Page 2264 – Christianity Today (2024)

Getting older often gets a bad rap in our culture. We color our hair, hide our wrinkles, and lie about our age because in America there is the notion that aging is a bad thing. In contrast, aging is not something that just magically happens to us once we get the letter to join AARP or we start drawing social security. Rather, the moment we are born we begin to age.

How much do you really know about the later years of life? There are many stereotypes that prevail about aging and these attitudes have subtly crept into our churches and they affect our ministries. Be honest with yourself and see if you have bought into any of these myths.

Memory loss is a normal part of the aging process. People are always telling jokes and stories about how they have forgotten something and it is a sign of their age. I sometimes hear people say that it is a “senior moment.” The truth is we don’t automatically lose our memory as we get older. In fact, only 2-3 percent of older adults in their seventies and 5-10 percent in their eighties suffer from memory loss.

Over 30 percent of the elderly need nursing home care. When people find out that I work in older adult ministry they immediately assume that I minister in a nursing home setting or work with the frail elderly. Often the word “old” brings images to our minds of elderly women with buns in their hair sitting in wheelchairs. If we were to take a snapshot today, only 5 percent of people over the age of 65 would be found in a nursing home. That means there are many older adults who are able to live in their own homes, care for themselves, and be involved in their church and community.

Older adults are incapable of learning new information. As we get older it does take us a little longer to learn new things, but it is certainly possible. It is becoming more and more common for retired adults to go back to college, to enroll in computer classes, or to take up new hobbies. I remember a woman in her seventies who took a nine month intensive overview of the Bible at our church, and when I asked her about the class, she said, “Amy, I’m learning so much, there is so much in this Book that I never knew!”

Most older adults are unable to adapt to change. I found an anonymous essay that starts out, “For all those born before 1945. We were born before television, before penicillin, before polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, plastic, contact lenses, Frisbees, and the Pill …”

Sometimes in our churches we think that it is the older people who never want to do anything differently. I hear comments like, “She is so stuck in her ways.” The truth is older adults have had to do the most changing simply because they’ve lived the longest. More importantly, God is in the business of changing people and changing peoples’ lives. When we allow ourselves to buy into the myth that once you reach a certain age you are not capable of changing, then we put a limit on what God can do.

So how did you do? It is easy to let society’s myths influence what we believe, but the church needs to raise the flag and say that we are going to view aging as a blessing, a unique season of life that God has designed in which to accomplish His plans and purposes. Let’s do all that we can to help make the later years of life the very best years of life.

(This article first appeared in Christian Standard.)

I am often asked the question, “If you were starting a senior adult ministry, how would you begin?” My answer includes five components:

1. Finding, selecting, training leadership. The success of your ministry will be directly related to the quality of your leaders. Someone(s) needs to own the goal of ministry/outreach to seniors. My experience is that the senior adult leaders who are most successful have a genuine love for people in this age group.

In research we conducted with 500 churches that had a full-or part-time senior adult staff member, we found that the leaders who had received training in the area of older adult ministry were far more effective—and their senior adult ministries were more likely to be growing—than were those leaders who had received no training. We also found that retired pastors are generally ineffective as senior adult leaders … unless they have been re-trained in the unique issues and challenges of senior adult ministry in the present generation.

2. Getting factual information. Here is a proven growth principle: “Abundant, accurate information, properly interpreted, enables churches to be good stewards of the grace of God and effective communicators of the Gospel of Christ.”

How many people are there in your church over the age of 50? 55? 60? 65? What about your community? How many are homebound? What percentage are males and females? What are the various needs and interests represented?

The reason that gathering such information is important is that effective programs and activities will be based on the findings of your research.

3. Begin with an older adult ministry, not a senior adult group. This distinction is important. If you begin with a “senior adult group,” you limit the potential involvement to those individuals who see themselves as “senior adults.” Many other older adults in the congregation and in the community will not identify with “those old people.” If you begin as a ministry, all kinds of groups could develop; many of which might not even be identified as “senior.” A typical church of 300 members could have three to five various older adult groups, thereby responding to the variety of needs, and touching the lives of many more people.

