There are times I wonder how on earth I would manage life if I were not a Christian. When things go badly wrong or circumstances are particularly trying, I feel the only thing keeping me positive and from ‘going under’ is that I pray and trust the Lord, drawing on the scripture promises that “they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength” and “the joy of the Lord is your strength”.

So it’s no wonder that I increasingly long that people should know the joy and peace that comes from being right with God, enjoying the fact that he loves them and they can trust him with their life now and hereafter.

I am greatly privileged that my church recognises the place for ministry to seniors and has given me the responsibility of team leader. As such I feel my role is to encourage and involve other believers in reaching out to as many people as possible. In turn, they are made stronger by exercising their faith. It’s especially rewarding when we see people finding or increasing in their personal faith.

We’ve been very encouraged lately by Annie who was baptised recently. She told us how she and her husband Dave had watched with interest as our church was re-built from the foundations up. They ‘had a faith’ but didn’t go to church. Seeing the door open one day they ventured in, received a very warm welcome and were encouraged to go upstairs and take their time to look around. She said, “It was peaceful in the sanctuary. Dave and I prayed together.”

Annie cared for her husband for a long time through his illness until he passed away peacefully at home. That was in 2008 and she misses him every day. After his passing she became very depressed and one day, walking past a neighbour’s house, she stopped to chat. In conversation Bob told her how faith in Jesus had helped him. She says, “Whilst he was talking, I suddenly felt a lightbulb go on! I wanted to know more about God.” A short while later she was in Tesco and bumped into Sue, Bob’s wife, who invited Annie to a home study group in their house that evening. With a friend, she went regularly for years until it stopped. Now she can say that she truly believes in Jesus as her Lord and Saviour and knows his presence in her life. She says that the time she and Dave prayed together in the sanctuary was a very special day.

Our church building has a foyer looking onto the market square, with huge glass windows like a department store. On Sundays it is set up cafe-style and people who would not want to be upstairs in the main auditorium with around 200 others, are made welcome downstairs. This is another place Annie has felt welcome as due to health issues she needs to be away from crowds.

I see her testimony as illustrating a chain of events that has brought her to a vibrant faith: an initial warm welcome into the building to ‘look around’, a neighbour daring to tell her about his experience of Jesus, the invitation in Tesco to the home group, a weekly ladies’ event in the foyer, and cafe church on Sundays. And this is how it so often is. A small action on our part can be one of the links. We do not have to feel the whole responsibility of leading someone to Christ is ours alone. But we do have to do the small things. I often think that after a lifetime of important responsibilities and opportunities, older age is ‘The Day of Small Things’. Yet they can turn out to be very important in God’s plan and we must do them.

John had been to the church Art Group and it was when he and his wife came to renew their vows at the time of their Golden Wedding anniversary that he began to find a real faith. Alpha and home group have seen him grow spiritually and he’s always willing to help as needed – which is quite often! John knows that the welcome people receive is all important. That’s where we all come in – something we can all do.

Margaret came to the Lord after a dissolute and disappointing life which led to severe depression. She recounts how a ‘friend of a friend’ told her about the difference Jesus would make in her life but she didn’t want to know. Yet this ‘friend’ persisted over a couple of years and in the end Margaret decided to find out for herself what it was all about, and began attending a local Alpha Course. She says, “On the third week, all that person had been saying fell into place.” She gave herself to the Lord and has never looked back.

For many years David occasionally went to church with his wife and daughter who were committed Christians and involved in church life. As he had a scientific mind he was sceptical and questioning, full of doubts but wanting to be part of the spiritual joy he witnessed in others. Eventually our church advertised an Alpha course for anyone who would ‘like to learn more’. Oh yes, he would! This was the turning point and he soon joined the church and become involved, still wanting questions answered but happy in his life with Christ.

No doubt it is the work of the Holy Spirit drawing people and convincing them of the truth, but it is in partnership with those of us who are already his…those of us who recognise that in committing to Jesus Christ, of becoming his modern-day disciples, we are commissioned to spread the gospel. Sometimes this is by silent witness, our lives showing the difference, sometimes it is by a ‘word in season or out of season’, by a small act of kindness or persistent prayer, but the fact is that by whatever means we are meant to be part of the process of winning others for Him.

