Grumpy Old Woman

The Trouble With Old People

Old people – what a troublesome lot they are, eh? I mean if only they would stop singing their slow dirgy hymns and drinking tea and just get with the programme our churches would be filled with vibrant communities of young people – Ooh! Ooh! Young people with families! Wouldn’t that be nice eh? I mean, it’s such a shame that you go to churches in the country and they are just filled with an aging congregation. What will happen when they all die? Young people just aren’t interested in a church like that, they will all go elsewhere to the nice busy youthful church down the road. Old people just get in the way of the church’s ministry to the young by making church all serious and boring. They are just so out of touch with modern society how can they hope to relate to the young people when they don’t even have a page on Facebook.

Hold on a minute
Here are some facts –By 2031 the number of people aged over 50 in Scotland is projected to rise by 28 per cent and the number aged over 75 is projected to increase by 75 per cent.In 1995 there were less than 9 million people over 65 in the UK - by 2030 there may be about 13 million. By 2018 you will be 10 years older than you are now.

I have to say that I am getting increasingly annoyed by the gigantic focus of attention on the youth as the future of the church. Now this may be because I am of course a grumpy old woman but it’s not just about me. Talk to any person above the age of 35 and ask them how old they feel inside and you can bet it will be somewhere in their early 20s or 30s. People’s personalities don’t seize up and calcify just because their bodies aren’t quite as smooth as they used to be. They are still people in there, with experience, knowledge and yes a soul. And who is ministering to these people? There is a real ministry of evangelisation to be done with these people because the church isn’t about tomorrow it’s about today and older people are far more aware of that than younger people because they are increasingly aware that there are less and less tomorrows to enjoy.

Seduced by the world
I would put forward the theory that this focus on youth and on families in our churches is a function of the youth obsessed culture we live in. We are just as sucked in as the rest of society into believing that the most important things about a person consist in how young and attractive they are and not in who they are as a person. We need to get over ourselves and start thinking about this seriously because we have an aging population who are just waiting to be reminded of the faith they have often left behind.

Final thought
And if you still can’t get over your youth focus I will leave you with this final thought. 60% of childcare provision is provided by grandparents – who do you think is going to have a major influence over the youth we are all so obsessed by? Ruddy old people.

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