Golden Years - Week One (Age to Age)
For the next two weeks I will be preaching on Aging. The median age of my congregation is in the high 60's or early 70's--depending on how inclusive you tend to be in calculating it. Like most mainline Protestant denominations, my denomination--the Presbyterian Church (USA) --has long been identified as a "gray-ing" denomination. Most churches in my denomination are doing everything they can to try to "attract" younger people. Mine is no different. There's a good reason for doing so, quite frankly. At some point if our churches don't begin to add younger members, they will have to face a serious crisis due to membership loss through attrition. But there's an unintended result from this necessary action--one that I think is rooted firmly in the way our society thinks and speaks about age. Our focus on drawing younger people into the church (which we need to do to survive) unintentionally reinforces the our culture's view that newer and...