Category Archives: Senior Adults

5 words to those who minister in nursing homes

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My brother Ron, age 80 as I write, is still active in the ministry after over 53 years.  In addition to preaching at a church near his home, he holds services at a nursing home. Ron says, “For the past 23 years, I’ve done a monthly service at a local nursing home. I enter, knowing that this may be the last message they will hear and I act accordingly. They love to hear me sing Fa Sol La and I accommodate them. No messages on tithing or knocking on doors but a message from the Word that will help them cross the bar a little easier.” (Note: Fa Sol La is also known as Sacred Harp Singing.)

My friend Charlotte Arthur flies under the radar in her nursing home ministry. Few people know of her ministry to these invalids. Charlotte visits and ministers and devotes herself to comforting these who are in the declining years of life. As her former pastor, I accompanied her on one occasion to visit an elderly friend who had served our church for decades. Charlotte and a friend or two had pulled the strings to get Cleve Davenport into that nursing home where he was being cared for night and day. I asked her how she got started in this work.

“When I was six years old,” she said, “my mother took me with her to visit people in nursing homes.  So, I’ve done it all my life.”  She paused and said, “I love it.”

Here are five statements on nursing home ministry to encourage you.

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The last temptations of the aged

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“They will still bear fruit in old age; they will be full of sap and very green….” (Psalm 92:14)

Can I tell you something odd?

Today, as I was surfing through the program containing all the articles in this website from over a dozen years of blogging, I came across an unfinished draft of one called “the last temptations of the aged.”  I breezed right past it, in search of something else I was looking for.

A moment later, I was back.  That was an intriguing title, I thought.  Must have started that article a year or more back. Wonder what it says.

After reading it, I deleted the entire thing.

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Should the retired pastor remain in that church?

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“I’m retired and wondering if I need to join another church. The present pastor doesn’t quite seem to know how to relate to me. I feel I’m in the way around here. So, I’m wondering: should the retired pastor join another church or can he remain in the one where he has invested so many years of his life?”

My answer: That depends.

The pastor asking this added: “Have you ever written on that subject?”

Not until now.

He said, “I feel so awkward, like I’m in the way.”

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7 things newly retired preachers need to do.

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(Do not miss the post script at the end.)

Don’t let anyone tell you there is no retirement in the Bible.

Church people will say that, of course, mostly in fun. “Preacher, the Bible doesn’t know anything about retirement.”

But they’re dead wrong.

Numbers 8:25 says, “At the age of fifty, (priests) shall retire from service in the work and not work any more.”

There it is, in black and white. I have no idea why the Lord stopped the service of these men so early, unless to give others a chance to serve.

Not that any servant of the Lord I know today is trying to play that card.  These days, fifty is just the far edge of youth. You’re just getting started at fifty.

However, we post it here as a good-natured response to the smarties who insist that “retirement is not in the Bible.”  (Be sure to smile when quoting Numbers 8:25.)

At any rate, it is entirely possible to retire from pastoring a church but to remain in ministry. In fact, that’s how it’s done.

We are always on duty for the Lord, whether anyone employs us or pays us a salary or not.

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Getting old: What Robin Williams feared, we all do

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“I said to him afterward, ‘Hey, are you O.K.?’ And he said something like, ‘It’s no fun getting old.  And I am so (freaking) old.’ But he said it in one of his funny voices, like he was some ancient old guy.  Like it was a joke.”  –A story told by an unnamed colleague on the set of Robin Williams’ television series “The Crazy Ones.” During a break in the shooting, Williams had gone off and sat by himself.  He looked exhausted and sad.

It’s no joke, this business of getting old.

The August 25, 2014 issue of TIME devotes the last half-dozen pages to the life and art of Robin Williams, the comic genius who ended his own life last week.

I thought when I first heard the news and before reading anything about his chronic depression and repeated addictions that he feared getting old and decided to abort that process.  Nothing I’ve read or heard since has changed that opinion.

No one should interpret any of this as my attempt to psychoanalyze Mr. Williams.  Obviously, his situation–the circumstances that led him to make the decision to end his life on his own terms–was complicated by a thousand factors, as would be true of any of the rest of us. Someone said he was in the early stages of Parkinson’s.

I understand about the fear of getting old.

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How to stay youthful all the way home

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“They will still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green….” (Psalm 92:14).

