Analyzing the trends…one more time.

another church trend  that came out of this “lifeway” study had to do with senior citizens.

here’s a shocking reality:  i’m getting older.   but i can remember when people used to talk about the baby boomer generation…m-m-m-my generation… in such glowing terms.   hey…we created real rock and roll music and television and recreational drug use and anti-war protests and cool polyester clothes and over-the-top consumer spending and the suburbs.

(actually,  our parents had a lot do with creating a lot of that stuff,  but we rebelled against them years ago,  so why would we give them any credit today?)

back in the day,  senior citizens were actually…old.   but not us baby boomers.   real  senior citizens get together in church fellowship halls and play bridge.   old men hang out in mcdonald’s early in the morning and drink their “senior’s” coffees and talk politics and the good old days.   they all get on charter buses and do trips to branson.

it’s possible that a lot of baby boomers will fall right in line with the senior lifestyles of our parents and grandparents.   really…how bad can eating at luby’s and cracker barrel be?   driving a land yacht  actually has a plus side…you can play pinball with just about anything and come out of it unscathed.   and don’t get me started on the multitude of places that give “senior discounts”.

but for me…and i think a lot of my kind…that’s not going to be enough.

back in the day,  i used to get job offers from churches to come and be their youth minister.   or to work at bible colleges or cool para-church ministries.   some even used to call and want me to interview for senior minister positions.   i always used to wonder what those church leaders were smoking.   nowdays,  tho,  i don’t get those offers anymore.

apparently,  i’m not quite as marketable  as i used to be.   go figure.

but here’s the thing.   the church offers  i have gotten in the past few years have been to come and be the minister to seniors.   ouch.   but actually,  it’s kind of a cool thing.   sort of.

the offers have come from big dog churches that want a former youth minister to come and relive the old youth ministry days of the 70’s and 80’s with their oldsters.   i have to admit that i admire their thinking.   these guys have come to the conclusion that many from my generation will not be content with bingo and fellowship dinners,  but we will want more out of life.   until we are out of life.

honestly,  tonight,  i’m not feeling like making my normal rail on the consumer church mentality and the wasted money and the corporate model and…whatever.   no…tonight is a gut-check for the over-50 crowd.

are you going to be satisfied to sit on your bee-hind and glide into your golden years content to take advantage of some hard-earned rest and relaxation?   or will you consider every day…every breath…a gift from god to be used to pour into people?

would you consider…just for a moment,  at least…that your life is not your own…that your money is not your own…that your experience and wisdom and reputation and skills and influence are not your own…but they are investments made in you that will lose all of their value if they are not passed on?

let’s not grow old.   let’s grow up.

#investment #old #seniorcitizens