All to Him I Owe

I love the seniors that God has brought into my life and our congregation. They are some of the richest blessings to my personal life and ministry. My personal goal as a pastor is to keep learning the best ways to communicate my care for them and to minister to them well. Over the years, I have created a short list of things that I review periodically as I serve them. For your edification, I would like to share them with you.

1. Change my pace to adapt to their pace. This change must happen in both my pace of movements and my speed of communication. I like to walk fast and talk quickly! But as I serve seniors, I must slow down to their pace.

2. Communicate with their limitations in mind. I jokingly say that I have been cursed with the “Perry mumble.” Between my southern roots and my family heritage I can be soft-spoken and not enunciate very well. Because seniors often struggle with hearing loss, we must communicate louder and clearer.

3. Compliment with sincerity. I am struck with how many seniors struggle with depression and discouragement. A large amount of this is due to their sense of worthlessness or inadequacies. I’ve never met a worthless senior! Our sincere compliments placed in letters, emails, and public acknowledgements can be a strong medicine for the senior with a sad countenance.

4. Consider their season of life, and show them they are not forgotten. One of our seniors recently told me that his mailing list of friends to send Christmas cards to keeps getting shorter each year. He said, “Every year we hear that more of our friends have died!” A word that can sometimes best describe a senior’s “season of life” is loss. They are losing strength, memory, friends, etc. The holidays can be extremely difficult for a senior. The normal traditions of Thanksgiving and Christmas can highlight the memories of things or people they have lost throughout the years. A card that reminds them you have not forgotten their spouse that died or the gift that reminds them that you love them just the way they are now can be a huge encouragement.

5. Continually give them honor. Giving seniors honor requires that we should always avoid humor that is at their expense. We should always place their needs above our own agenda or preferences. A simple way that regularly helps me in the area of honor is to seek to learn from every senior I am with. For instance, today I asked the question of a senior, “What has been the most encouraging passage of Scripture God has given you since losing your wife?” I asked another man recently, “Would you please tell me about the times you saw God specifically answer your prayers for financial provision?” Both of these questions set the senior I was with up to be the teacher and enable me to honor them in a special way as I listened and learned.

6. Creatively produce opportunities for seniors to contribute. The feeling of uselessness is one of the worst feelings a human can experience. A person who thinks he or she is too old or without the ability to keep up with this young generation can fall into a lethargic, woe-is-me  mentality. It takes a little creativity, but there is a place for every senior to serve!

By God’s grace I want to be a minister who ministers well to seniors! Together may we implement these 6 C’s to do this as a congregation.