Age to age

I grew up in a Christian church where my Dad was the pastor. Our church, much like all of the other churches scattered across the USA, had a very strong emphasis on ministry to the youth. And whether it was a ropes course, a Velcro wall, water balloon fights, shaving cream fights, pizza night, a friendly 2 on 2 basketball tournament, or a car wash fundraiser, we were always guaranteed to have fun. These types of activities took up about 50% of the time our youth group spent together. The other 50% was made up of some kind of effort to go deeper in our Christian faith.

One way we attempted this was on Sunday mornings at church, where each week we were taught the 5 steps being a perfect Christian. Of course, each week these lessons took on a slightly new twist. The 5 steps to… not having sex before marriage… having your quiet time every day… obeying your Mother and Father… “witnessing” to your friends at school… and so on. You name it; there was a 5 step lesson for it.

Another way we tried a go deeper was by doing outreaches. I don’t remember doing very much outreach locally. We were always travelling to foreign countries to “witness”, sing, and dance in the streets. And if you aren’t familiar with this form of outreach just ask my wife, Reona, to show you her hamster dance sometime… what were we thinking?! I often wondered why these outreaches almost always took place away from our home in Atlanta. Maybe it was because the reality of the silliness of what we were doing was too close to home for us. It occurs to me that we spent a lot of time on these outreaches inside and away from people. Don’t get me wrong, about 2 hours a day we spent in the streets singing, dancing, preaching, handing out tracts, and drawing pictures of how to become a Christian for the people who would just never understand without a diagram to help it all make sense. We would then spend the rest of our outreach days behind closed doors perfecting these outreach techniques by studying the bible, praying, worshipping God through music, and eating meals together with our outreach team.

Even in our attempt to “reach out” we somehow managed to stay focussed on self. Our outreaches, even when we weren’t cooped up inside with our face in a bible, were all about bringing more people into our Christian bubble, rather than actually reaching out to meet needs. It seems I was being taught that my faith was made stronger by having more people to back up my belief system. As a teenager, I was convinced that it was more important to persuade someone to believe what I believe, than it was to meet the needs of the poor, the homeless, the orphans, the widows, and the elderly. This is a tragedy, because it could not be further from the truth.

Over the last few years I have read some amazing books by authors who are shedding some light on some of these issues. Donald Miller, Erwin McManus, Rob Bell, and Rick McKinley are all men who have some fantastic insight into what the bible teaches about meeting the needs of the people around me. Yet sadly, and it’s hard to face the fact and admit, I haven’t fully grasped this concept of meeting the needs of those around me. If I did, then I would be doing something about it. I would be living it. But I’m not doing much of anything about it!

I mentioned before that the churches I grew up around in the USA had a strong emphasis on youth ministry. And now I have been living in the UK for over a year, and I can see that things aren’t much different here either. It’s all about young people. And although youth work is a noble cause and should continue, it occurs to me that there is a whole group of people who have, for the most part, been forgotten by the Christian church. The elderly. Many from this older generation are slowly losing their memories of a life once lived. Many of them are dying alone, and without purpose or meaning. They are simply fading away without even so much as a notice. And I am letting it happen. Shame on me.

I am realizing that must begin to make some changes. I cannot ignore the needs of the elderly any longer. I must begin to see this generation the way Christ sees them. They are lovable, and their story matters. I must love them and hear their story and let it impact me. I must help to breathe new life and bring hope, meaning, and purpose to their lives once again. And for those who are dying, I must help them to die well, with honour, dignity, and purpose. And the church needs to change. Helping young people get started on their journeys is important, but we cannot forget that it is just as important to help those who are at the end of their journeys to end well.