It occurs to me that there is one article I can write which Rick Warren cannot (not yet anyway), which Thom Rainer is not ready to write, and which some people couldn’t come up with if their lives depended on it.

“How to be young in old age.”

I’m in that “old age” period, I suppose. Man, it hurts to admit that. But then again, as they say, considering the alternative, I’m good with being 74.

And, I remind myself, I have done funerals for a lot of good people who would have given everything to live this long and see their children married and their grandchildren grow up. So, I am blessed and I thank the Lord.

If you are, thirty, let’s say, and reading this, then I suggest you stop and consider how you are feeling at this very moment. Well, that’s how I feel. I feel great, clear-headed, alert, alive, joyful, without a pain or ache in my body.  Believe me, I am thankful.

That’s not the youthful part, though. When senior adults talk about being youthful, in most cases they’re not speaking of their libido or their athletic prowess. They’re talking about their spirit, their attitude.

And, from the reports of those who know me, I qualify.

So, therefore, let’s give it a try.  How to stay youthful in old age. My top 10 ways….

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Autumn: My favorite time of the year and of life

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The title of this piece came from my buddy Jim Graham of Atlanta in a recent email.  We’re close to the same age and appreciate so many of the same things–our Lord, our families, our country, our friends, and retirement living. We both love stimulating conversation, to spend an evening with a good book, to take a walk in the park as the sun is setting, and to listen to a good symphony or the harmony of the Everly Brothers.

Jim and I are both enjoying our Autumns.

Everyone knows about autumn as a time of the year.  And who doesn’t love that?

Many people agree with Jim and me that autumn is also the best time of life.  Consider some ways in which these days–Jim and I are in our early to mid 70s, just spring chickens!–are the very best….

1) We don’t have to go to work.  (I am well aware that many seniors do have to work because of a thousand factors, and my heart goes out to them. But most people our ages are fully retired, and if they work, it’s only to do what they love.)

And yes, I am working. I preach every opportunity I get, blog every day, sketch at events to which I’m invited, do a cartoon each weekday for the Baptist Press, and such.  But these are labors of pure love.

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Our favorite seniors in Scripture

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“Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance….” (Titus 2:2)

Abraham. Moses. Caleb.Joshua. Barzillai. Simeon.

These godly old people interest us and instruct us.  They inspire us and inform us. And intimidate us?  (Smiley-face goes here.)  Maybe, just a little.

They did so well under extreme conditions.

Now, we’re not just praising them because they lived a long time and got their names in the Holy Scriptures. There are other oldsters in the Word who don’t necessarily make that list of champions.

–There is Eli, the high priest, who told little Samuel to go back to bed and listen for God’s voice, but who did a lousy job raising his sons and turning them loose with God’s people without holding them accountable.

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10 things seniors need to hear again and again and….

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“Remind them of these things…” (2 Timothy 2:14)

All right, here’s the deal.

You’re getting up in years and all those fears you thought you had nailed to the cross decades ago begin reappearing.  Where did these come from, you wonder.

Old memories of sins forgiven (and of which you are ashamed) crop up and nag you.  You worry about dying. Subtle doubts about the most elemental teachings in the Christian faith pull at you.What if this is all a sham, if the Bible is not true, if you were fooled.

You’re normal.

However, you need to get back on track. Otherwise, your fears and worries could throw you off course and hurt you just when you are most vulnerable and will be needing faith the most.

I’ve heard that tightrope walkers are most in danger toward the end of their walk. They have defied death in crossing the width of the circus tent on that thin wire, and now they are almost to the end.  If they let down their guard now and relax, they could lose their concentration and a misstep would plunge them to their death.

This is no time to lose your focus, senior saint.

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The only thing your church’s seniors have in common is years.

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“They will still yield fruit in old age….” (Psalm 92:14)

In a church where I was the guest speaker recently, the minister announced,”Today is Senior Sunday. We want to honor all our senior adults!” So far, so good. Then, he really did it.

“If you are age 50 and above, you are a senior adult.”

What! My oldest son reached that age last February.  If he’s a senior adult, then what does that make me?  I wasn’t even ready to admit that I’ve become one!

Then, the next church where I spoke, the minister told the congregation, “Who is a senior adult? We will let each of you make your own decision about that.”  Ah, a wise man.

Anyone who would work with the seniors in church needs to get straight on some matters up front.

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