Younger Vs Older Which is more vital and why? this is a continuation of my blog from yesterday.
As previously stated in my last blog of which I wrote about younger pastors serving older generational churches, I want to focus on one thing. Age, and its vitality, and how that relates to the church. This idea I am paraphrasing and editing from a theological evangelical writer named Leonard Sweet, he is probably one of the funnest 'old' white theologians i have had the privilege to read while in seminary. I highly check out his books! Any way in one of his sermons he puts forth this idea of age and how that relates to vitality especially in the church. The common thought today from the younger generation is that old people are boring, only keep company with those people of the same age, and who are just outdated to the times and what is hip, and maybe one that is not mentioned but definitely thought, these old people are filling up the pews and making worship or church unimportant or not fun. I agree with Sweet's idea that we have that all backwards today, especially in regards to the church.
Allow me to enlighten you, there are 4 primary stages of aging in life. The first is birth to 18, thats when one is still living at home, and normally still going to church. The second stage is 18-25 is the educational stage, life's biggest questions are where are you going to school and what are you studying. The third age is 25-45 sometimes before, sometimes later one becomes involved with marriage, beginning a family, this is an ambiguous time for the church, some parents want to raise their children in the church so they bring themselves back to church, others just don't find themselves going back to the church. Then there is the third stage of: 45-55, life starts to get stickier there are career changes, aging parents, maybe personal illness' such as cancer or the like where one asses the need to regain and rebuild relationships with the church, when these 45-55 year olds get plugged into a church they usually will stick with it until death. why because they feel more ownership, they have adjusted through lives major turmoils and the tough ones like burying their parents, marrying their children might require the relationships a church family can provide. Then comes the coveted Golden/retirement age 50 plus some adults work up until they die, some get the luxury of retiring and enjoy life in the slow lane again. But what then does a person do in retirement? Where does their time go? yes surely they will spend time relaxing and doing all the fun things they didn't have time to do when they were consumed with career and family. It is also at retirement that you find more people active in the church. They have spare mornings and afternoons to spend at the church going to meetings, preparing sunday school lessons or bible studies, or aiding the pastor in whatever endeavors he or she may be encountering that week. so what I suggest and what Sweet wrote about is that these retired age group of people, these old people are actually the primary people that have and should have the leadership roles in the church. why not?! why not allow someone who has the time to develop evangelistic plans during the week be allowed to be in leadership with out being discriminated on for their age? If we as pastors need something to be done, and done asap, are you going to call on your Mother of three that is a soccer mom who many not get the chance to even listen to her voicemails until midnight? (who knows when she'll get time to return your call) or as a pastor are you more likely to call someone who is enjoying their time in retirement at home, and ask them to help you with your project. I believe that those who are retired and older in our congregations would get great joy out of aiding the church in anyway they can.
So I say all that to propose that maybe, just maybe us young pastors need to refocus our energies on the people we have right before our eyes. Build relationships with the ones who have the time to spend with us, and help us bring our church back to or into more vitality, and maybe with those relationships building the church will radiate vitality into the community and the younger generations won't be able to help themselves from filling the pews, just to check out the cool hip church thats doing so many cool things for the community? thats just a thought, like I said, I want to give credit where its due, these are not original thoughts, I kind of took these thoughts from Mr. Sweet and ran with them in my own direction. I will leave you with one question does this refocusing of energies on our more vital aged members make a difference as the mission of God is portrayed in this world, or do we need to scrap all these ideas and go back to square one of how to get young people into the church?
will be continued tomorrow ;-)
I think that one reason that post-retirement volks can contribute more to the Church is because they have the time, and they want to stay active in their walk with Christ. Studies show that older people that do things and are active in Church, live longer, are healthier, are happier, and are less likely to be depressed. So it is a good thing, ... I think...
ReplyDeleteI may be in my 50s but people in my family tend to live near or a little over 100. While I may be older than dirt compared to Becky, for me anyway, I still have about half my life left. When I was younger than Becky, the US Navy paid me to get an advanced degree in management, my theis was on the failures of management and marketing by the UMC (1980s). Even though 3 decades have passed, for some reason, the UMC still keeps making the same mistakes, and the leadership keeps expecting different results. One issue that has been devastating for the UMC, is the lack of strong identifiable leadership necessary to have the leverage needed to effect the sea-change required. The UMC can best be described as a once large kind of firm jello thing, that has slowly but steadily going soft and melting (if melting is the right word). And yes, the lack of the coolness factor has played a large part... (no pun intended).
The UMC leadership has paid millions to church growth consultants/experts/etc. but just ad campaigns alone is not going to fix decades of continuing doing stuff that just doesn't make any sense. I do believe that internal church politics, incompetent management, and the huge separation between the top of the Church and the people who need it is making the UMC more and more dysfunctional, and its message (if it has one) meaningless. You can ask anyone on the street "what is extraordinarily great about the UMC?" or what is special about the UMC that makes it different from (name the charity)? And you will get some really blank looks. What is worse is if you asked almost any of your regular attendees in the pew at your UMC, you will get just about the same response.
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know their are some fundamental issues that have/still lurk in the blind spots of the Bishops and the HQ groups.