Seniors and a Renewed Temptation

Ok, so this subject may be a bit taboo – maybe a lot taboo…senior adults are having more sex than we like to think. While sexual activity reported among a survey of 3,000 men and women decreased with age, it is still much higher than expected. About 73 percent of those 57 to 64 years of age and 53 percent of those 65 to 74 years of age reported some level of sexual activity.

While the church should celebrate long and healthy marriages, clearly the results of the next set of data are driven by unchaste relationships. By the year 2015 the majority of HIV carriers will be over the age of 50. And an Ohio University study found that 27 percent of HIV-infected men and 35 percent of HIV-infected women over 50 engage in unprotected sex.

Monogamy seems to be a relevant issue for all ages.

And with the first of the Baby Boomers reaching into their sixties, the issue cannot be ignored by the church. But another trend undergirds the severity of the above stats: many couples over the age of 55 are living together. They want companionship, but not marriage. They want more financial stability but without the commitments of a binding union.

What can the church do about it? Ken Gosnell offers some suggestions:

1. Continue preaching and teaching God’s design for marriage. For older adults still growing happier in marriage, it is always a good reminder. For those who are single, it should be an encouragement to hear that God’s plan for them doesn’t expire with retirement.

2. Create a seniors fellowship and accountability group. Our students need authenticity and reality from the church – seniors are no exception.

3. Be willing to confront in love. Hearing of an unmarried older couple living together just doesn’t sound as bad as hearing of teenagers within your church shacking up. But God’s design for marriage applies to all ages. The sin is viewed the same no matter where you are on the age scale.

Perhaps most important is realizing that God chose the analogy of a marriage to describe Christ’s relationship with the church. To degrade marriage by engaging in activities outside of God’s design is to disgrace Christ and what God wants for his church.

When Lightening Strikes the Church

Last Thursday a powerful storm front moved through our area and produced prolific amounts of lightening. One bolt literally struck our church. When we came in on Friday, we found an entire network fried. The projector was not spared the carnage.

Since much of our worship centers around the ability for people to see words on a screen, we were in a bit of a quandary. Luckily, our music minister is quite flexible – we just dusted off the old hymnals and sang from them. And you know what? It wasn’t a bad thing.

Though pastors need help from the Lord in many areas, in ministry I am constantly reminded of two necessities for shepherding a flock: flexibility and unity. You must remain flexible because the unforeseen is bound to happen. The only constant is the unexpected.

Unity within your church is also critical. We had several people come together to help with several issues after the storm. Without this unity, our team of workers would become a scattered herd of complainers.

Come Sunday morning, we heard no complaints, just “amens.”

Thank you church for your commitment to what really matters. Thank you staff for your flexibility. Thank you God for showing me that You are still in control and work through all things.

Keeping College Students in Church

Most know anecdotally that the church is not assimilating college students. But perhaps not known is the gravity and pervasiveness of the problem. A new study reveals that 70% of young adults ages 23-30 said they stopped attending church for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22.

At my own church, the college-age slice of the church population is a relatively low percentage. And eight miles away is a large extension campus for Indiana University. We are just beginning a college ministry. I look forward to what God may do in the future.

At present, however, churches (mine included) are struggling to retain those within this age group. Children grow up in the church only to fall away once they go to college. While some go to a different state or town for college, when they leave, they do not attend another church in that area. And many who remain local just fall away without much of a battle from inside church.

What are some ways to keep these students?

Make the church essential in their lives. Two-thirds of those who stay do so because the church is “a vital part of my relationship with God.” Ed Stetzer says it best: “Teens are looking for more from a youth ministry than a holding tank with pizza.” Too many churches maintain a passive attitude with those in the younger to mid-teen range. If these students do not take ownership of their church, they will see no need to stay. Start recruiting teens to be greeters and ushers within your church. Train them to teach Sunday School for the children, and challenge them to volunteer for outreach events and VBS. You might be surprised at how receptive they are to helping. One of the greatest ways to assimilate this age group is to go on a church-wide mission trip. All ages side-by-side – young and old working in unity for a common missions goal.

The pastor must connect the sermon with the students. Of those teens who stayed through their college years most stated that their pastor’s sermons were relevant to them. Surprise, biblical truths must be conveyed to all – not just the adults. As a pastor, I make it a point to speak directly with the students during my sermons. They typically all sit together, so I’ll step down from the pulpit and address them specifically, telling them how my sermon applies to their lives today. I’ve never heard any complaints from them, only compliments.

Get the parents involved. Parents that attend church with their children help assimilate them in their church. Not all students who attend church have Christian parents. Parents that do are to be considered a blessing. For those students without Christian parents, the church should actively seek out mentoring relationships. In fact, 20% more students stay in churches where parents are authentic in their faith. If you’re not convinced that parent involvement is critical, then read the latest AP poll. Spending time with family is rated as the top answer to an open-ended survey in which 13-24 year olds were asked what makes them happy. The poll also revealed that half of this age group state that religion and spirituality are important and that being involved in an organized religious group makes them happier.

Looks like the old excuse that teens and young adults just aren’t interested in church, or that they are simply rebelling from their parents, doesn’t hold water. It’s time churches started an intentional plan to disciple this age group. What is your church doing?

A Cry for Help – Part 2

At this time last week, a group from my church hit the streets of New Orleans to share the only message that can eternally save a person. We spent the first part of the week prying multiple layers of plywood from each other in numerous homes. I am most definitely not a skilled laborer, but I now consider myself to be an expert in crowbarring.

As mentioned in my previous post, the most striking part of the trip for me was the unending destruction – street after street, block after block after block. The capricious flood waters rose over the poor and rich, churches and adult bookstores, righteous and unrighteous. We saw firsthand how tragedy knows no bounds.

But we didn’t live through it.

