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Ministry in the Second Season of Life · Faith at Work

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SPEAKER_00: There is a dream that rests, I think, in the American imagination.
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SPEAKER_00: And many of us have carried it for most of our adult lives.
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SPEAKER_00: A house with a porch.
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a warm afternoon grand children running across the yard and a
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rocking chair waiting
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SPEAKER_00: with our name on it you have made it you have
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earned it you have worked hard raised your family served your
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church paid your dues
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and now finally you get to rest I love that image I really do I
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have thought about
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SPEAKER_00: that rocking chair more times than I care to admit but
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SPEAKER_00: Here is what nags at me as well.
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SPEAKER_00: And perhaps many of us in this congregation,
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SPEAKER_00: the ministries that we have built,
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SPEAKER_00: the service projects that we have started,
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SPEAKER_00: the roles that we have filled so much care and prayers into for decades,
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SPEAKER_00: well,
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SPEAKER_00: they are still there.
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the harvest has not ended and it seems like no one's lining up
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to take our place so
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SPEAKER_00: this morning I'm going to
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SPEAKER_00: stories, both of which we have just heard read.
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One is about a rabbi walking through villages full of people
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who have no one to care for them.
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And the other is about a woman named Sarah who laughed at God
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because she was sure
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SPEAKER_00: her season of fruitfulness was over.
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Now,
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what strikes me as I read Matthew 9,
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35-38 is where Jesus is and what he is doing.
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SPEAKER_00: He is not in Jerusalem.
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SPEAKER_00: He is not in the temple engaging with theologians.
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He is out among the ordinary people in ordinary places and what
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he sees breaks his heart.
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SPEAKER_00: And it's not their sin
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SPEAKER_00: It's not their theology.
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SPEAKER_00: It is their leaderlessness.
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SPEAKER_00: It is their need.
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And then,
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in response to that,
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he says something that should stop us cold.
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SPEAKER_00: The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
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SPEAKER_00: So this is not some minor statement
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Staffing Inconvenience This Is A Crisis Of Care And Jesus Does
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Not Say Wait Until A
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New Generation Rises Up To Take Care Of This He Says Pray That
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The Lord Of The
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Harvest Will Send Laborers He Is Speaking To The People Already
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In The Room
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in Genesis 18 11 through 14 Sarah left because the idea of
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burying a child was
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absurd her body had moved way past the season of fertility she
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was old very old
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Abram was old very old the train had left the station decades
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ago so to speak so
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SPEAKER_00: what
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SPEAKER_00: What God was proposing made absolutely no biological sense.
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SPEAKER_00: What God was proposing made no cultural sense.
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SPEAKER_00: What God was proposing made no common sense.
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SPEAKER_00: And yet, God says, is anything too wonderful for the Lord?
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SPEAKER_00: And that question is not just for Sarah.
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It is for every one of us who has quietly decided that our most
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fruitful years are behind us.
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SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to be fair to our younger generation.
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SPEAKER_00: I see you.
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there a couple over here some down there a few over here before
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we go any further
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because part of our story we tell ourselves is that the younger
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generation well
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they're just not stepping up they're not showing up they're not
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caring and the data
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SPEAKER_00: as it turns out is more complicated than that
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SPEAKER_00: There is a Barna Group study that was done in 2025.
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SPEAKER_00: It's called the State of the Church Report.
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SPEAKER_00: And it contains what researchers are calling a surprising reversal.
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SPEAKER_00: For the first time in modern research history,
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SPEAKER_00: Generation Z and Millennials are now the most regular churchgoers,
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SPEAKER_00: outpacing older generations.
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Weekly church volunteerism in that group has also surpassed
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pre-pandemic levels,
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SPEAKER_00: rising to 24% of U.S.
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SPEAKER_00: adults.
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SPEAKER_00: And here's the detail that we should give us pause.
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SPEAKER_00: Gen Z leads weekly volunteerism at 21% and millennials at 19%.
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SPEAKER_00: Wild boomers, raise your hand.
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SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the old ones in the group.
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SPEAKER_00: We are just at 9% and elders,
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SPEAKER_00: which are the folks way older than us,
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are at 12% Younger generations are actually volunteering at
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church at higher rates
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SPEAKER_00: than we older folks
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There is also data from a Lewis Center report drawing on
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national congregational
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study that shows older adults over 65 now represent 33% of
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average congregational
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SPEAKER_00: participants.
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SPEAKER_00: That's what happens when you're Tom when you go on vacation.
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SPEAKER_00: And it's also fairly complicated, all this data stuff.
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SPEAKER_00: But it's important you will understand why in a minute.
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SPEAKER_00: Compared to just 17% of the general population.
