Last week I took a couple of hours one afternoon to deliver poinsettias to some of our seniors, most of whom are widows and who can’t get out much due to poor health. I usually enjoy these visits, but I’m also overwhelmed by the needs I encounter.
One senior still lives in her own home, and expressed regret that she never moved into a seniors residence while her husband was still alive. It’s easier to make the transition with somebody else to help you with all the sorting and moving, not to mention with the emotions involved with a move like this.
She has daughters and many friends, but, she pointed out, they have their own lives. A good friend may visit for an hour, but there are a lot of hours in the week, and nothing can make up for her husband being gone.
I came home that day a little overwhelmed with the needs of just a few of our seniors, and also a little concerned about the way we think of them.
Don’t get me wrong here. I’ve been part of sleepy churches full of seniors who are resistant to change, and that holds no attraction to me.
But I’ve also seen churches full of loud music and jeans and untucked shirts that have the best lighting and video production, with no gray hair in sight. Is that any better than a seniors only church? I wonder. That holds no attraction to me either.
I have been in conferences in which the speaker has said that we need to change, and if the seniors don’t like it, then that’s too bad. Again, I believe seniors need to flex, but the glib writing off of an entire generation speaks to a serious blind spot in our approach to ministry today.
I returned to my office last week thinking about James 1:27: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” If our religion is pure, we will look after those who are oppressed and forgotten, and that surely includes a lot of seniors today. I’m increasingly convinced that we need to move beyond generationally divided ministry and take this seriously. And we’ve got to take some of the challenges they’re facing and figure out how we can visit them in their afflictions and actually help.
If we write off the seniors, James says, we’ve failed. That’s a pretty big deal.
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Ah, LOVE this post. Thank you for writing it, Darryl. I have had one similar brewing after getting irked by something a Facebook friend posted a few weeks ago about the “old people” not liking the loud music in heaven either.
Thanks for saying it well, and biblically.
This is a wonderful post. Whenever I visit a church, I secretly scope out the congregation and look for “gray hair.” If I don’t see any, I am suspect! We cannot afford to neglect our seniors. They are too valuable. I personally have been blessed by the wisdom of older saints — not to mention reaped the benefit of their prayers. Many of the older saints have weathered the life storms that we are navigating through today. They’ve come out on the other side, and we’d be fools not to let them teach us. We need them and they need us!
Well said. In love the older people should defer to the younger, and the younger to the older. The tastes of both should be included as decisions are made. The young people in our churches should also develop relationships with older people to benefit from their wisdom, to form friendships, and to meet the needs of the older people. There are a lot of older people who don’t know Jesus, just as there are younger people. They see the end of their days approaching, will they listen more to the gospel now? Perhaps this is a ministry churches should pursue.
Your post reflects the maturity that comes with increasing years of ministry – not to mention one’s own aging!
The Scriptures have plenty to say about the honour due to those older than we are, and our culture (including our evangelical churches) needs to be reminded of this. While I know that change is embedded in the nature of life, I fear that our evangelical world had far too often sought to be seen as relevant by replicating the culture around us rather than calling the culture to repentance.
You have poignantly reminded us of an important aspect of Christian ministry. Thanks.