4. Develop a Purpose Statement. A clearly written purpose statement will be the guiding light for a successful older adult ministry. This purpose statement should be “owned” by the older adult members and serve as a regular yardstick to measure progress. If a clear purpose statement is not established and pursued in the ministry, activities will become increasingly self-serving and self-centered.

The following is one possible purpose statement; use it if it describes the purpose you desire for your older adult ministry. If not, create your own. But in any senior adult ministry—one that is just beginning or one that is already established—you need a purpose statement.

Sample purpose statement:

The older adult ministry of ______________ Church has as its purpose to communicate and share God’s love to those in the church family, and to those outside the church. The assumption behind the older adult ministry, the groups, and the activities sponsored by this ministry is that they exist for the purpose of serving, not being served; of giving, not receiving.

In the pursuit of this purpose the senior adult ministry will emphasize four ministry areas: 1) evangelizing and assimilating unchurched senior adults, 2) involving senior adults in meaningful ministry and service, 3) facilitating the growth of senior adults toward Christian maturity and discipleship, and 4) providing fellowship opportunities for senior adults in their relationships with others.

5. Build a “Senior Conscience.” Creating an awareness about the value, the need for, the role of older adults in the church will help combat the ageism that exists in many congregations. When seniors are seen as assets not liabilities, as givers not consumers, and as targets for the church’s evangelistic outreach, then new energy and enthusiasm will be dedicated to the task.

A senior conscience can be built in a variety of ways; from the pulpit, in the church newsletter, through appointments to leadership positions, by events focusing on seniors, and through special recognition.

Don’t make the mistake of starting a senior adult group that looks like the one in your church when you were growing up. It’s a new day! And they are new seniors! And today the fields are white unto harvest!

When Jesus left his disciples with the responsibility of building His church, all He left behind was a prayer meeting … The world has yet to see what God can do in and with and through a church wholly devoted to Him in prayer. —Armin Gesswein

I’ve been reflective as of late; actually over the past few years. I have heard all my life that our prayer life is one of the most vital parts of this life we enjoy with the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, prayer is one of the authenticating ‘birthmarks’ of a Christian in love with the Savior. It is our prayer life that allows us to be intimate with the Infinite, the Almighty, Jehovah God. What a privilege to have access to the God of the universe, yet also call him Abba. He is transcendent and immanent, infinite, and personal. God inspires awe and love, fear, and friendship. Joseph Scrivens expressed it best in his song, “What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!“

A week at a Prayer Summit with Armin Gesswein, a week in Nigeria and a weekend in NYC with some brothers at Christ and Brooklyn Tabernacle Churches reawakened an old desire to refresh my prayer life and make it a priority. Space will not allow a full rendition of the circ*mstances, but suffice it to say we saw God show up, repented and humbly and dependently asked for His favor.

Why do we always find that so amazing, when He told us from the beginning of our faith-walk He was a God of truth and a God of His Word? That He has to remind us to ask Him for our needs and for the needs of others astounds me! Armin used to say “God wants us to put all of our begs in one ask it!” Fact: when we pray, coincidences happen. When we don’t pray, coincidences don’t happen. Need some things to happen in your life? Desiring ‘awe’ in your walk with Christ? Need to get the ‘zing’ back into the ama-zing grace you’ve known in the past?

Then maybe it’s time to do some bending and be willing to “waste” time, waiting on God. Prayer gets us in touch with the Lord. Prayer also gets us in touch with God’s people. And lastly, prayer gets God’s people in touch with their community and world. It is a touching experience when we touch God and His people—that’s intimacy.

Can you imagine what God would do in our ministry with seniors, their families, and our community if we took prayer seriously and activated our faith? Read Acts 2 to refresh your imagination! Prayer is the tool that will set it all in motion. Watch out—it’s life changing!

