June Newsletter

Reaching, serving and empowering older people

Welcome to this June Faith in Later Life newsletter where we will be sharing updates and news, signposting to new resources, and highlighting opportunities for you to get involved with.

 

“To stumble across your website from a Google search for Seniors Ministry was an answer to prayer… we think there is a wealth of experience to be shared from churches doing this ministry well and here is a platform in which we can learn and grow together”

Church Champion

 

Resource of the month

‘Guidance for Christian Faith Organisations in the support and value of older people’

 

This FREE guidance considers by Professor Keith Brown a range of issues facing older people, and challenges churches and Christian faith organisations to do the same. Those living in the fourth age are not a homogeneous group; to start with they represent people from different generations, with different life experiences, a range of health issues and different social situations. They are also at different stages of a faith journey, many will have been to Sunday school as children, many will have been married in church. Some will have been life-time Christians and be regular church attenders, some will now only go to church for ceremonies, others will not want to step foot into a church again.

The diversity of the fourth age provides great opportunity for churches and Christian faith organisations; this guidance gives some ideas to churches for different ministries, outreach and mission among older people.

 

June news

 

Can you believe we are already halfway through the year? I don’t know about you, but it feels like this year is moving very fast indeed- despite still being in the midst of the current pandemic challenges we may be facing. Whatever our circumstances, we thank God that He is with us.

 

It was a pleasure earlier this month to speak to a church in St Helens, in the Northwest of England, sharing a bit about the work of Faith in Later Life. We are so encouraged when we are invited to share amongst our friends and supporters. If you would like a church ‘visit’ do get in touch.

 

We were delighted to speak to FIEC church leaders this month too, at one of their weekly ‘Leadership in Lockdown’ seminars. I was joined by Pippa Cramer as we shared about how to continue to engage with older people as we slowly emerge from lockdown. If you would like to watch the session you can do so by clicking here. Pippa and I also both spoke at the Faith in the Second Half conference last month, and those sessions are now available to watch on the Keswick Ministries website.

 

I am also very pleased to say that Pippa Cramer has joined Faith in Later Life more ‘officially’ as one of our Ambassadors, alongside Professor Keith Brown, Dr Fiona Costa, and the broadcaster and author Pam Rhodes. To read more about our Ambassadors, do visit our website by clicking here.

 

Looking forward, we are excited to announce our inaugural Church Champions annual conference which will be held on Saturday 18th September, online. We are delighted that Debbie Thrower, founder and pioneer of the Anna Chaplaincy movement, and Professor Keith Brown are going to be speaking to us, and we will be announcing other speakers in due course. The conference will be free for Church Champions but also available to everyone else. To join our Church Champion community or for more information, do visit our website.

 

Thank you so much for your continued prayers as well as your financial support, both of which are vital. We are hugely grateful for all the prayer support we receive as well as for the monthly direct debits and gifts that you have been giving. Your giving is enabling us to invest in growing our Church Champion community and associated resources, as we seek to inspire and equip Christians in their Kingdom impact in local communities across the UK. If you feel prompted, would you prayerfully consider whether you could commit to giving, to enable our ministry to continue? If you were able to give regularly (every pound makes a difference) to the work of Faith in Later Life- or even a one-off donation- that would be hugely appreciated and would help us with our planning. You can give by contacting us directly and we can provide our bank details, or by setting up giving via our website. If you would like a conversation about this, I would be delighted to speak with you.

 

Thank you once again for all your support for Faith in Later Life, and your interest in keeping up to date with what we are doing.

 

Everything we do is underpinned by prayer, so we thank you for your continued prayers for our ministry. Please can you pray along the lines below:

• Please continue to pray for plans across 2021
• For financial provision for our work in 2021
• That through our Church Champion network we would be able to support and equip church communities in serving and empowering older Christians and reaching older people in the community with the love and good news of Jesus.

 

Yours in Christ,

CEO, Faith in Later Life