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SPEAKER_00: Okay?
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SPEAKER_00: So churchgoers our age, 33%.
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SPEAKER_00: Average population, 17%.
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SPEAKER_00: So we, the older folks, are overrepresented in our pews.
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SPEAKER_00: We are concentrating on
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So what accounts for the gap between these numbers and what we
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seem to be observing?
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SPEAKER_00: Well, there actually are a few things.
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SPEAKER_00: First,
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SPEAKER_00: and younger generations,
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SPEAKER_00: let me know if this is true or not,
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SPEAKER_00: hopefully it is,
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SPEAKER_00: at least it's what the data shows,
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SPEAKER_00: younger generations do not engage in the same way as we older folks did.
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Research from the Millennial Impact Report and BARNA alike
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shows that Gen Z and
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Millennials prefer to volunteer on what researchers call a
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continuum basis.
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They want to engage in multiple ways rather than serving in one
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ongoing role.
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SPEAKER_00: So, let me just check that.
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SPEAKER_00: Those of you that are millennial and Gen Z's,
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would you agree that you would prefer to serve in multiple ways
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rather than engage
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SPEAKER_00: in one long service project that lasts for 10 years?
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SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all are willing to commit to 10 years?
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SPEAKER_00: All right.
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SPEAKER_00: How many would say, oh, great.
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SPEAKER_00: I've got a seminary for you.
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SPEAKER_00: All right.
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SPEAKER_00: We've talked about that, right?
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SPEAKER_00: All right.
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we need to have lunch again alright but would you agree most of
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you just sort of
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want to volunteer here and there based on kind of how your how
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your heart moves you
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would you agree with that anybody few of you okay cool okay
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some of you are nodding
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you just don't want to say that alright this group of people
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seem to be driven by
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SPEAKER_00: purpose huh you forgot Gen X Gen X you're coming don't worry Gen X
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a lot to get through that's why I get myself a little bit more
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time this morning I
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can talk for another 25 minutes and nobody will get mad at me
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so this group is
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SPEAKER_00: driven by purpose,
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flexibility and relationship not institutional loyalty or
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obligation so the
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structure of traditional church ministry a standing committee
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who doesn't want to
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SPEAKER_00: be part of that
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SPEAKER_00: with monthly meetings or a decade-long commitment.
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Kind of the one I was asked to commit to when I went to the
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mission field.
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SPEAKER_00: They asked me, will you go for 10 years?
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SPEAKER_00: I was like, of course I will.
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SPEAKER_00: Who wouldn't do that?
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SPEAKER_00: Very difficult to happen these days.
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SPEAKER_00: It's simply not how this group organizes our lives or their service.
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SPEAKER_00: Secondly, all right,
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SPEAKER_00: They are carrying enormous weight.
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SPEAKER_00: Student debt.
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SPEAKER_00: Housing costs.
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SPEAKER_00: You can hardly buy a house right now, even if you want one.
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Economic uncertainty and the particular anxieties of life in a
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rapid,
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changing world.
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SPEAKER_00: They all create real constraints on time and energy.
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SPEAKER_00: Their obligations are not excuses, older folks.
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SPEAKER_00: They are real.
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And third,
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over a three-year period tracked by Horizon Stewardship,
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Gen X,
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SPEAKER_00: increased volunteer hours by 39%,
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SPEAKER_00: and boomers increased theirs by 36%,
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while millennials and Gen Z actually decreased their volunteer
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hours by 16% to 17%,
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SPEAKER_00: which is a little conflicting.
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SPEAKER_00: So what does all this mean?
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So the trend seems to be sustained that traditional ministry
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service still favors old
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service as opposed to the way that the younger generation seems
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to volunteer or
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SPEAKER_00: participate in altruistic things.
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SPEAKER_00: So,
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SPEAKER_00: what this means is that the problem is not a simple,
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SPEAKER_00: oh,
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SPEAKER_00: the younger generation doesn't care.
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SPEAKER_00: It is that they engage differently.
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SPEAKER_00: They carry different
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SPEAKER_00: burdens and they may genuinely be called to different forms of service.
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SPEAKER_00: We have to accept that.
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SPEAKER_00: Which brings us back to the uncomfortable question.
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SPEAKER_00: If they're not being called to continue what we began, well then who is?
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SPEAKER_00: You're not going to like the next part.
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SPEAKER_00: There are three options, at least three options.
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SPEAKER_00: First, the model itself may need to change.
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SPEAKER_00: David Kinnaman of Barna puts it plainly,
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effective ministry to millennials means helping these young
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believers discover
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SPEAKER_00: their own ministry in the world.
