How to Maximize Your Golden Years

Host: Dr. Jamie Mitchell

Guest: Robert Morgan

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 1/6/26. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Jamie Mitchell:

Well, hello friends. Happy new year. Welcome to 2026 and a new broadcast year here at Stand in the Gap today. I’m Jamie Mitchell, director of church culture at the American Pastors Network. It’s my privilege to host most Tuesdays. And as I planned out our program, I anticipated with excitement and challenging and formative uplifting faith building here at the American Pastors Network. I also been praying about how we can help you on your journey of faith and service for the Lord Jesus. I’m glad that you’re along for the ride. I want to start this new year off right and thinking about my first guest for 2026. I immediately thought of Robert Morgan. A matter of fact, Robert’s been my first guest the last two years. And so I hope third time is the charm. Robert is pastor for over 40 years, currently serving as associate pastor at World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

He’s authored 35 books, five million copies in circulation in multiple languages. He’s been on various TV and radio programs, speaks widely at conferences and schools. He also has been a homemaker and caregiver for his late wife of 43 years, Katrina, who battled multiple sclerosis and passed away in 2019. They together have three daughters, 16 grandchildren, and he is a favorite of mine. Robert, welcome to Stand in the Gap and Happy New Year.

Robert Morgan:

Happy New Year, Jamie. I’m so glad to be with you. Thank you for inviting me.

Jamie Mitchell:

Robert, there’s so many things we could discuss, but thinking about how you could really impact our audience, I couldn’t help to think about, well, watching you on Facebook and other outlooks. And I have to tell you, brother, you exhaust me. You are a busy, busy minister of God. The different countries you’ve been to, the pulpits you’ve preached into. I’ve watched you traveling with your grandkids. Brother, I thought you were retiring. And so today, I want to talk about this issue of maximizing your golden years. Many of our stand to the gap listeners are older. They’re retired. And from where I sit, they have time, wisdom, possibly wealth, and could be in a great season of impact, yet many of them just fade into the sunset. And so Robert, you seem to be thriving, not just surviving your senior years. Why do so many Christians as they get older check out?

And why should we make these years fruitful and impactful in this time of our lives as seniors?

Robert Morgan:

Well, I think there’s maybe three reasons why we don’t take advantage of our opportunities to minister when we’re older. One is, of course, that sometimes we really do have health issues. And I’ve been fortunate to be healthy at the age of 73 and one half. Do you notice that when we are children and when we get older, we measure our lifespan with one half years. But I’ve been fortunate to be healthy, but some people aren’t. And so when you have various illnesses or sicknesses or diseases that strike you, it can discourage you. I don’t think it exempts us from doing what God calls us to do every day, but it can be discouraging. Secondly, we have a society in which we automatically have been programmed to think that we retire at the age of 65 or 66 or whatever it is. And we’ve adopted that sociological template for us, even though I don’t think it’s biblical.

And thirdly, some of us just have not been thriving in our spiritual life throughout the decades. And so when we get to our senior years, it’s no different. We aren’t thriving now because we haven’t had a practice of thriving, which I think really comes from a commitment to Christ coupled with the daily quiet time. To me, that’s the secret of thriving. But I think we’ve got to change our attitude and say, “I am more useful to the Lord now than I’ve ever been before.” And the Bible tells us time and time again that we can be fruitful in old age. So I don’t plan to stop and I hope you don’t plan to stop. We’re just going to keep going to the Lord calls us home like the old hymn that says, “We’ll work till Jesus comes, then we’ll be carried home.” That’s my attitude.

Jamie Mitchell:

Robert, when you talk about society and how they view seniors and age and that kind of thing, obviously there is an emphasis on youthfulness and energy and newness and all of that. But I think, and tell me if I’m wrong on this, I think that the church has failed in this way too, where we look at our seniors as people who are standing in the way or won’t change or unwilling to make adjustments. And so we kind of push them aside and we move on to something new or younger and maybe the church has made this problem for ourselves, haven’t we?

Robert Morgan:

Well, I mean, it happened to me. I pastored in a church for 42 years and then I stepped away because my wife was ill, but I still wanted to be of service, but I kept getting signals from the young team that took over that they wanted to do things their way and that they weren’t too happy with my looking over their shoulder. And so I do think that this is a problem for congregations. I think pastors have got to realize that their greatest wealth of experience, the greatest accumulations of grace, the most long lived testimonies are sitting there with gray hair on their heads and we still have an awful lot to offer. I’m not going to be denied when it comes to the opportunity of ministry. If they don’t want me one place, I’ll go to another, but God has called me to do a work and I don’t want to finish until I’m done.

And I think if pastors, if they preached expositionally in their pulpits, if they taught people to have their quiet times, if they had a music program in their church that balanced new music with older hymns, if they created an environment where older people could feel at home and thrive and feel useful, it would really change the atmosphere of that church for everyone down to the nurseries and to the babies and the cribs. The church should be all inclusive for every age group of Christian believer and to focus on young people and to neglect the older people, that just is antithetical to everything the Bible teaches.

