I’m also hoping that input from you all will bring up things I had not thought to include. I had a great conversation this morning over coffee with a couple friends that are making me think about some changes I may need to make. As I keep saying, I really want to hear from folks! The more input I get, the more useful this book will be to others such as yourself. 

• Introduction (drafting) – This will be one of the most important sections in the book as it’s job will be to convince readers the book is worth reading (and publishers that it is worth publishing). The balance is between giving enough of the meat of the book away to interest the reader while still leaving plenty of substance to make it worthwhile to read the whole book. It will include a quick look at the weaknesses of the prevailing view of retirement versus God’s plan for our lives. It will also include an overview of the book itself. 

1. What exactly is retirement? (researching) – This chapter will lay the groundwork for what comes after. People have a wide range of expectations, hopes, and dreams for what their retirement will be like. Definitions are in order here, though they are not sufficient to describe retirement given that so many people are retiring much younger and many more are “semi-retiring” instead of outright retiring. Some of this will be in the introduction, but I’ll cover it in more detail in this first chapter. 
2. Biblical view of work (researching) – Retirement is usually defined and widely thought of as the lack of paying work, so it is critical to understand the biblical view of work. This will draw on material such as Tim Keller’s excellent book, Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work. 
3. Worldly view of retirement (researching) – This chapter definitely needs a better title! (I’ll have more to say about titles for chapters and the book in a future blog entry.) The chapter will start off with a little history. Retirement is a fairly new concept that began in the late 1800s, oddly enough by Otto von Bismark in the hopes of slowing the spread of Marxism. By the early 1900s, the idea became more global with 65 as the accepted age. In the US, Social Security solidified the concept and age. Since then, retirement has become seen as a basic right, something that should be enjoyed at younger and younger ages even as life expectancy has risen. Twenty to forty years of retirement is a reasonable expectation and the percentage of years an adult spends in retirement is approaching 50%. The chapter will include statistics (often sobering ones) as well as anecdotal opinions about retirement. 
4. Biblical view of retirement (researching) – One of the biggest challenges with this book is that the concept of retirement didn’t really exist in biblical times. Numbers 8:23-26 is the one direct reference which specifically talks about the Levites retiring at 50. It also includes instructions on what Levitical work they could still do, so it was not what we typically think of as retirement. The Bible does have plenty so say about work, service, and personal conduct. Much of that is applicable during retirement.  
5. Leisure: God’s Gift or Satan’s Snare (drafted and posted) – Most people see retirement as a time of leisure. A recent, large-scale study of the US population found that people 65 and older spend on average seven hours a day in leisure activities. What exactly is leisure? What is God’s view of leisure? The Bible does not really talk about leisure as we currently think of it, but it does have a lot to say about rest, particularly Sabbath rest.  
6. Idleness – The Bible may not have a lot to say directly about retirement, but it does have a lot to say about idleness or sloth. There is no sunset clause that says once you turn 65, idleness is fine. How does biblical idleness compare and contrast with rest and leisure? This chapter will heavily rely on Proverbs and a New Testament parable or two.   
7. Spiritual plan – Most people have a financial plan for their retirement, even if that is only using some online retirement calculators. Few Christians have a spiritual plan for their retirement. I know I did not but now wish I had. What might such a plan look like and how can you construct one? This chapter will attempt to answer those questions. It’s possible that it should go after the next few chapters, but I think it is important for it to be as early as possible as many folks don’t finish books. (Maybe it’s just because I spent too much time in journalism writing to the “inverted pyramid!”) One solution might be to describe the concept of a spiritual plan and then use the following chapters to explain important elements of it. I could wrap those chapters up with a chapter on writing your own spiritual plan, maybe with an example of what I wish I had written. Yeah, I like that!  
8. Start with a sabbatical – One of the few good pieces of information that I was able to get from other Christian books on retirement was from Jeff Haanen’s An Uncommon Guide to Retirement: Finding God’s Purpose for the Next Season of Life. The title is a good summary and I recommend you read the book. He recommended starting retirement with a sabbatical rather than diving straight into whatever might come next. This chapter expands on that idea with personal experiences of my own and others.  
9. Time to spare (and share) – One of the biggest changes when we retire is that we have more time. The challenge and opportunity are what to do with it. We all have experienced taking some time off from work to get things done around the house and at the end of that time we are disappointed at how little we accomplished. Stuff, good and bad, fills the available time. We need to be purposeful about what we spend our time on. Certainly, some of the time can be spent in leisure. We can share that time with our family and friends. (Arguably, we would have been well served to have a better balance of such activities in our lives before we retired!) One that we tend to overlook is service. We no longer have the excuse that we would help with some ministry if we had time. That excuse is no longer valid. I have been helping with my church youth group for the last year and a half. It has been a great experience for me and beneficial for the teens.   
10. Finances – I don’t want this book to be about the financial side of preparing for retirement. There are already lots of such resources out there including many secular ones. However, dealing Biblically with money once you retire is worth examining. Spending our savings rather than accumulating them is a real shift in our mindsets. Importantly, what should giving look like? I’ve heard some people say things like since they have already tithed on the money they saved for retirement, they shouldn’t have to do so again. Or, that in retirement they no longer can afford to give to the church or charity.  
11. Changed identity – Our identity is often tied up in what we do. If you ask the typical person to list five words to describe themselves, almost all will include what they do. That may be as a parent raising children, a factory worker, or an executive. For me about ten years ago, I would have a said (in no particular order) I was an entrepreneur, Christian, husband/father, technologist, and cyclist. (Yeah, I sort of cheated by saying husband/father, but family man doesn’t seem right.) I’m no longer an entrepreneur, I’m good with technology though it is not the passion it once was, I’m more of a grandfather than father, and I don’t cycle nearly as much as I used to. Retirement and age have stripped away key parts of my identity. The key is to use our relationship with God to more clearly define our identities. And, it’s best to start doing that before we retire.  
12. Renegotiating marital roles – We tend to view retirement as just life without the hassle of a job. So, rather than going to work five (or more days a week), we are free to do whatever we want with that time. Especially in the case of a couple where one of the spouses did not have full-time employment, that spouse typically dealt with running the house including making meals, etc. What does retirement look like for that spouse? Does that spouse continue doing all of that while the retired spouse enjoys a life of leisure? Roles need to be re-examined when the other spouse retires. What biblical principles should we apply in those circumstances? Put another way, if the husband retires does he get to just hang out around the city gate while the wife continues to be the ideal Proverbs 31 wife?   
13. When spouses retire at different times – Related to the previous chapter, but probably worth its own chapter, is how to deal with one spouse retiring significantly earlier than the other. How should roles and responsibilities reflect the reality of one half of the couple being retired? Yes, I know can sleep late, but is that a good idea if my spouse needs to get up early to work? 

