Child Like, or Childish?

 "I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread." Psalm 37:25

In a youth oriented society, older folks sometimes have a hard time finding their place or fitting in. They feel ignored, or irrelevant, or unimportant, to the rest of society. No one sells them anything anymore. No one tries to get their support anymore. They are not as strong or as wealthy or as healthy as they once were. I think that part of this is somehow,  we grow up with a fear of growing old. 

This is not just a problem for society. It is a problem for the church world as well. Evidently it has been a problem for a long time. In many towns you can find old church buildings with just a handful of old folks who meet there. In our Fellowship we have first wave saints who got saved a long time ago and we do not have a clear idea of how they fit in or what they are good for.

I am not advocating that we send out senior citizens. I'm not calling for a conference on aging saints.

Prescott is trying to do something. They have a pastor on staff whose job is primarily to care for senior citizens. They have a music scene for older folks who used to be the cutting edge of coffee house evangelism and who have aged out of the whole scene. They call it Cafe One80.

The worst thing you can do is to make people think that the key to revival is to act like a teenage new convert again. Run for your life if your pastor advocates acting childish. The call of the gospel is child like, not childish.

My prayer is that pastors will find a way to retire, and that older saints will be appreciated for their contribution to where we are today. We are here because they were there.