Comments

I see that at the ‘God’s Glory, our Joy’ conference next Saturday in Warrington the opening session is entitled, ‘Building Biblical Churches in an Ageing Society’. How fascinating, and how relevant! Already the proportion of older people in this country is getting greater and greater and that of younger people proportionally smaller. This is the first time I have seen any Christians acknowledge this or suggest we should prepare for it. What differences would this make to our worship? Should it make any?

A commission carried out by the Royal College of GP’s and the Health Foundation charity says that doctors should adopt the role once taken by the ‘local priest’. This, I think, is a challenge to pastors and churches. A pastor, or elder, who really knows the families in the church, and reaches out to relatives beyond the church; who understands people, who knows how to get alongside them, who is able to give good general advice and be a real friend, is doing invaluable work and making openings for the gospel that are hard to get in any other way. I think we have probably failed very much in this area – and I don’t think GP’s will ever be able to fill the gap, even on a social level.