There’s a verse in Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Let us “not grow weary in well-doing” but recognise the privilege of finding and doing the good works – often small things – but all part of growing the Kingdom of God on earth, for eternity.

Judith Spencer (86) was married to journalist Bill Spencer for 63 years before he died in 2020. Together they produced and published ‘Evangelism Today’ newspaper for 30 years. The family has now grown from 2 to 25 across four generations.

For helpful discipleship resources and ideas, please head over to our Resource Hub here.

When the pandemic allowed people to meet once again, albeit at 2m distance, our church launched an event on 2nd Wednesdays each month for people 60+. The idea being to combat loneliness, to inform and inspire in an entertaining way, and give a platform for a Christian message.

A team of seniors volunteered to pray and share ideas, welcome people as they arrive and create a friendly atmosphere. When restrictions were lifted, tea and biscuits were offered after the programme to encourage conversation and new friendships. One of our church daytime home groups made themselves available, this was a great help.

Drawing on a lifetime of putting on such events, I put together a 50 minute programme which contains 7-8 items such as a musical item, interview, slideshow, quiz, poem or reading, singalong songs, and ‘a thought from the Bible’. All different each time, usually following a theme such as ‘ Old & New’ in January,’ Love’ in February, ‘Easter’ and ‘Community Carol Singalong’, ‘Change’, ‘Inspiration’, ‘Show and Tell’ – the last two involved the audience helping with ideas the month before which helped in the planning. I shall be trying to do this more in future because it really helped me in planning and made ‘guests’ own it.

So far I have drawn on the willingness of more than 50 of our own church members to take part, as well as inviting friends and contacts from other churches. We’ve heard from a shepherd, a ship’s captain, a top chef, a Jewish war refugee, a trainer of guide dogs, a creative dancer, a cricket umpire, and many more. Each of them was known to one of us and all were very happy to come along. This next time I shall be interiewing a local woman police special officer who heard what we were doing and offered to come.

When it comes to the ‘God slot’ as some call it, we get someone who can speak very naturally about Christian things – not a preacher – who is happy to bring just one aspect of Biblical thinking to an audience that has established church members, people on the fringe of church life and others with no Christian background at all. We recognise that there are also likely to be lapsed members who have left because they have been hurt through church or life’s tragedies.

The audience is varied because we design the publicity to appeal to all members of the local community. Everyone who comes is given an attractive invitation card to pass on to someone else.  This is our main means of recruiting new guests. We show a large poster in our church window and an A4 on the library noticeboard. In addition I submit different editorial about each approaching event to the ‘Local Reach’ free magazine that goes in every letterbox in the town and nearby locations. A few have come because of this and are surprised how good it is. It is true that there is nothing at all like this on offer locally, and most older people are looking for ‘something to do’. We all want to get out and do something more than sit over a coffee in a local cafe.

The invitations are also given out at our seniors luncheon club and monthly Saturday coffee morning, at our warmbank in winter and in the market square outside our church building. If there are any over, one or two of us pop them in letterboxes of houses in nearby streets. It should also appear on the list of activities that social workers look at to recommend to clients.

The half-hour of tea and chat after the events (which I resist calling a ‘meeting’ or a ‘ service’) gives the team great opportunity to mix and get to know folk a little and ask a leading question about what they specially liked in the programme. This feedback is always encouraging and as a team we are happy to continue this outreach as long as it is serving a good purpose and we are seeing answers  to prayer each time.  I should mention that the information is posted on our church Seniors Facebook page which is also read by some of our not-yet-retired members and friends, who take prayer seriously and support us in this way. That goes for a housebound member too who is very faithful in upholding us.  We all acknowledge that we can do all the planning and presenting, but only Holy Spirit can work in hearts to make it all worthwhile.

For anyone thinking about starting this kind of ministry for older people, Judi shares 3 tops tips:

1) Identify your target audience, who do you want to reach?

2) Get a praying, caring, active team around you

3) Make a long list of ideas for items you would like to include in programmes in the future

We’re grateful to Judi for sharing her experience with us. Please pray for her team and all those they are serving each month.

If there’s something you do in your church or community which is helping people to have faith in later life, we’d love to hear from you!