Seniors to Minister

By Cliff Pederson
4 January 2001

Health, Wholeness: The Need For Seniors To Minister

Good afternoon. I want to express appreciation to Luther Seminary’s Convocation Planning Committee for inviting me to participate in this year’s Convocation. I am honored to be part of a team consisting of Dr. Kimble and Pastor Kathy Michael. I will keep my presentation brief to allow time for Dr. Kimble’s reflection and for your questions and comments.

For 20 years I served the Lutheran Bible Institute in California, six years as a faculty member and 14 years as president. The LBI community was “graying” like most segments of our Lutheran church. When I joined the faculty in 1976 our core supporters were nearing retirement age and during my 20 years at the school, many of our faithful constituents moved from “able-old” to “frail-old” with all the attendant challenges.

I remember the day when, following our annual auxiliary luncheon, I overheard a conversation between two of our elderly constituents—both women. They had both been widowed for approximately 15 years, and they lived in adjoining apartments at an adult retirement community. They had been friends most of their adult lives and were members of the same congregation. They were standing together and one said to the other, “I am so embarrassed but I have a question to ask you. You know that I consider you to be closer than a sister and I don’t want anything to ruin our friendship… but for the life of me I can’t remember your name. Would you please tell me your name?”

Her friend looked shocked at this request. It was as though she couldn’t believe what she just heard and a truly sad look came over her face. Finally, after a long time she responded, “When do you need to know?”

Our laughter at this kind of story reflects our own experience of those senior moments, and our own forgetfulness—increasing at it may be. The affects of aging affect us all and the expansive nature of these affects will only increase as we enter the 21st century.

My observations over the past 25 years, combined with current reading and work in the field, have led me to sub-divide eldercare ministry into two broad arenas.

Arena # 1: The Need for Ministry to Seniors

The first arena for eldercare ministry is the growing need for increased ministry to seniors. I will not spend much time on this point today, for I have been asked to focus my presentation on the second arena for eldercare ministry—the need for seniors to minister. The majority of all current eldercare literature and programs, both from Christian and non-Christian sources, focus on the first arena—the need for ministry to seniors.

The expansive growth of the senior community is the demographic magnifying lens that focuses our attention upon this first need. Over the past 20 years the number of seniors who are over 65 increased twice as fast as the rest of the population and this senior expansion will not peak until the middle of the 21st century. The 21st century will be a century of age marked by an even more dramatic increase in the numerical growth of the older population as baby-boomers retire beginning in 2011.

An increase in the number of older adults will mark a corresponding increase in age-related illnesses and the need for family crisis intervention. Home based care-giving will dramatically increase over the next 40 years as the frail-old (85+) are being cared for by the able old (65+). 15% of all seniors today have kids that are seniors. The oldest-old are the fastest growing segment of America’s senior population and most vulnerable to the challenges we associate with old age—widowhood, declining health, and the difficulty of going about daily life without assistance.

It is projected that by 2015 the largest population group in the United States will be single women 85 years old and older. Fifteen years later, by 2030, our nation will have a greater number of adults over 65 than youth under 18. There will be about 70 million older persons, more than twice the number in 1994, and many of these older persons will be over 90.

Mass aging and the large group of functionally old-old will be a marked difference for the 21st century. For the sake of comparison, in 1920 for every 100 individuals who were between 60 and 64 there were only 21 who were 80 years or older. However, by 2030 for every 100 individuals 60-64 there will be 80 people in their 90’s. And it doesn’t take great powers of observation to notice that many of you will be among them—and some of you will arrive at age 90 ahead of this schedule.

In light of our recent national experience, allow me to make one trivial point of application from this data. According to the U.S. Census Bureau and the 2000 census, 18.5% of the entire U. S. population in 2025 will be 65 years old or older. That is greater than the current percentage of retired people living in Florida (which is only 18.1%). Therefore, by the 2024 national election we will have hanging and dimpled chads all over this country not only in Palm Beach…and that will be the very least of our problems.

Well that’s a quick summary of the first sub-division of eldercare ministry…the need for ministry to seniors. Earlier I noted that the majority of all current literature and programs in eldercare ministry focuses on this first need. While this is true, it must also be said that we have not focused upon this need nearly enough.

Every individual, family, congregation and judicatory needs to engage in a guided assessment that helps them prioritize the eldercare needs to which they should give attention. Healthy, active, growing congregations in the 21st century need to gather information on their senior community and families of seniors. What short and long range plans should be implemented as they face the challenges of aging in the 21st century? What facility, budget and staffing considerations need to be implemented? What ecumenical cooperation and networking among congregations is possible as they fulfill their commission as Christ’s apostles, sent-ones, shaliachs or representatives of healing in the 21st century?