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SPEAKER_00: not merely asking them to wait their turn to take upon themselves hours.
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SPEAKER_00: And if we want the younger generation to carry the work forward,
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we need to release our grip on exactly how that is going to
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look for them.
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SPEAKER_00: They may not run the exact programs we have built or imagined for them.
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SPEAKER_00: But they may carry the spirit of it forward.
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SPEAKER_00: And this is not our failure, friends.
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SPEAKER_00: This is how movements continue to live on.
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The brethren who came before us did not pass on identical
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structures to us.
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SPEAKER_00: They passed on a vision.
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SPEAKER_00: And perhaps our task is the same.
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SPEAKER_00: Second,
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SPEAKER_00: Their calling may genuinely lie elsewhere.
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SPEAKER_00: It is worth asking the hard theological question,
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SPEAKER_00: what if God is not calling this generation to our particular ministries?
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SPEAKER_00: What if their calling is to digital spaces, to
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SPEAKER_00: to advocacy movements,
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SPEAKER_00: to community organizations,
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to neighborhood expressions of faith that look nothing like
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Sunday school,
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SPEAKER_00: but everything like the kingdom.
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The Springtide Research Institute has documented that many Gen
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Z young people are
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SPEAKER_00: not rejecting faith,
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SPEAKER_00: outside the institutional structures itself.
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SPEAKER_00: That is a different problem than indifference.
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It is a condition that may require from us different wisdom and
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different responses
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SPEAKER_00: other than frustration or pressure.
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And third,
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and this is the one I want to dwell with just a little bit
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longer,
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and you're not going to like it God may be calling us back in
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Sarah laughed because
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she was certain that her season of fertility and fruitfulness
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was over and she was
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SPEAKER_00: wrong
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The concept of a second season of life has received serious
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theological attention
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SPEAKER_00: in recent years.
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SPEAKER_00: Richard Rohr,
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SPEAKER_00: as you know,
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SPEAKER_00: one of my favorites,
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SPEAKER_00: in his widely read book Falling Upward,
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SPEAKER_00: which I love the title,
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SPEAKER_00: argues that the first half of life is primarily about buildings.
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SPEAKER_00: Building identity, career, family, structure.
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SPEAKER_00: But the second season of life, he writes, is about something deeper.
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SPEAKER_00: Finding the actual contents that this container was meant to deliver.
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SPEAKER_00: In Rohrer's framing, the second half of life is not a winding down.
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SPEAKER_00: It is a summoning up.
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SPEAKER_00: Psalm 92 puts it in the language of a tree.
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SPEAKER_00: They will still bear fruit in old age.
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SPEAKER_00: 62 now.
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SPEAKER_00: They shall be full of sap and richness.
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that's you the psalmist did not promise ease he promised
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vitality not the vitality
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of the young never going back there building their containers
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but the vitality that
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comes from those who have learned what this container is for
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our culture has given
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SPEAKER_00: us aim
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SPEAKER_00: A powerful narrative about what life is after 65.
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SPEAKER_00: What it is supposed to look like.
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SPEAKER_00: It is a narrative of deserved rest.
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SPEAKER_00: Of striving completed.
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SPEAKER_00: Of obligations discharged.
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SPEAKER_00: And I do not want to dismiss that rest is in
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SPEAKER_00: Holy Sabbath is a gift from God.
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SPEAKER_00: We are not called to exhaustions.
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But there is a difference between Sabbath rest and what one
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Catholic described
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SPEAKER_00: after his retirement.
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SPEAKER_00: He said,
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SPEAKER_00: I thought the perfect retirement was playing golf,
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SPEAKER_00: traveling and waking up each day with no pressure to do anything.
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And then after a few months I was bored and began to experience
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an unexplained depression.
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SPEAKER_00: He had reached the destination our culture promised and found it hollow.
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And frankly I've heard this from a lot of people as I've been
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journeying through this idea.
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He eventually returned to service helping create a senior
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ministry program and
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SPEAKER_00: wrote,
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SPEAKER_00: My life now has much more meaning and purpose.
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This is the promise of a re-wirement as opposed to the myth of
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re-tirement.
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SPEAKER_00: Richard Rohrer uses the image of Odysseus.
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SPEAKER_00: Wonderful image.
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SPEAKER_00: After winning the Trojan War,
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SPEAKER_00: after completing the first great journey,
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SPEAKER_00: Odysseus is called to a second journey.
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And Rohrer names the first half of life as a survival dance
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using the Odysseus
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SPEAKER_00: image and the second half as a sacred dance.
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SPEAKER_00: Many of us,
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SPEAKER_00: he says,
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get stuck doing more and more of the first dance because we
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don't want to stop or
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because we don't know another way or because the second journey
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frightens us more
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SPEAKER_00: than the first.