“What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Spirit can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer.”—E.M. Bounds

John Coulombe has served for 20 years as Pastor to Senior Adults at First Evangelical Free Church, Fullerton CA.

A team of researchers at Georgia’s health science university, the Medical College of Georgia (MCG), announced last week that they are conducting a clinical trial using stem cells from umbilical-cord blood as a treatment for cerebral palsy. The trial will build on a successful series of past tests using adult stem cells in regenerative medicine.

“Evidence up to this point has been purely anecdotal,” said James Carroll, chief of pediatric neurology at the MCG and principal investigator on the study. “While a variety of cord blood stem-cell therapies have been used successfully for more than 20 years, this study is breaking new ground in advancing therapies for brain injury.”

MCG’s is the first clinical trial using adult stem cells approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and comes on the heels of last month’s announcement of the first FDA-approved trial of embryonic stem-cell treatment. FDA approval generally means enough funding and prior research has accumulated to make a heavily regulated FDA review worthwhile.

While there’s not exactly a competition, scientifically speaking, between the two different approaches, the fact that the government now supports embryonic stem-cell research underscores the importance of ramping up research into other methods (like cord blood stem cells).

The study’s success means children ages 2 to 12 taking part in the trial will show improvement in neurological development and motor skills after three months. Due to previous, non-clinical trials, researchers expect that the results will provide evidence that treatment with cord blood stem cells can improve quality of life. “For the purposes of this study, we’re not looking at stem cells as a possible cure, [but] rather whether stem cells can help change the course of these types of brain injuries in children,” Carroll said.

If successful, the trial, which uses cord blood pre-stored by the parents of children included in the trial, could increase the opportunities to create larger cord blood “banks” that would make matching cells available to more people. Because stem cells taken from the donor have the highest transplant success rate, many parents now choose to “bank” their newborn’s cord blood immediately after birth, should a need arise later in life. However, a wider and more available public “bank” of donated cord blood would theoretically aid advancing research into this type of treatment and help families who cannot afford to reserve their own “bank” space (or who are not informed of the option). There are very few cord blood banks in the United States.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) encourages public cord-blood banking as “an invaluable service to those afflicted with leukemia and immune disorders.” It also notes that there are no risks to the mother or child (before or after birth) in donating cord blood, with its rich stem cell harvest: “[B]ecause the cord blood is collected after the baby is born and the umbilical cord is clamped and cut, it does not affect the baby or the birth experience.”

Ongoing research into cord blood could produce revelations into the miraculous design God put in place for each child forming in her mother’s womb. In response to news about such worthwhile developments in the science, you and I might take time to consider whether making such a donation could be a simple, personal way to support scientific research that affirms God’s great gift of life.

We’ve heard from N.T. Wright, John Piper, and Tim Keller about the doctrine of hell. What do you make of McManus’ understanding of hell and God’s character? He seems to echo the perspective of C.S. Lewis who wrote that “The doors of hell are locked from the inside.” That’s certainly more palatable in our anti-damnation culture, but do you think it’s right?

My 12-year-old neighbor was telling me about his visit to his best friend’s house. The trip was extra special because it required a plane ride from Chicago to New Jersey. And he made the flight solo. No parent or relative flew with him.

I’ve made this same trip hundreds of times, but Erick didn’t know that, so he graciously gave me all the details of air transportation. I began to look at flying, something I do all too often, in a new and exciting way. I viewed it through 12-year-old eyes—the window seat, beverage service, passenger conversation, fluffy clouds, runway lights, friendly flight attendants, and best friends greeting you on the ground.

Erick’s best friend’s family took him to see the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, United Nations, and all the other traditional New York City tourist spots. Because I grew up in northern New Jersey, these were familiar to me, and again taken for granted. Most were on my dad’s tour route for relatives visiting from Scotland. But my young friend’s enthusiasm for sites in the Big Apple helped rekindle my appreciation for them and for Dad’s efforts to share them with me and our out-of-town guests.

