With mixed emotions I received the announcement of this special issue of Uplook. Earlier this year, I studied the subject of aging in Scripture. That study revealed many truths to me, and since that time my heart has been even more burdened for the work in our assembly retirement homes. May the truths of Scripture penetrate your heart and life as they have mine.
Many verses refer to the physiological decay of the body, and some to the decay of the mind. The aging process pictured for us in Ecclesiastes 12 is no different than the aging process today. Our advanced medical technology has done much to lengthen the life of our physical body*. Yet little effective treatment is known for the preservation and restoration of our minds. May we be challenged to spend our lives fixing our minds on Christ and filling them with His Word. Within this ever changing, complex situation we face an unchanging responsibility.
The Responsibility of the Individual
Each of us has a personal responsibility to the aging ones in our own family. 1 Timothy 5:4, 8, 16 says: “But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God. But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.” Scripture clearly teaches that our parents and our grandparents are our responsibility.
We acknowledge that there are instances when it is not possible for us to provide for the care of our own loved ones with our own hands. At these times, we can learn from the example of our Lord in John 19:26-27. Our Lord saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby. From the cross, He committed the care of His mother into the hands of that disciple. “From that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.” Christ entrusted, or delegated, the needed care into someone else’s hands.
While we may delegate the actual care to others, let us be reminded that we cannot delegate the responsibility. Failing to meet the needs of one’s own family, aged or otherwise, elicits a strong rebuke. In so doing, we are worse than an unbeliever (1 Tim. 5:8). Let us be faithful to our own flesh and blood so that our testimony for Christ will be strengthened before a nation that is losing respect for the elderly. May it not be said of us that we profess to know God, but by our deeds we deny Him (Titus 1:16).
The Responsibility of the Church
In the early church, we read of a complaint registered by the Greek Christians. They alleged that the Greek widows were being overlooked during the daily food distribution, in favor of the Hebrew widows (Acts 6:1-6). The apostles and disciples gathered together to discuss the issue. It was evident that two groups of people were needed: one group to continue to devote itself to prayer and ministry of the Word and a new group to “serve tables.” Those who would oversee this new ministry were to be “men of good reputation, full of the spirit and of wisdom.” It was not an insignificant ministry. Today the church faces similar, practical needs that we must meet in the lives of our fellow-believers. After we as individuals care for our own, there still remain those individuals who have been left alone for one reason or another (1 Tim. 5:5).
A natural outgrowth, to meet these needs, are assembly-run retirement homes. Who else can effectively meet the spiritual, physical, social and emotional needs of the Lord’s people than our own caring, competent hands? Continual Christian fellowship is a major advantage of these homes: prayer times, Bible studies, and transportation to local assemblies. A small local assembly may gather within the retirement community. However, in order to maintain this Christian environment, Christian workers and management are needed.
Where are the Laborers?
Our assembly handbook reveals quite a number of retirement homes. Some are adding nursing centers to meet our growing needs. At Rest Haven, we turn saints away, knowing they will have to go to secular retirement homes, because we currently are not able to meet their unique needs. How it grieves us! Who will care for them? As we repeatedly turn to the secular world for employees, we wonder: Where are the Christian laborers?
It is vital that the care of the Lord’s people be seen as a ministry in these retirement homes. Any service for the Lord will be a “land of hills and valleys” (Deut. 11:11). These ministries need committed workers, prayer warriors, volunteers, and visitors. Your time investment will not only encourage the residents and the staff, but your heart will be ministered to as well.
Plenty of opportunities exist. Here are a few examples: Send a card, write a letter, come for a visit. You can bring the children, and some homes allow visiting pets. Lead a hymn-sing. Organize a work-team for a specific project. Volunteer for annual events. Consider a short-term commitment. Full-time ministry to the aging is not for everyone, but everyone can minister. Most importantly, be diligent to pray for these ministries. Pray for the saints who are experiencing this aging process. Pray for the staff who seek to meet their varying needs. Pray for management, especially as they work with the regulatory boards and increasing government regulations. Pray for laborers.
“For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb. 6:10-12).