Louise Morse asks if the church is retiring people too early from active participation?
‘When I am an old woman I shall wear purple…’ begins Jenny Joseph’s famous poem, Warning.
For her, old age meant being free from conformity and responsibility. Now 85, Jenny may have noticed a couple of things – one, that 85 is now considered by many to be the start of old age, and two, that being old is not what it used to be.
Unlike any other
That’s because today’s older generation is unlike any other before it. Not only is it the largest in history, it is more active, more involved and more supportive of others. Grandparents are helping the young with their mortgages and child care and, in their 90s and 100s, older people are abseiling down buildings, running races and organising events for charity.
A survey by Age UK in 2014 showed they contributed £61billion to the economy through employment, informal caring and volunteering, £37billion from employment and £11.4 billion from voluntary work. A report by the RVS (formerly the WRVs) said they are ‘the glue that holds society together’.
International Day of older persons
This year, 1 October was designated ‘The International Day of Older Persons by the United Nations, with a subtitle – ‘Stepping into the Future: Tapping the Talents, Contributions and Participation of Older Persons in Society.’
It’s a title I’ve never seen mirrored in a Christian publication. Yet how churches view their older people is hugely important because it either encourages them to be all that God has designed them to be or narrows their definition of themselves. The former leads to active contributors, mentally, physically and spiritually, or passive occupants of proverbial rocking chairs.
Is your church using seniors?
At a Christian Festival earlier this year, my colleagues and I surveyed visitors about their church and older people. There were around 22,000 adults at this event, so we were not short of participants. We asked how engaged were their seniors?
Answers ranged from ‘very’, to ‘we need to think about this.’ We were blessed by a man who wrote that his church’s seniors ‘encourage and support younger people, giving guidance, including financial advice. They reach out to others, sharing the wisdom and gifts and insights from the Lord and his Word ’ (my italics).
A community worker described how their ‘retirees’ form most of the volunteers in their community befriending programme.
Another said: ‘Older people are at our heart. They take all roles within church including pastoral, prayer meeting … everything except physical lifting.’ Which is a reflection of the biblical Levites (Numbers 8.25) and is just as it should be.
Drag on church?
On the other hand, many churches, particularly the larger, regarded their older generation as beneficiaries needing support, to have things done for, or to, rather than being active participants.
I asked a friend how his church reached out to older people. ‘What would be the point,’ he replied, ‘what would they bring?’ When I pointed out that this was an ageist attitude, he was amazed. Because, like most of us, he had been drip-fed ageism through so many channels all his life that he had absorbed it unconsciously, until it had become part of his mindset.
It’s an odd thing when secular organisations point out the value of older people, yet Bible-believing Christians can fail to see it. Dr William H. Thomas, a gerontologist and Professor at the University of Maryland, wrote an award-winning book that has been hailed ‘A seminal work and a call to arms’. Its title is: What are old people for? – How elders will save the world. At one point his publisher advised him not to use the words ‘older people’ in the title, because it would put people off. Most people are ageist, he was told.
Falling off a cliff?
Thomas argues that although ageism has always existed, today’s virulent variety has been fired by the very generation that is now entering old age – the Baby Boomers, those born after 1945. The Boomers were the largest generation in history, and their sheer weight of numbers meant they changed the culture of each decade they occupied. Their student revolts in the 1960s and 1970s saw the rejection of historical mores and values.
They created a ‘malignant enlargement of adulthood,’ and projected a view of old age as falling off a cliff into terrible and inevitable decline; a time of uselessness and becoming a burden. And amazingly, although the biblical view of old age is crystal clear, many Christians have absorbed these beliefs.
Does this ring any bells? I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve heard an older person say: ‘I don’t want to be a burden.’ A typical remark, after a session on God’s purpose for old age, came from a retired teacher who said that at 70, she thought her useful days were over. I pointed out that there is no end-point in Ephesians 2.10: the ‘good works’ mentioned there, although they may vary through life, are there to the end.
Encouraging older people
I wrote What’s Age Got To Do With It? to encourage older people to step into their God-given roles and enjoy all that God has destined for them. When he created the universe, he set in motion times and seasons and the ageing process. Old age was part of his plan from the beginning – that people should ripen to maturity, developing wisdom through a lifetime of experience and relationship with him, eventually taking their place as elders in society.
Older people are here on purpose, and for a purpose. Psychologist James Hillman wrote: ‘let us entertain the idea that character requires the additional years and that the long last of life is forced upon us neither by genes, nor by conservational medicine, nor by societal collusion. The last years confirm and fulfil character.’
So, if you think that being old is to do with a rocking chair and an easy lifestyle, think again. You’re looking through the binoculars backwards. What’s Age Go To Do With It? turns the lenses the right way around to give a clear view of God’s purpose for his seniors. It helps identify ageist thinking that holds so many back, and shows how to dismantle it in yourself and in your church. It shows that, in this new era of longevity, there are opportunities for God’s seniors.