It was nice to have my young friend share his special vacation with me. His enthusiasm for adventure in everyday events was contagious. I’m sure this trip to visit his best friend is one he’ll remember for a long time. We tend to store our “firsts” in our memory bank. This trip to the East Coast had lots of firsts for Erick.

Ministry to children provides us with lots of opportunities to enjoy and appreciate firsts. Children’s small steps of growth should always encourage Pioneer Clubs® leaders, Sunday school teachers, and children’s church workers. That growth may show up in successful memorization of Scripture or the confidence gained by learning a new skill. Church provides a wonderful place for children to experience firsts in a safe and caring environment. Pioneer Clubs thrives on bringing firsts into the life of a child in the spiritual area and in life skills.

Because Pioneer Clubs is often a significant outreach ministry for the church, it offers many children the first opportunity to learn about the unconditional love of Jesus Christ. For others it is the first place they learn how God’s Word applies to everyday living. Both are important firsts in the process of faith development. I’m thankful that Pioneer Clubs plays such a critical role in the life of a child. We want to encourage children as they discover many firsts about God and his love.

At times it feels as if I’m rushing through this abundant life. I may hurry by firsts and take them for granted. I’m busy with work, church, and family. My visit with my young neighbor helped remind me to view life through 12-year-old eyes. I need to slow down a little and seek out some new firsts with God.

We’re never too old or too grown up to store spiritual firsts in our soul’s memory bank. We probably can’t recapture the spiritual high we felt when we first became Christians, but we can seek out ways to refresh and renew the soul. That’s one of my goals for this Lenten season.

See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us—even eternal life.1 John 2:24-25, NIV

Judy Bryson is president/CEO of Pioneer Clubs—a church-sponsored midweek ministry for children, age two through middle school. Pioneer Clubs is a relational ministry that helps children come to faith in Christ and learn how to live daily by his Word. The ministry slogan, Christ in every aspect of life, is the foundation for all that is done in club.

“Egypt: Ancient Monastery Called a Sign of Coexistence” read the New York Times headline on an Associated Press story. The Daily Star of Lebanon, on its headline for the same story was even more direct: “Ascetic saint becomes a symbol of tolerance.”

To be clear, it’s the renovation, unveiled last week, of Antony’s 1700-year-old monastery that’s the symbol of tolerance, not Antony himself.

“I believe today is important because it can answer all the questions of the people all over the world and it can show how the Muslims can stay here eight years restoring and making impressive work,” Zahi Hawass told the Associated Press and other journalists.

As for Antony, he wasn’t quite the symbol of interfaith tolerance. Here’s the opening of Mark Galli’s profile in Christian History’s issue 64, on Antony and the other desert fathers:

Crossing the dry Egyptian desert, a band of philosophers finally arrived at the “inner mountain,” the monastic abode of a Christian named Antony. The skeptical scholars asked the illiterate old man to explain the inconsistencies of Christianity, and after they got started, they ridiculed some of its teachings—especially that God’s Son would die on a cross.

Antony, who spoke only Coptic (not Greek, the international language of the day), answered through an interpreter. He began by asking, “Which is better—to confess a cross, or to attribute acts of adultery and pederasty to those whom you call gods?” After questioning further the reasonableness of paganism, he moved to the central issue.

“And you, by your syllogisms and sophisms,” he continued, “do not convert people from Christianity to Hellenism, but we, by teaching faith in Christ, strip you of superstition. … By your beautiful language, you do not impede the teaching of Christ, but we, calling on the name of Christ crucified, chase away the demons you fear as gods.”

