Seniors

Think how difficult it is for smaller churches to effectively reach young people.  It may be a great goal, but the reality is that when the congregation is made up of primarily older people it is very hard to reach young people.  It would probably be a much more effective strategy to reach out to people who are most like the ones already in our congregation.  Few smaller churches specifically target senior adults.  We want to go after young families with children because we think that will help our churches grow faster, but these are the folks who are already overwhelmed with time and family demands.  Maybe we think all the older people in our communities are already Christians and don't need the Gospel.  Most churches would soon find out that is not the case if they contacted even a few senior adults.  In fact, what many churches are learning is that these are the people who are thinking about eternal matters and might be most open to what the Gospel says.  They know they are nearing the end of their lives, and many of them have a lot of questions about that.  The church is really the only institution equipped to answer many of those questions.  Our Gospel message is the only one that offers a word of hope to persons who are dealing with end of life issues.

Sin

At its most fundamental level – sin is death. For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). The fact that we die is not a punishment sent to us from God but the result of our having broken fellowship (communion) with God. God is Life and the only source of life. Created things (humanity included) do not have life in themselves, it is not something we have as our possession and power. Rather, life is the gift of God. It is not just our life that is the gift of God – but our very existence and the existence of all that is. God is our Creator. The Scriptures say, “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
Genesis offers us the story of Adam and Eve in which we hear described their disobedience from God. He had warned them: “Do not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Many early commentators on Scripture were careful to note that God did not say, “In the day you eat of it I will kill you,” but “in the day you eat of it you shall die.” Rather we are told: “God did not create death, nor does he delight in the death of the living” (Wisdom 1:13).
St. Athanasius explains that when humanity chose to break its relationship with God (through disobedience) we cut ourselves off from the source of life. However God did not take life from us (He does not take back the gifts He gives) but we removed ourselves from it. And so we die. We not only die physically, but we have a process of death at work in us. St. Paul speaks of this process as “corruption.” This movement away from and towards death and destruction reveals itself in the many broken things in our lives. We hurt and kill each other. We hurt and destroy creation. We are weak and easily enslaved to powerful things such as drugs and alcohol. We are dominated by greed, envy, lust, anger, etc. We cannot help ourselves in this matter because we do not have life within ourselves. Only God can give us the true life that alone can make us well.

TODAY

Today is the oldest you have ever been, yet the youngest you will ever be, so make the best of this day,

Elderly Gems

Why do we automatically think that having elderly people in a church limits what the church is capable of doing?  These are people who are often retired and have more available time to do things than some younger people might have.  These are the builder and boomer generations who are known for getting things done.  Some are living very comfortably on their retirement accounts and have disposable income available for ministry purposes.  There is much our older church members can do to advance the Kingdom of God and increase our ministry presence in the community.

The problem is that too often we fail to see these folks for the resource they are.  Too many churches are wanting to develop a youth ministry because "the youth are the future of our church."  It's very hard to develop a youth ministry when there are no youth in the church for a core group.  Maybe we would be better off to focus on reaching out to senior adults if that is our current core group.  Do we really think every senior citizen is a Christian and active in a church somewhere?  Most would quickly admit that isn't the case, but we seldom think about that because we are too busy focusing on trying to reach people who aren't in our churches that we fail to see those who are there and how they can reach out to others in their generations.

A member of a smaller church told me recently that they were discussing installing a new video system in their church so they could begin to attract younger people.  I am not opposed to video equipment, and in many churches they are needed, but I don't believe every church needs to make that investment.  This is an older congregation located in a small community primarily made up of senior citizens.  Do the church leaders really think that by installing a video system in their church that will cost them several thousands of dollars according to this one lay leader it will cause young people to magically appear in their congregation?  Sadly, that is their hope.  Would it not be a much better use of their resources to become involved in the community in ways that would be meaningful to the senior citizens who live there that would build relationships between those people and the church?

Too many churches want to put their senior saints out to pasture, and that is a huge waste of human potential.  One of the most energetic pastors I've ever known continued to pastor churches until he was in his early 80s.  I first met him when he was in his 70s and judged him to be mid-50s.  Health issues finally caused him to leave the pastorate, but he continues to be involved in the life of his church.  Personally, I will turn 65 at the end of this week, and I may have slowed down a little, but most people couldn't tell it.  If someone tries to put me out to pasture I'll break through the fence and find a new field to run in.  Having an older congregation does not have to limit the ministry of a church unless they choose to allow it to do so.

Church growth people have known for years that churches tend to attract who they are.  If you are in a church made up primarily of senior adults then develop ministries for seniors.  Encourage your members to invite their friends to be a part of those ministries.  Stop fantasizing about developing a great youth ministry and use the resources God has already provided.  More than likely you'll find great ministry opportunities when you do so.

The Head

So often I have seen pastors leave a church and be followed out the door by a mass of people.  Most of those who leave when the pastor does has been following the pastor, not Christ.  I've seen churches shut down most of their ministries when their pastor leaves.  They just drift along waiting for the church to call another pastor and refuse to begin any new ministries until that happens.  Such churches often begin to decline which may explain why some churches are so desperate to call a new pastor as quickly as possible.

These churches do not recognize who the true head of the church is.  Pastors come and go.  The day a new pastor arrives on the scene he or she is a departing pastor.  If the Lord tarries every pastor will eventually leave the church he or she is serving.  So will every member.  The one constant in every church is Christ himself.  It is his church.  He is the head.  Yes, it is permissible and right to grieve over the loss of a beloved pastor, but that does not mean that we take our focus off Jesus Christ.  If he is the head of the church the ministry of the church need not suffer when a pastor leaves.

If we want healthy churches they must clearly understand who is the real head of their church.  If we want our churches to faithfully advance the Kingdom of God they must seek God's vision for their church and be encouraged to follow that vision.

Hospitality

Most people decide whether they will return to a church within a very few minutes after arriving on the church property. It happens long before the music begins or the pastor preaches. Their decision is based on what they see and what they experience in those first few minutes. If a church is serious about wanting to reach new people it is critical that they become very intentional about providing great hospitality to every person who comes on their property.

Bivocational Ministry: The pain that exists in small churches

Bivocational Ministry: The pain that exists in small churches: The pain that exists in small churches