This convocation has brought together many innovative eldercare ministries. For example, Normandale Lutheran in Edina, MN, under the visionary leadership of Pastor David Holm, began a Ministry of Healing and Wholeness in cooperation with Lutheran Brotherhood, Lutheran Social Service and Fairview Southdale Hospital. Jean Sigford is the full-time director of the program which is now into its 4th or 5th year. I mention this ministry as one example of cutting-edge congregational approaches that seeks to meet the needs of seniors in the congregation and in their surrounding community.

Arena # 2: The Need for Seniors to Minister

The second arena for eldercare ministry is the growing need within our church and communities for seniors to minister. If the first arena (the need for ministry to seniors) has to do with health and other issues related to senior needs; then this second arena has to do with wholeness and other issues related to God’s purpose, calling, spiritual gifts, commissioning and ministry for seniors.

As we enter this second arena many questions present themselves. What is God’s calling and purpose for older Christians? What relational and functional role should older Christians have within our congregations? What are the implications for congregational ministry when we consider the generation gap of the 21st century—the new-young and the old-old?

During the remainder of my time, I will focus on two broad, encompassing purposes that God has for seniors. First, it is God’s purpose that older Christians train the church to honor and fear God.

Throughout the Bible, the role of older men and women of faith, both in Israel and the Church, was essential to the community’s understanding and rootedness in God. Older saints were not merely purveyors of good advice because they had been around the block more than once, they were the ones who trained the community how to enter the presence of God. Listen to Leviticus 19:32, You shall rise up before the grayheaded, and honor the face of an aged, and you shall revere your God: I am the Lord. Our posture in the presence of age is connected with our honor of God’s nature. John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis and a seminary classmate of mine, comments as follows concerning this text:

Customs of respect and deference to older people are rooted in God and the fear of God. And the loss of these manners of respect from baby-boomers and teenagers is directly related to their small view of God and the contemporary foreignness of the idea of the fear of God. If God has become a buddy, you can hardly expect people to stand when an old man enters the room.

The Apostle Paul learned the lesson of honoring the elderly and passed the admonition on to young Timothy: Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity Paul clearly distinguishes between how we should treat younger and older women and men.

Promoting the distinction of age is surprising because elsewhere the Apostle Paul teaches that distinctions within the body of Christ have been eliminated. For all who are in Christ there is no caste system. However, within the Scripture there is a continuing recognition and affirmation of the distinction of age. This should not go without notice. The way we treat older Christians is a test of our faith maturity and our understanding of God’s divine will. Older Christians are essential for congregational health.

The community of faith, in both Old and New Testaments, learns how to honor and fear God by honoring the men and women who have born his image to old age. Consequently, showing honor to the elderly is not merely arbitrary, old-fashioned manners of a by-gone age. Rather, honoring the elderly has a pedagogic objective of divine purpose—to train us to honor and fear God.

The second encompassing purpose and call of God for older Christians is that they remain engaged in active ministry at all stages of life…including all stages of retirement. We must remember, God’s call to ministry is not age specific.

The fact is that more and more Americans retire at younger ages. While 1/3 of baby-boomers will reach age 65 with insufficient assets to retire and consequently will have to work longer before they can retire, another third of all boomers will have the necessary assets to retire early. The median age at retirement for men has fallen from 74 in 1910 to 63 in 1999 and this will drop even further in the 21st century.

The U.S. Census Bureau profiles the top one-third of future retirees as follows: “With higher levels of education, the older population of the future is likely to be better off, both physically and financially, than the current population ages 65 and older.” For many, this extended period of good health and corresponding ability will last for 25-30 years with the beginning 15-20 years considered to be active retirement, which Judith Treas of the Population Reference Bureau identifies as “an idealized lifestyle that encompasses social engagements, travel, hobbies, volunteer activities, independent living, Sunbelt migration, and even part-time jobs.”

The challenge for healthy congregations in the 21st century will be to engage in active ministry those who are in active retirement. At the turn of the 20th century the average man in America spent only 3% of his lifetime in retirement. In the 21st century it will not be uncommon for both men and women to spend one-fourth to one-third of their lifetime in retirement and much of this will be in active retirement.

Again we ask, “What is God’s calling and purpose for older Christians who are either in active retirement or in the frail years of old age or somewhere in between? And a follow-up question is really the question of the hour, “Do the expectations of the church for older Christians recognize and honor God’s purpose and calling?”

It is precisely here, I believe, that the church is weakest. For the most part older Christians do not feel adequately appreciated and challenged. The structures within their congregations no longer have a place for them. The programs of the church do not have senior participants in mind…except for the stewardship program which is often the sole exception. And the educational offerings are not designed to meet the needs of those who are ambushed at sunset.