Jamie Mitchell:

And older people and seniors can’t just throw their hands and say, “That’s it. I’m done and I’ve checked all the boxes and now I just need to walk away.” I was preaching yesterday on enfolding new believers into our church and how important it is to have older saints come around these younger ones. It’s so important. Friends, we might be getting older and our runway might be a bit shorter, but God is not done with us. He has a purpose and a plan, and most importantly, people who need us. When we return, I want to discover Robert’s secret to keeping renewed and refreshed. He mentioned it, that one of the things is that we don’t keep up spiritually. We’re talking about how to maximize your golden years. This is a brand new year here at Stand in the Gap today. Stay with us. Well, welcome back to Stand of the Gap this new year.

And my guest is Robert J. Morgan, author of The Red Sea Rules, a hundred verses that Made America then sings my soul. He’s got a new book coming out. I also want to talk about God has not forgotten you. Robert, we’re discussing how to maximize our golden years and tempting to encourage and challenge our senior listeners. One of the things that I hear from seniors from different times is, “Well, I’ve served my time.” Or they’ll say, “Well, I’ve seen it all. There’s nothing new under the sun.” And they’re kind of stuck spiritually. Robert, practically and personally, how do you keep renewed and refresh and revitalized, not just because you’re a pastor of 40 years, but what are some of the patterns and practices that keeps you fresh that you could pass along to some of the seniors that are listening today?

Robert Morgan:

Well, it’s really very simple. I’m glad that it’s simple. We need to stay as healthy as we reasonably can in body, mind, and soul. And embody, that just means getting at least some moderate exercise and eating well and seeing our doctors regularly. And mind, I think it means reading, just spending some time every day in a good book. And then in spirit, it’s a matter of being daily committed to Christ and asking to be filled with his Holy Spirit, and then having our daily quiet time. And this is something that I learned to do when I was 19 years old. I had mentors who taught me, and I’ve been doing it now for all these years. I’m 73. I’ve seldom missed today. I can’t say I’ve never missed a day, but I wake up in the morning, I have a little desk in my bedroom that overlooks the bird feeders, and I’ll sit down with my journal and with my Bible and with my hymn book, and I just want to get my soul fresh and fed and happy in the Lord before I begin the day.

And to me, those things are the secret. I think everything else is overflow. We have to remember that ministry is overflow, that if it isn’t overflowing, then we’ll burn out and we’ll just become burned out and exhausted. But if what we are doing for the Lord is the overflow of our own personal healthiness of abiding in Christ, then we just never … As long as we’re alive, God has something for us to do and we have the enthusiasm to do what he assigns for us every day. It says in two Corinthians that the Lord has assigned to each his task. And so we’re servants. The Lord assigns to us our daily work and at the end of my quiet time every day, I make a little list. I say, “Lord, what do you want me to do today?” And it may be talking to you, or it could be studying or preparing a sermon, or it could be visiting someone that’s sick, or it could be any one of a thousand different things, but I look at my calendar, I look at my to- do list, and I just plan out an agenda for the day, and at the end of the day, I’m usually … Sometimes I don’t get it all done, so I say, “Lord, I’m going to go to bed and leave the undone with you, but when I wake up the next morning, there’s a new set of work to be done for the Lord.” So stay healthy in body, mind, and soul.

We can for sure stay healthy and soul. We hope we’ll stay healthy in mind. Our bodies, the Bible says outwardly we are perishing, but inwardly we’re being renewed day by day. So we just do the best we can, but we’ve got to be diligent to, as Paul said in Acts 20, take heed to ourselves.

Jamie Mitchell:

Robert, as you’re talking, I’m thinking about seniors that I know and their body is slowing down and they’ve got some ailments and that kind of thing, but it’s the senior who has over a longer period of time, they have found great solace and great strength from the meditation of God’s word and really prayer almost as you slow down and some of the distractions of life and the busyness of life starts to kind of fade away for the senior who is really in touch and in tune with the Lord, it becomes a great season of intense prayer for others, even as they read the scriptures, they begin to get insights that they didn’t see before, but you can’t just start doing that when you’re 65 or 70 years old. There is a sense that you need to have built up to that. So what you’re saying is so, so true.

Now, Robert, I want to talk about this book, God has not forgotten you. I have to admit, I haven’t gotten it yet. I’m going to get it, but reading the descriptions and the reviews and all of it, I love the message. I love the biblical story that is woven through it. Can you tell folks about this book and why the message of this book can be so relevant for seniors?

