I see a dilemma brewing in our churches. We have a group of older folks who got saved as young people but are now retired grandparents. But our churches are still very much youth oriented. Evangelism, discipleship, and church planting is the realm of youth exclusively. But older people hear the preaching and their hearts respond and they are still willing to give and to go and to pray.
There is a movement in the world where they are looking for technology that will create trans humans or super humans. Bodies that never wear out. They don't need sleep or even much food. They are science fiction come to life. To an unstable old person with aches and pains and limitations the idea of a super human existence sounds appealing.
The problem for us is how do we support and minister to our aging saints? What can they do that is age appropriate? In Prescott they had a staff member who was brought on to minister to the old folks. I wonder how long that lasted? The immature pastor tells us that we need to act like when we were first saved.
We used to have a small group of retired guys who got together most Saturday nights to play dominos. We used to go for breakfast on someone's birthday. It was not an outreach. It was not evangelistic. But it was fun. They still do that to this day. We were not organized by our church. We were not funded by our church. We were not recognized by our church. But we were all there on Sunday morning.
Here we have a small group of retired guys who get together on occasion for lunch. We are getting together this week. Just for fellowship.
One final thought. It is a myth that young people value the wisdom of the aged.
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