God’s Care for Older Adults

Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent.  Psalm 71:9

Congregations invest a lot of time, energy, and financial support in caring for children and youth.  Schools and youth groups, staff members and teachers are some of the ways that our congregations care for children and their families.  However, our support for children should never give the impression that older adults are not important to Christ and His Church.

As one who was preparing for pastoral ministry, I had never been on a hospital call or visited a home-bound member before vicarage.  However, visitation and care of older adults is a central part of pastoral ministry in our congregations.  The Church shows Christ’s care for older adults through the importance it places on the visitation of older adults by pastors and other laypeople.  The involvement of lay people in visitation does not replace pastoral visitation, but amplifies the care and support offered.  Our congregations are stronger by involving older adults in the life and work of the congregation.

The Word of God leads us to value life in all forms, from the child in the mother’s womb, to the aged saint at life’s end.  We confess that truth by the action of caring for all of God’s people so that they know that the Lord will not forsake them even when their strength is past, that He will never cast them off.  Our prayer is that our congregations would seek to mobilize older adults for action in all areas of congregational life and when they are no longer able to be as physically active that we still affirm their service and place in Christ’s body through their prayers and witness to others.  Thanks be to God for the blessing of our older adults!

Prayer – Almighty God, You are the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, teach us to number our days aright that we might gain a heart of wisdom.  Through Your Body, the Church, continue to care for all members, especially those aged saints who have served so faithfully; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.

Fraternally in Christ,
President Lee Hagan