Disciple Making in Later Life
Author: Judi Spencer
We recently asked Church Champion, Judi, to share something of her experience of people coming to a deepening faith in later life…
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.