As overwhelmed as our group was, we experienced only an infinitesimal sliver of what has become everyday life for so many.

So we decided to take a few Swords (Daggers to be more precise – they were New Testaments) and intentionally seek opportunities to talk to people about their experiences. We prayed that God would allow us the great honor of sharing His Truth with the locals in the French Quarter.

One group passed out water bottles and shared with passers-by. Another group decided to talk with people in a voodoo shop. And the third group made their way to the tarot card readers. Being the shepherd of the group, I wandered aimlessly praying for God to send someone to me.

Then I took a breather, propped myself against a wall, and turned to my right. Big Man was cursing vehemently at me. His name was an appropriate and descriptive moniker.

When he took a sip of his daiquiri I decided to speak – I asked him if he was a local and what he did for a living. He told me he was currently on the clock. And his job was to keep people away from the entryway of the exclusive high rise where I was standing. He was more bouncer than doorman, but I decided to keep that thought to myself.

I apologized for my loitering, and I mentioned what I was doing in New Orleans, helping to rebuild the lower ninth ward with Operation Noah Rebuild. He decided to be friendly, told me his name (maybe Big Man really was given birth name), and then he crushed all five of my digits in what was more hand-compactor and less handshake.

He shared with me his story…26 years in the pen, 6 out. A life of alcohol abuse. A brain tumor. A wrecked family. An incredible Katrina survival story. And deep, prolonged depression.

Then Big Man began to weep.

I didn’t know how to react. We were sitting on the front steps. So I slowly pushed one of my New Testaments toward him with my fingertips. I didn’t know how he would react.

A God-given thought crossed between my ears - the gospel Truth always speaks for itself.

He picked up the Bible, mentioned that he didn’t own one, and he let me walk him through the Romans Road. Halfway down the Romans Road, he stopped me and said that he needed to sober up before going any further. Through tears, he promised me that he would read the marked passages that night. He showed me “how they mark a book in prison.”

We talked a little longer and then parted ways. I don’t know whether Big Man surrendered his life to Jesus that night. But I do know the Holy Spirit was working in a dark place. I do know that an unworthy vessel was able to plant a seed. I do know that a cry for help was heard and prayed over.

Street evangelism can be painful. Categorical denials and rejections proliferate on the streets. When receptivity exists, it can be tough, if not impossible, to follow-up. Even if a genuine conversion occurs, connecting that person to a local church can prove difficult.

Obedience trumps these perceived hurdles.

I was an inadequate messenger, fumbling at times to connect on a cultural level. Being stretched spiritually would be an understatement. God, however, will use whomever. God can break down barriers. The Holy Spirit is the instigator of salvation. God will draw unto Himself his own. We must simply surrender to obedience in sharing the One Great Hope with a world that is crying for help.

A Cry for Help – Part 1

Driving down Interstate 10 into the heart of New Orleans was overwhelming. The caravan of thirteen from our church had heard about the lasting devastation from Hurricane Katrina. But seeing it firsthand made several of us weep for a city still crying for help.

Two years after one of the worst natural disasters in our nation’s history, The Crescent City is still trying to recover. Don’t let the commercials fool you – New Orleans is not “back.” The façade of the city, the French Quarter, is buzzing with business. But the real New Orleans lies in ruins.

The team from our church worked for a week in the lower ninth ward and in Chalmette. By the reaction from others, we assumed that we would not be working in the safest of areas. When we arrived to our first job site, however, we were stunned.

We all stepped out of the passenger van into a world without hope. Our team had brimmed with excitement about aiding with the rebuilding effort on the way down. Now we looked around at a shattered community. What was clearly once a densely populated community now was deserted. Blocks of homes looked like a bombed-out third world country. The 16-foot wall of water that flooded this area had demolished everything.

We all thought we would be working along side several teams helping to get a community back in working order. We were the only ones there.

All of the homes still had the “X” mark left from the search teams that came in to look for bodies. Many had numbers beside the X, designating how many bodies were pulled from the house.

During a break from the 110-degree heat, we jumped into the van and rode around the city. We saw community after community that had not even begun to rebuild. Even the Wal-Mart was still closed. One person told us that the local grocery store just opened last month.

We asked the contractor about the church we were gutting. Did anyone want to come back? Were they even around? He told us the pastor and many members were living in trailers and meeting at the associational building. They desperately wanted to return. Yet they were broke, insurance claims still pending.

I realized that my own church did not have any more favor with God than the church we were assigned to gut. I could have just as easily been called to pastor in New Orleans as in Indiana. Tragedy knows no bounds. Flood waters covered the adult bookstores just as quickly as the churches. Every home suffered. Every person was beaten by the storm.

Before lunch on the first day, the entire team was exhausted and depressed. All we had accomplished was ripping up rotted plywood from floor joists in a church that would not be finished before the end of the year. We were just one team; many more would have to follow us to finish the task.

Then someone said it, “Guys, the Christian life isn’t a call to comfort. It may be a drop in the bucket for this city, but we’re here to accomplish a task. And it’s God’s task. So let’s do it for His glory.”

Then we got uncomfortable. We grabbed crowbars. We got to work. We finished the job order. And we started the next one.

Then God sent us the people. He answered our prayers for gospel-sharing opportunities. Some of the remnants came by to welcome us and ask if we would find out about working on their house. They had sent in paperwork to everyone and nobody had returned their phone calls. They were desperate for help.

Though it wasn’t much, we did what we could. But after meeting some of the locals, I realized why we were there. Rebuild homes and churches, yes. More importantly, though, God wanted us in New Orleans to help rebuild hearts. The Big Easy may take twenty more years to recover, but God can start a revival for the souls of the people today.

How can you help New Orleans? Contact Operation Noah Rebuild. They desperately need skilled workers, particularly plumbers and electricians.