PASTOR TO SENIORS

When Pastor Harold Collins retired in December 1994, I became the pastor to seniors at Sevenoaks Alliance Church.  That was like icing on the cake.  To conclude my years of ministry, serving the seniors, enjoying their fellowship, food and fun, was very fulfilling for Leona and me. We had a lot of laughs together.  Seniors have learned to laugh at themselves.  I think that they laugh at themselves, their mistakes, etc. more then any other stage of life. We also had the privilege of walking with many seniors in their time of failing health, in their times of sorrow.  I thoroughly enjoyed those last years of my full time ministry and never ever regretted my decision, when leaving Kamloops, to accept the Sevenoaks invitation to join their pastoral staff.  I was abundantly blessed to have had the privilege of working with the hundreds of seniors that made Sevenoaks Alliance Church, their home church.

I also appreciated the fact that at Sevenoaks there was sufficient money in my budget that permitted me to attend senior workshops and seminars which broadened my understanding of the role of a pastor to seniors.  When I attended Bible school, there was never any discussion, let alone instruction as to the role of a pastor to seniors.  I don't remember ever hearing anything about seniors ministries.  There are very few Bible colleges or seminaries today, that offer any training for pastors to seniors, or seniors ministries.

I was able to attend three different forum's at Colorado Springs, CO, sponsored by Leadership Network of Dallas, TX; a couple of CASA (Christian Association of Senior Adults) Seminars in Irvine, CA and a seniors workshop held in Toronto, ON and headed up by Dr. Timothy Starr, who was then the Pastor To Seniors at The People's Church, Toronto.

Leadership Network Pastor to Seniors' Forum, 
Glen Eyrie, Colorado Springs, CO
Dan is in the center of the front row 

Once I was back in Abbotsford, I was able to use some of the ideas, which I had gleaned at those seminars, in my ministry at Sevenoaks.  I should add that Sevenoaks Alliance Church became a member of CASA, which meant that we received regular cassettes, books and periodicals with more information re being a pastor to seniors.  Too many pastor to seniors are only involved in visiting seniors and maybe a monthly gathering of seniors.  These forums, seminars and workshops provided a broad area of ministry tools and ideas for ministering to seniors.

When I assumed the position of pastor to seniors, there were some 700 people on our church role that were sixty and over.  There were two senior groups, the Young At Heart and the Good Friends Fellowship.  The YAH was the younger of the two groups, basically 60 and up, however the average age differed by only five years.  Since these two groups had different formats and programs, several of the folks went to both groups.  Neither of those groups were organized to be another Sunday morning worship service.  Both groups sought to have variety, which included musicals, dramas, skits, worshipful times with guest pastors and missionaries, panel discussions, etc.  I will seek to highlight a few of the events in later posts.

In addition to the regular meetings of those two groups, we also had shuffleboard games for those who wished to play every Tuesday morning at 9:00am.  Carpet bowling was every Wednesday at 1:00pm.  For a brief period of time we also offered an exercise program for seniors.  I was responsible for planning a carpet bowling tournament every spring.  That was a fun time, competing with four other Alliance churches in the area, Chilliwack, Aldergrove, Surrey and Burnaby.  The event was a morning and afternoon, with lunch in between.  We took turns going to three different churches, Chilliwack, Surrey and Abbotsford.  Aldergrove and Burnaby did not have the facilities to accommodate those events.  We had the Alf Orthner Memorial Cup which was presented to the winning team. Pastor Alf was the one that started the Good Friends Fellowship, the first seniors group at Sevenoaks.

There was one area of ministry that was in my mind, but I never got around to implementing the same.  That ministry would have been an outreach ministry.  The plan, had it become a reality, would have been having a monthly gathering whereby we would offer a variety of workshops, led by some of our members, which would have included crafts and hobbies of interest to seniors.  Some of them could have been photography, quilting, gardening, scrap booking, etc.  We would have included a brief devotional and also offered a Bible study.  Coffee and a snack would have also been available.  Hearing about other churches that had such a ministry and how successful they were in reaching out into the community was something that I really wanted to see happen, but with so many other ministries on my plate, it just didn't happen.  If I hadn't retired when I did and worked another two or three years, then maybe it would have become a reality.  I share this that maybe someday in the future, a pastor will take hold of such an idea and see it happen.

In addition to those fun times, we had a Good Friends Choir that provided a monthly half hour of music, plus a brief devotional at Tabor Village and Menno Place.  The choir changed its name a few years ago to Prime Time Singers, consisting today of folks from other churches, as well as Sevenoaks Alliance Church. 

 Good Friends Choir practicing in the choir room at Sevenoaks

Thirty-Five singers were too many for one photo