Mind the Over-Sixties, Please!

My current bedtime reading is Dale Ralph Davis' excellent commentary on 1st Kings.  This American Presbyterian Old Testament theologian and preacher has the ability effortlessly`to get to the crux of any passage of Scripture.  His comments on 1st Kings 11:1-13 are most apt at this particular juncture.  Writing about Solomon in his later years he says, commenting on v.4:

"We must take a moment to be frightened.  'When Solomon was old...'  How that ext ought to goad older believers to pray the last petition of the Lord's Prayer (Mt.6:13a).  Is there not a warning to churches as well, who have a fixation on youth ministry and a love-affair with young marrieds and/or young families?  Need we not exercise far more vigilance over our over-sixties crowd, many of whom will doubtless meet the major troubles of their lives in their final years." (Christian Focus, Ross-shire, Scotland, 2002:113).

What a reminder to the many evangelical churches today that seem to neglect the over-sixties in favour of the worldly-minded and almost exclusive concentration on younger church members and adherents.  Today, the entire church service has to accommodate the YP groups.  The praise has to be modern and contemporary, and never must traditional hymns and Psalms be used.  In many evangelical churches, the thing that meets the eyes first when you enter the church is the church orchestra positioned at the front left or right hand side of the church and pulpit.  In earlier days, the first thing that caught your eye was the pulpit with the Bible on it; or a reading desk with open Bible positioned at or just above church floor level.  But today, it's the church band, or worship band.  What a change!

There are multiple organisations for every age-group but not much for the over-sixties (though some churches have a monthly meeting for the 'silver threads' age group.  But the church's fixation with youths and their worldly culture is increasing as it is nauseating.  Her love-affair with young families to the exclusion of older families is staring any objective observer right in the face.

But if Davis is correct, and I suspect he is, then the church has a pastoral responsibility for those of riper years who, like Solomon, might find themselves being drawn away from the Lord by other things.  And it starts in the 'heart.'  It is a matter of the heart.  This term appears five times in verses 2-4.  The heart!  This is a hidden departure from the Lord that may not be seen for years; but it is nonetheless real, and very dangerous spiritually.  But the churches, with all their well academically qualified and trained ministers do not seem to recognise this as a pastoral reality.  The 'oldies' just do not matter.

But let everything be done for the young people.