The value of experience

As the demographic makeup of British churches gets older, we must wake up to the needs and gifts of a growing proportion of churchgoers.
Hazel Southam reports...

The number of retired people in Britain’s churches is growing every year. According to Christian Research, of the 3 million people who regularly attend church, a third are over 65, up from just 18 per cent nearly 30 years ago. And as the baby boomer generation ages into retirement, that number is only going to increase. Obviously, it depends which pew you’re sitting in as to how many slightly older heads you’ll see, but the national picture is an ageing one. There are 200,000 more older people in church than teenagers and children. And this number continues to grow.

A marginalised majority
We all know that we’re living longer, but are we prepared for it? “No” is the answer from Paul Lindsay, executive director of Christian Vocations, which encourages older people to continue to be active both inside and outside the church.

“There still is a feeling that people over 60 are marginalised in church,” he says. “The emphasis is on the younger leaders. That’s fine - we need to mentor young people and give them opportunities - but that can lead to people who have the experience feeling that they aren’t required. I’m not sure that the British Church is even aware of this, let alone ready for it. This particular group needs to be seen as people with potential rather than as passengers.”

In fact, Lindsay notes that, within the evangelical spectrum of churches in the UK, “If that age group of people was employed in Christian work, we would have thousands more workers each year for ministry. That would enable Christian work to be far more effective. It would prevent some Christian organisations from closing down.”

Lindsay believes that the days when elderly people were seen as a “problem” are behind us, but it will take time before their wisdom and knowledge are fully utilised. Meanwhile, Christian Vocations is working with three groups – Wycliffe Associates, Senior Volunteer Network and SOON Ministries – to enable more than 4,000 older people to get involved with volunteering, mission and church work.

For example, Ann Thurston was deputy head of her local infant school when she had to retire early on health grounds. She was “devastated and feared this would be the end of her usefulness”. Then she visited Guyana with the Senior Volunteer Network to provide training for two schools, discovering that she could still “do something of value”.

Another retiree, Guy Cooper, spent 39 years in the aircraft industry. “I thought I could use my time for God,” he said, “But I am not an a preacher or great visionary. What does a jet engine turbine technologist do for the Lord?” Cooper found out through SOON Ministries, for whom he now helps to produce evangelistic literature bound for West Africa. “I realised I can use some of the skills I’d picked up in industry for the benefit of the kingdom of God,” he says.

Basingstoke Community Churches, a network of six congregations, has run a mentoring and discipleship project for its older members for the last 18 months, attracting between 90 and 100 peole to each event.

“We have a group of people who were in the charismatic renewal in the ’70s and ’80s,” says community pastor Dr Andy Taylor. “The emphasis on seeing young people rise up has led this group to feel on-the-shelf. At one time they thought they would change the world for Jesus, and maybe now they’re feeling superfluous.”

So the churches set up meetings to encourage older people that their contribution was still needed, even if it’s different now. “We want people to become positive,” Taylor says, “to catch some vision and see that they have a contribution to make, whether in the church or in a way that goes out into the community.” Things are changing in the church because of the scheme, but it’s still early days, he adds.

Increased access?
Elsewhere, hundreds of churches have been forced to close because of the need to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act of 2003, which was intended to cater for both the disabled and the elderly through the provision of ramps, lifts, special toilet facilities, large print materials and song books, and sound systems designed for the hard of hearing.

The aim was to open churches and public places to an increased number of people. But figures show that the reverse has in fact happened. In the Church of Scotland, which has a large number of rural churches, the costs of making the required changes in its 1,500 buildings was estimated at £8.8 million. But the Methodist, Baptist and URC churches have been hardest hit by the changes.

Waddington Methodist Church in Lincolnshire closed in 2005 because of the proposed costs of alterations that were supposed to help them. Bryan Denman, the church’s senior steward, told The Sunday Telegraph that the plans had been “the last straw”.

He said, “We are an ageing congregation and we are
not getting any youngsters in. My wife and I are in our 60s and we are the youngest two in the church.” Although no one wanted the church to close, the reality was, he said, that it “couldn’t go on”.

Andy Taylor believes these stories are “an indictment” on the Church - that older people should feel marginalised from God’s family and see their churches closing down. “The older generation has much to give,” he says, “and we have to fight the culture model that pervades this nation and bring back the respect for this older generation who have a huge contribution to make.

“Younger people can take on much of the work, but using the older ones and giving them a place of honour and respect is vital. If that can happen, that would do a lot both for the Church nationally and for individuals.”For information on the groups featured in this article:

tel 1745 343300,www.wycliffeassociates.org.uk

Senior Volunteer Network:
tel 01905 796313, www.svnet.org

SOON Ministries:
tel 01283 702334, www.soon.org.uk

Basingstoke Community Churches:
tel 01256 812708, www.bccnet.org.uk