Elsewhere in the same issue, Kenneth Calvert notes that Antony was very involved in fighting heresy. While arch heresy battler Athanasius–who wrote the “best selling” Life of St. Antony–was probably keenly eager to note the ascetic’s kinship on fighting Arianism and other flawed theologies, Athanasius’s testimony is worth noting:

[Antony] was altogether wonderful in faith and religious, for he never held communion with the Meletian schismatics, knowing their wickedness and apostacy from the beginning; nor had he friendly dealings with the Manichaeans or any other heretics; or, if he had, only as far as advice that they should change to piety. For he thought and asserted that intercourse with these was harmful and destructive to the soul. In the same manner also he loathed the heresy of the Arians, and exhorted all neither to approach them nor to bold their erroneous belief. And once when certain Arian madmen came to him, when he had questioned them and learned their impiety, he drove them from the mountain, saying that their words were worse than the poison of serpents.

And once also the Arians having lyingly asserted that Antony’s opinions were the same as theirs, he was displeased and wroth against them. Then being summoned by the bishops and all the brethren, he descended from the mountain, and having entered Alexandria, he denounced the Arians, saying that their heresy was the last of all and a forerunner of Antichrist.

Yes, quite the symbol of religious tolerance.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that a new gospel music museum will open later this year in Chicago, the city where the genre was born.

The museum is the brainchild of the Rev. Stanley Keeble, who has worked with gospel legends Inez Andrews and Jesse Dixon. Rev. Leon D. Finney said it’s “enormously important to have a museum like this in Chicago. Gospel music is part of the faith history of African Americans, as is how they shared that music with all people.”

After last week’s fairly quiet episode, this week’s Locke-centric entry, “The Substitute” (watch it here), moved us closer to answers on some of the biggest questions of the series: why are these people on this crazy island? Do they have any choice in what happens to them, or is fate in control? What forces are driving the story, and who falls on the sides of good and evil?

WARNING: SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMP. IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE LATEST EPISODE, DO NOT CONTINUE READING.

Of course, in typical Lost fashion, the answers raise even more questions as we attempt to understand what it means, exactly, that Jacob identified six of our castaways as candidates to succeed him as island protector, or that his intervention in their lives, according to Fake Locke, has created the illusion of free will while drawing them to the island. When Sawyer mentions that he’s never met Jacob, Fake Locke responds, “At some point in your life he came to you when you were vulnerable or miserable, he came to you, manipulated you, pulled your strings like you were a puppet and as a result the choices you thought you made were never really choices, he was pushing you, pushing you to the island.” But is he even telling the truth, or is he conning the con man?

In his conversation with Richard Alpert, Fake Locke began to sow seeds of doubt into Richard’s mind when he asked why he followed Jacob’s orders without understanding his purposes, assuring him that he never would have kept him in the dark. He played the serpent to Richard’s Eve in this dystopian Garden. While that comparison may not hold up particularly well for either Richard or Fake Locke, it does seem to suggest that we should trust whatever plans Jacob has put into motion, no matter how meddling or power-hungry Fake Locke may try to paint them.

As we considered competing definitions of good, as put forth by Jacob and Fake Locke, we also considered contrasting versions of the same man. The man of faith received a fitting eulogy from Ben: “John Locke was a believer … he was a man of faith. He was a much better man than I will ever be — and I’m very sorry that I murdered him.” The sideways timeline showed us the same man’s life devoid of the hope that characterized his island self. In this non-crash life, Locke dismisses the fortuitous offer of a spinal surgeon’s free consult while his fiancée, Helen, encourages him to consider that it might be something more. We are left to wonder which Locke is better off — the man who resigns himself to his limitations, or the man who dies thinking “I don’t understand”?

What did you think of this episode? Is Fake Locke telling the truth about Jacob’s plans, and is it a bad thing if he is? What are we to think of the two John Lockes?

Long before he earned fame as a scientist and for his work with peanuts, George Washington Carver had endured slavery and the reconstruction era as a man of Christian faith.

His story is told in a new documentary, George Washington Carver: An Uncommon Way, now available on DVD.

“Carver’s greatest overlooked contribution . . . was his love and appreciation for creation and creativity,” says Dr. Voddie Baucham Jr., who narrates the film. “He was a true scientist who was more than a lab coat and a microscope.”

The trailer: