This weekend (a packed out weekend) one of the memorable things Christine got to do was to share a bit in a senior citizen Sunday School group at the church I grew up in and am supported by.  We’ve loved these opportunities over the last many years. They’ve ministered to us in so many ways over the years.

It’s a great perspective giver to sit in on a community that is looking at life through a different lens and more inspiring still to hear the ways they are still at 80 and 90 years old learning and seeking to follow God moment by moment.

An idea came to my mind that got me energized.  Several years ago NFL teams started occasionally bringing out retro jerseys to honor the past.   If the NFL can pay tribute to their history and honor the previous generation on various Sundays, what could it look like for a church to have a retro-worship weekend?

I’m not talking about mixing in a couple hymns re-tooled for contemporary audiences, but I think it would be cool for a church to do a whole weekend say – like what worship would have been like in 1960 (say 50 year blast to the past).  So music, teaching, and whatever else would be like what would have been used back then.    It could even be an outreach of sorts where people of that generation could be invited to special service that is honoring to them and suited to their preferences and style.  How many special outreaches/programs has your church done lately geared towards the 75 and over crowd?

I think of how this generation as been adapting to newer generations over the last several decades and I think it could speak volumes to invest even just one Sunday to exposing the whole church body to what essentially is a different sub-culture.   Our culture isn’t very friendly at large to the elderly so this is an opportunity to live out some very Biblical values and model some great things and help younger generations get over themselves a little bit.  There’s a lot to be learned, but I think it would be cool.

Of course – there are things about 50 years ago that shouldn’t be revisited like the lack of diversity and presence of essentially segregated worship in many places, but there’s some positive things to highlight and expose people to.

I also think a lot of people would feel uncomfortable and struggle with it even for one Sunday – meaning that it provides another opportunity to help educate people about diversity and differences and what it means to serve others rather than always getting things the way they always like it.

Old people are awesome and fun! (see picture to the right of some of them playing the wii!)

Let’s find new ways to honor them and learn from them.

What do you think?

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Tagged as: Culture, Diversity, Learning