In today’s Church it seems as if there is a dearth of older men to train the youthful men, older women to train the youthful women, each in the respective things in which the elders are commanded to do this.
Luckily for me, my Church is not one of them. I am saddened by how obsessed today’s Church is with “getting younger people” when they are blessed with the older; I’m glad for evangelism, and of course we don’t want Churches doing anything they ought not be to drive people away (i.e. needless offense due not to the the inherent truth of Scripture, or asserting liberties against brothers’ consciences, or not discerning the body, etc.); here’s a decent blogpost that relates somewhat, though there are a few things that concern me with it: (1) what is the Church near to that campus of Bethlehem, as I know there’s several campuses of a highly popular, but terrible (I have insider information, documentation, messages, teachings, etc.) GC church, and (2) the opposition to Dever very well may be because he’s Amyraldian, but both are speculative, so they’re only cautions, not accusations.
I also think that obsession, though, shows a distinct lack of faith in God: why get the old people who are just going to die anyways? Won’t that weaken the Church and drive it away? Won’t it drive “seekers” (falsely so-called: look in Scripture and tell me, who is the seeker, God or man, and tell me if the seeker ever fails) away? How can I preach to an old person, won’t they not take a youngin’ like myself (or ourselves) seriously? Won’t they deaden the worship or want what’s too traditional? Etc.
I think that any Church filled with the aged, who are wise and practiced in discernment, who have lived faithful lives, and so forth, will be much strengthened: where I am at I have noticed great humility, that the aged men are able immediately to speak-up if a teacher mispeaks or misteaches, and urge such teachers to check themselves, this in “Sunday School”, which is a post-service gathering where we go over doctrinal books together and hang-out pre- and post- that extra teaching by the older men. It’s also often the time used when the Church must have meetings.
Odd as this may sound, even being a young man, I much prefer the company of the aged most of the time (or, at least having mixed company, which is actually even better), for their wisdom, correction, moral authority, etc.: they can command respect without needing to demand it, while demonstrating utter humility: where I came out of, the humility was feigned, and that illusion easily broken if someone just brought the Scriptures to bear on “your leader’s ideas” (which, of course, you were not to question, period!). The aged can also keep people in-line, and have the authority of presence to hinder and cut down any leaven that begins to rise. Love it, love it!
