Age of opportunity
Alex Drew, the keynote speaker at an upcoming PCI event, discusses how age is just a number when it comes to being useful to God.
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he Bible is packed with examples of older people living purposefully for God, being respected in their communities, and sharing wisdom with future generations. Abraham was 99 when God promised to make him the father of many nations. Moses was 80 when he spoke to Pharaoh, and the prophet Anna, at 84, was worshipping God with fasting and prayer in the temple day and night. Abraham, Moses and Anna are just some of those who honoured God well into old age and are now held up as wonderful examples to us. Fast forward to 2023 and to the UK and Ireland and I’m afraid older age is often not associated with this vitality and purpose. All too often, older people, rather than being at the heart of families, communities, and even the church, are pushed to the margins and seen as incompetent, hostile and a burden to society. Our population is ageing, that’s a fact. Fewer babies are being born and more people are living longer. So, the number of people potentially affected by these
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Herald March 2024
negative attitudes is enormous. What a travesty for those who are already there and what a bleak future for those of us still heading in that direction. It’s so bad, that older people themselves are sometimes ageist about what they can and can’t do, and over half of those in mid-life consider later life to be something to fear.
The church’s beautiful position Although not entirely devoid of some of this, the church is beautifully positioned to change attitudes and the personal experiences of those in later life. Churches already tend to have a good cohort of older people, and unlike hobbies and interests at home or in the community, church belonging is not cast aside as age and ailments advance.
…often older people… are pushed to the margins and seen as incompetent…and a burden to society.
Counter-culturally, church life also presents a good source of examples of what it can look like to grow older. Where else in society do we see such an army of older volunteers engaged in effective preaching, mentoring, children’s work, serving on trustee boards, welcoming, catering, praying, and more? Older people also have experience and ways of being that elude some of us younger ones. During a year of covering our youth worker’s maternity leave, I saw teenagers drawn to our volunteers who were over 70, like bees around a honeypot, leaving the rest of us kicking our heels by the tuckshop while our older team members shared their stories and prowess in giant knitting and sometimes fierce card games. I learned that teenagers don’t necessarily want to hang out with people their parents’ age or even the age of their older siblings; however, hanging out with people who remind them of their indulgent and unconditionally loving grandparents – well that is a whole other matter!
