{"id":6863,"date":"2014-04-01T19:00:16","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T02:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=6863"},"modified":"2014-04-01T17:56:49","modified_gmt":"2014-04-02T00:56:49","slug":"nurturing-elders-putting-the-you-me-we-into-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/nurturing-elders-putting-the-you-me-we-into-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Nurturing Elders: Putting the You, Me, We into US"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nurturing Elders and Others:<\/em>
\nPutting the You, Me, We into US<\/strong>
\nBy Douglas Ferguson<\/em> | Photos by Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: Douglas Ferguson, a young adult within the PNW Conference is guest writing for the Rev. Paul Graves this month! Ferguson spots a light on our squabbles as a church and the impact on both older adults and young people. As we move towards a future that may involve less- or no-church, how can we work together to be the embodiment of faith that is multicultural and multigenerational, today? How can we be more relevant?<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been an old soul, and in this way the church has always fit me well. One thing I love about the UMC is the sheer diversity of theological dialogue within our denomination. While we have one Book of Discipline, our church doctrine is formed through the evolving compromise of many different perspectives. Yet now more than ever, we are a house divided – on a range of issues. However, the biggest controversy of all is how these internal debates are distracting us from our higher calling.<\/p>\n


\nOur division is causing people to leave the church. So it\u2019s time to start bridging some gaps. One age-old gap in particular is the \u201cage-gap\u201d itself. \u201cGenerational\u201d divisiveness is causing countless local churches to die a slow death, and as a result the larger church body is withering. If the church of the future is no church at all, then all of our current arguments become instantly superficial. As I\u2019ve aged, I\u2019ve realized that I have few to no answers by myself. United as we still are, we can find real solutions through intergenerational dialogue. And while I am short on answers, I do have some questions for all of us to consider to possibly help lessen the gap between younger and older adults:<\/p>\n

Older adults say they welcome young adults,<\/strong>
\n but when it comes to changing our church service<\/strong>
\n to be more welcoming\u2026how willing are we?<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

Younger adults say they have new ideas,
\nbut are they willing to listen and learn from
\nthe experiences of older adults before brushing them off?<\/p>\n

Are we truly willing to learn from each other?<\/strong>
\n Are we willing to try out others\u2019 ideas instead dismissing them?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Are we able to listen?
\nNot politely hear others, but truly hear them out?
\nAre we willing to act on some of their suggestions?
\nBe they younger or older?<\/p>\n

Are we called to have a worship service that we like,<\/strong>
\n or are we called to create a worship environment<\/strong>
\n that draws in and welcomes un-churched visitors?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Are we willing to sing songs that are new to us?
\nHymns? Praise songs? Contemporary music?<\/p>\n

Are we willing to do church together\u2026 independent of age?<\/strong>
\n Worship together? Minister together?<\/strong>
\n Form small groups together?<\/strong>
\n Evangelize together? Serve others together?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When is a young adult not a young adult?
\nWhen is an older adult an elder?<\/p>\n

Shouldn\u2019t we listen intently to our youth<\/strong>
\n because they are our future?<\/strong>
\n Shouldn\u2019t we listen to the voice, wisdom,<\/strong>
\n and experience of our elders?<\/strong>
\n Shouldn\u2019t we listen to our young adults\u2019 ideas<\/strong>
\n and embrace their energy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have been involved in this conference most of my life, but I\u2019m not a youth, young adult, older adult, or elder by PNW conference standards. Admittedly, my perspective is still on the younger side of things at this point, but at the age of 35 it really shouldn\u2019t be. How are we, together, going to grow the church again? Perhaps we\u2019ll get there through the process of answering some very tough questions.<\/p>\n

\n

\"RESOURCE_ALifeWorthy\"<\/center><\/p>\n

A Life Worthy of the Gospel (D4758)<\/a><\/h1>\n

How do Christians think and act faithfully in a complex and often ambiguous world? What models from scripture and church history might help us to live \u201clives worthy of the Gospel\u201d in the 21st century?<\/p>\n

Join noted ethicist, Dr. Sondra Wheeler, in an exploration of a Christian way of living, how Scripture is the story that forms us and what we can learn from our various religious traditions revealed in theology of Augustine, Luther and Wesley.<\/p>\n

Tom Ferguson of Colby UMC used this resource and said, \u201cOur group really enjoyed the videos and were asking for more from Dr. Wheeler. It was an excellent study.\u201d<\/p>\n

E-mail Ellen Johanson at ejohanson@pnwumc.org<\/a> to reserve this resource, today!<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nurturing Elders and Others: Putting the You, Me, We into US By Douglas Ferguson | Photos by Wikimedia Commons Editor\u2019s note: Douglas Ferguson, a young adult within the PNW Conference is guest writing for the Rev. Paul Graves this month! Ferguson spots a light on our squabbles as a church and the impact on both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":6864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[111,6,142,112],"tags":[334,331,333,327],"class_list":{"0":"post-6863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-channels","8":"category-conversation","9":"category-older-adult-ministries","10":"category-ministries-with-young-people","11":"tag-generational","12":"tag-methodism","13":"tag-ministry","14":"tag-older-adults"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/INSIGHTS_NurturingElders_Doug.jpg?fit=700%2C357&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-1MH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6863"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6877,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6863\/revisions\/6877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}