Louise Morse offers a timely challenge to the churches
Christmas is a great time to show the love of God and to tell the salvation story.
People who don’t normally come to church will turn up for Carol Services and often to church social events. Church members go to a lot of trouble putting up posters around town and invitations through letter-boxes. The angels must smile at their warm hearts and their Christmas-time outpouring of mince pies, cups of tea, cakes, goodness and kindness.
Lives with no meaning
But, sadly, there are many older people in every community who don’t respond to invitations like this. Research by Age UK1 found that nearly a million older people say their lives rarely, if ever, have any meaning, and have such a low view of themselves that they feel they and their lives are worthless. In a leaflet on loneliness, the Church Urban Fund states that they are isolated because they have the wrong view of others – in other words, they fear they will be judged and rejected.
Some excellent work is being done by befriending programmes where volunteers visit people who are referred to them by a GP or social agency, usually at times of crises. But there’s a programme that has been working quietly for some years now that can be a vehicle for reaching these ‘loneliest of all’ older people at grassroots level. It’s called Street Associations (SA) and has been working for some years in the Midlands. Although it is a secular-facing work, the directors are Christian and their aim is to see the culture of the UK change by establishing communities on each street. When communities are formed, lonely people are drawn in, neighbours get to know each other, and people build relationships. Older people in particular, thrive in relationship: 98% of people surveyed said it had brought generations together and 99% said it had made their street feel friendlier (see http:// streetassociations.org/the-benefits/).
Street Associations begin when someone gets the vision and forms a committee on his or her street. They are sent a Starters’ Pack which explains the how-to and contacts with the organisation. Many SAs have been running for years now. Streets where people once were anonymous and isolated are now communities where people smile as they pass and talk to each other. There are stories on the SA website of people who rarely spoke to others before their Association was started. SAs organise community events and generally work as communities used to work before they were fragmented by modern living.
Obeying Jesus
For Christians it is an opportunity to obey what Jesus said was the second most important commandment – to love your neighbour as yourself. It also follows Jesus’ pattern of going out to where the people are. It isn’t a church plant as such which, again, relies on drawing people in, but looks first and foremost to preaching the gospel: it’s about individuals building relationships. Older people are best reached with the gospel in relationship. For churches it is a missional proposition: if only a few people from a local church were involved in a SA on their streets they would become involved with their neighbours in a natural, everyday, way. Then the lonely older people on the street would see that they are valued and as relationships developed, would hear the Good News of Jesus.
Louise Morse works for the Pilgrims’ Friend Society