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But I think that there is another reason why we avoid the
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second journey and I
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SPEAKER_00: think it is one of the most relevant ones in this congregation.
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We have been told by our culture and perhaps even well-meaning
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people in our lives
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SPEAKER_00: that we have done our part.
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SPEAKER_00: That it is someone else's turn.
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SPEAKER_00: That we should step back and let the young ones take over.
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what if that voice as pleasant and reasonable as it sounds is
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not the voice of God now
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just let me pause there and say I'm not suggesting that those
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of us in the second
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season of life should simply do everything we have always done
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before holding fast
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to the reins indefinitely not letting anyone in until we just
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collapse that is not
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sustainable that is martyrdom and it is not what I'm calling us
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towards today
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SPEAKER_00: Instead I am suggesting something more nuanced.
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That we take seriously the possibility that God has not
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finished with us yet.
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SPEAKER_00: That the wisdom,
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SPEAKER_00: the relationships,
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SPEAKER_00: the credibility,
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SPEAKER_00: the experience we have accumulated over decades of faithful service
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may be precisely what certain ministries need in this
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particular moment in history.
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That our task is not to subside and hope someone younger shows
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up to take over
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SPEAKER_00: where we have left off,
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but to model with joy and intention what it looks like to
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remain committed to the
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SPEAKER_00: things that matter.
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David Kinneman's research shows that millennials who stay
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connected to the church
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are twice as likely as those who have left to say that an older
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believer invested
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SPEAKER_00: in them personally.
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Not that an older believer managed a program that they really
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appreciated,
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SPEAKER_00: but that an older individual invested in them.
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SPEAKER_00: showed them when they needed it, walked alongside of them.
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The mentoring presence of those of us in the second season of
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life may be more
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SPEAKER_00: formative,
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and I would argue that it is more formative for the next
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generation than any formal
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SPEAKER_00: ministry structure we could handle it.
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Carl Vaders a pastor and author who has written extensively
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about small churches
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puts it this way senior ministry must be as intentional as
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every other ministry
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older Christians can contribute significantly you can build a
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strong church by
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SPEAKER_00: focusing on seniors
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and make sure you get this he is not talking about ministry to
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us he is talking
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about ministry through us Psalm 71 gives us the prayer that
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belongs to this season
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SPEAKER_00: of life so even
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SPEAKER_00: to old age and gray hairs of God.
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SPEAKER_00: Do not forsake me until I proclaim your might to another generation.
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SPEAKER_00: Your power to all those to come.
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SPEAKER_00: The psalmist is not praying to be useful until someone else arrives.
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SPEAKER_00: He is praying to remain a living testimony, a proclaimer
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SPEAKER_00: a presence until the work of passing on has been completed.
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SPEAKER_00: I am saying these things because I know that we are in a few moments
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going into a congregational business meeting to discuss what
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our plans will be for
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SPEAKER_00: a large amount of funds we now have as a congregation.
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SPEAKER_00: An amount that every single one of us,
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SPEAKER_00: I can say that with utter confidence,
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SPEAKER_00: would be very excited to have going into retirement.
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SPEAKER_00: But our calling as a people, as a congregation is not to retire.
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SPEAKER_00: I believe it is to rewire.
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I want to close with the words of a discipleship ministries
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reflection that I think
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SPEAKER_00: speaks directly to where many of us find ourselves.
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Retirement from gainful employment does not mark the end of a
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meaningful life.
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SPEAKER_00: Instead,
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SPEAKER_00: It is a kind of rewirement,
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SPEAKER_00: a shift,
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where everything we have done until now can lead us into a new
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and purposeful stage
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SPEAKER_00: of life.
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SPEAKER_00: And I would add, ministry.
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four years ago almost today I was planning on retiring I'm 62
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getting ready to retire and then
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Over a two-year period,
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God rewired me for pastoral ministry in a second season of
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life.
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SPEAKER_00: And, like it or not, brought me here.
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SPEAKER_00: It is what it is.
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and you know it's been interesting the conversation that I've
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had along the way but
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just so we're clear alright I plan on staying alright God
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willing and with your
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permission for at least the next eight years which is going to
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put me at about
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SPEAKER_00: seven
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Hopefully I have some sort of,
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you know,
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understandable speech at that point.
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SPEAKER_00: But that's the plan.
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SPEAKER_00: God is continuing to rewire me in my second season of life and ministry.
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I am inviting you to let God do the same for you and us as a
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congregation and may
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the conversations that we have in a little bit in our business
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meeting rewire all
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SPEAKER_00: of us for the future that God has for each of us Amen