Let me give you five examples:

1. Many congregations have staff and committees to direct and oversee age-related ministries from pre-school through college. We also have staff and committee structures to direct program-related ministry like music, worship, small groups, etc. But few congregations have staff or a committee structure for senior ministry…even though in most of our congregations we have more seniors than youth. Either through neglect or intention, seniors are left to fend for themselves.

2. Of all judicatories I have visited, Lutheran and non-Lutheran, only one had Senior Ministry as an assigned staff portfolio.

3. The majority of congregations do not have retirement age members on their Church Council. It should be noted that this is different in some rural congregations. However, the difference is not due to a greater vision for senior ministry in rural settings. The difference is primarily related to the fact that farmers are older than the population at large. For example, in 1998 the average age of the non-farming labor force was 38, while that of the full-time farmers was 57.

4. Of all the minority quotas that exist in the church, there is no mandatory quota for persons of age...yet persons of age compromise the largest minority in the church. By the way, I am not recommending the establishment of more quotas. I believe the quotas we have are counterproductive. My point is that the church makes ministry considerations based on distinctions of gender, culture, language and even some preferences. And when we examine these approved distinctions in light of Scripture some are outright condemned and others are regarded as neutral when it comes to ministry. However, one distinction that Scripture does recognize, the distinction of age, has been overlooked within the church.

5. Examine the educational offerings from Church publishing houses. You will find that there are whole catalogs of curricular offerings for the first 25 years of life, but rarely one for the last 25 years. There is a growing need for a confirmation curriculum targeted for older Christians. This educational program would be designed to confirm or re-confirm the faith of seniors with a continuing focus on assurance of salvation and God’s continuing call to meaningful service.

The challenges to the faith of older Christians are often very severe. Psalm 6 reminds us that some of life maladies attack the body, yet others attack our soul. Some of the challenges that seniors face, stem from the physical disabilities associated with aging. Others are related to the steady loss of relationships as older persons experience the death of a spouse, friends, children and even grandchildren. And still other tests of faith experienced by older Christians stem from the perception that they have no purpose for living—they have been retired not only from their vocation but from God’s will. The very souls of seniors are under attack and they need the help of the church.

It may be helpful if we take the prayer of the older saint of Psalm 71 as our guide. He prays, And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare thy strength to this generation, thy power to all who are to come. Here is an old man pleading with God to sustain him in old age so that he can press on with his ministry. That is God’s purpose for all of us… God calls us to ministry, to a full-time priesthood, until that day when he calls us to himself.

Now what could happen if we placed before each older Christian in our congregation the first half of Psalm 71:18, And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me, until…and at this point we work and pray with them so that they can complete the sentence and identify and complete their ministry? What would the ministry breadth of their response include?

And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me until…

This is merely a small list of God’s purpose for seniors, and many of these ministry outcomes will not take place without the direct ministry of older Christians. Seniors need to minister if they are to fulfill God’s call for their life, and our congregations need the expanded ministry of seniors if we are to fulfill God’s calling for our congregations. The church today finds itself with a self-made problem: our congregations have an ever-increasing number of seniors, but an ever-decreasing number of elders. The priesthood of seniors, our spiritual elders, is in jeopardy.

In conclusion I want to make the observation that as we face the first eldercare arena, the need for increased ministry to seniors, we are faced with a world of generation gaps and contrasts. The needs of older persons are contrasted with younger persons. The 20th century, the century of youth, is contrasted with the 21st century, the century of age. Within the literature of this first arena dissimilarity and disunity rule.

However, when we are confronted by the biblical literature of the second eldercare arena, the need for older Christians to minister, we are faced with a world of concord and unity—not contrast. In the Bible, the young and the old are not pitted against each other but rather they are unified in ministry by the Holy Spirit. Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 illustrates this unity as he quotes the prophet Joel:

And it shall be in the last days, God says, that I will pour forth my Spirit upon all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even upon my bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth my Spirit and they shall prophesy.

The Holy Spirit draws together and unites in ministry—sons and daughters, lower class (bondslaves) and upper class, men and women, and young and old. Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. The Holy Spirit empowers all for witness and ministry—in unity. There is no age exception, no age deferment when the Holy Spirit is involved.

The reverse of this is also true and should become a solemn warning to all of us. When there is not a unity of young and old in ministry, when the old are prematurely retired from ministry or when there is an absence of older Christians in ministry, then this is an indication of the absence of the Holy Spirit… at least in purpose.

May God grant us his wisdom as we face the eldercare challenge of the 21st century. May our congregational ministries be filled with the Holy Spirit and with the dreams of old men and gracefully maturing women.

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