Possible additional chapters/topics – There is so much that could be part of this book, but I want to try and keep it focused. The following are areas that probably won’t be included, but that will depend upon how long the earlier chapters are. Some of them may be topics covered in one of the preceding chapters. One of the challenges with some of these is trying to have a clear biblical perspective on them. 

• The pursuit of excellence (goals or gods?) – This topic is probably out of scope, but it came up in writing the chapter on leisure. Is it wrong to pursue goals like winning a triathlon or being a great bridge player? The question is bigger than retirement but can come more into play once we have more time to pursue those goals. Obviously, we can make an idol of pursuing such goals, but are their biblical ways of such pursuits?  
• Driver vs. helper – This idea is related to a change in identity. Many folks in their work and personal lives were the drivers behind getting things accomplished. As we age, we often find ourselves in more of a helping role. One simple example is with children. We were in charge of raising our own children, but we are only helping to raise our grandchildren. Our role is important, but different. This can be the case in many other areas of our lives and can be a difficult transition, especially as we become less capable of doing things.  
• Different, not necessarily better or worse – Views on retirement run the gamut from it being the life we always dreamed about to being a time of limitations and decline. The key is to recognize that it will be different rather than dwell on the positives or negatives. An interesting, recent study found that positive attitudes toward aging predicted greater longevity.  
• Health – There are lots of good books on health as we age and there is no reason for me to repeat that. However, it is almost impossible to think correctly about retirement, especially the latter stages, without taking our health into account. This chapter could look at the importance of taking our health seriously well before we retire. We need to be investing in our bodies as well as our retirement accounts. Putting off getting into shape until we are 65 makes the task harder than it needs to be. No matter what our plans are for our retirement we are more likely to achieve them if we have made our health a priority before retirement.  
• Issues of retirement versus those of age – This may well not be a chapter so much as a caveat to discuss early in the book. It is difficult to try and disentangle the challenges of aging from those of retirement given that they happen at roughly the same time. However, as people retire at a younger age, the differences are more visible. This book is about retirement but aging and the challenges therein are an important part of that.   
• Additional books and resources – A list of books and resources I found helpful (or not) with a short synopsis of each to help readers decide if they want to look at them.