Robert Morgan:

Well, yes, absolutely. It’s the story of Zachariah and Elizabeth in Luke chapter one, and it’s the most incredible story. I think that a lot of us skip over because at Christmastime we go right to Luke chapter two, and we forget that before Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus through Zachariah and Elizabeth and baby John, and everything began with Zechariah and John, the whole gospel era, the New Testament story, everything began with them and it says they were very old. I mean, Luke in writing uses that adverb very, or that adjective. They were very old and I’m sure they thought that probably they were in their declining years and there was very little left they could do, but they were faithful. They were continuing to work. Zachariah would go to the temple and fulfill his obligations there twice a year. Elizabeth was the daughter and the wife of a priest.

They were a godly family. And the Bible says in two Chronicles that the eyes of the Lord range to and fro throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to the Lord. And I think the eyes of the Lord searched through the Judean Hills to find an old couple and the Lord came into their lives and they found out that they were more useful to the Lord in their old age than they had ever been before. And the lessons that you can extrapolate out of their very picturesque evocative story is just incredible. And I think I have a story about you in that book as a matter of fact. I’ll send you a copy, but God hasn’t forgotten you is really a book about how God came into the lives of people who thought their best days were behind them and used them to launch the whole era of the gospel of Jesus Christ into this world.

Jamie Mitchell:

Robert, as you were speaking about that, and I love the story of Zachary and Elizabeth, matter of fact, I’d make it a point at least every other or every couple years to make sure we tell that story during the Christmas season. But it is a great message because in many respects, they had waited and waited and waited, but God was not going to bring maybe their most important ministry days until they were old. It was almost like God was preparing them all of those younger years for what would become the pinnacle of their ministry. God does that with seniors, doesn’t he? He sometimes waits until they’re older so that there is really that big spiritual moment that God has been waiting to do in their lives.

Robert Morgan:

That’s exactly true. It’s very biblical. We look at the Bible and there are people there whose greatest ministry came when they thought their lives were near their end. Moses was 80 years old, for example, and think of Simeon and Anna in the temple. They were the only ones who, when Joseph and Mary walked in with that baby and the God man was brought for the first time into the temple of Jerusalem. There were thousands of people milling around, but only two people recognized that Jesus, the Messiah was now in the temple, and that was Anna and Simeon who were old. And so you can go through the Bible and you can find … I’ll tell you, Jamie, one of the things that I’ve done is I’ve deliberately memorized passages in the Bible that talk about the advantages that we have in old age. For example, Psalm 92 says, “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree.

They will grow in the Cedar of Lebanon and in the courts of their God, they will be planted. They will flourish. They will steal bear fruit in old age. They will stay fresh in green proclaiming. The Lord is upright. He is my rock and there is no wickedness in him.” There are passages like this throughout the scripture and two Corinthians were told that outwardly we are wasting away, but inwardly we’re being renewed day by day. And sometimes God allows our outer body to be deteriorating so that our inner spirit can more and more take precedent and lead the way and be a refreshing and an effective ministry for other people. So yes, I think you’re absolutely right and the Bible ratifies that in the examples it gives us.

Jamie Mitchell:

But the sad thing is if you’re a senior listening today and you’re not keeping yourself vitally connected to the Lord, if you’re not continuing in the word, if you’re not increasing in your ability to pray, if you’re not around God’s people, if you isolate yourself, beloved, listen, you are going to miss out on maybe that moment, a Zachariah Elizabeth moment, a Simeon or Anna moment, a Moses moment where now you find yourself in your senior years and God wants to use you, but you’re not there. You’re not where you need to be. I think the message is clear. You can’t live life on past accomplishments and relying on leftover fuel. You got to replenish ourselves spiritually, relationally, emotionally, keep our tanks filled next up. One of the keys of a fruitful life, especially as we get older, is blessing others. I want Robert to weigh in on this because I know that his life, he is a blessing to many.

So don’t go anywhere. Stay with us here. Stand in the gap today. Thank you for joining us today as we kick off this new year and especially try to jumpstart some of our older saints who listen to our program so faithfully. We’re so grateful for you. Robert Morgan is lending his wisdom and insights and it’s always a joy to have him with us on the program. Robert, as I watch your life from a distance and through the magic of social media, one of the things I pick up about your life right now and your golden years is how you are always with other people. You’re around a lot of people, whether it’s traveling with a grandchild or ministering to a fellow pastor or some person who you’re sharing life with. It always seems to me, and tell me if I’m wrong, you’re blessing others and encouraging others all the time.

Tell me about that. Why do you do that? Why is that so important? And what must we do intentionally about learning to bless others and be a blessing to them?

Robert Morgan:

Well, yes, you’re right. But I want to say I’m an introvert. It doesn’t come naturally for me to mingle with people or to be with people, but as a minister over the years, I’ve had to learn to be a functional introvert. So I just sort of do it by habit now. And one of the greatest things is to be able to share what you have learned through the years with younger people. When I turned 71 a couple of years ago, I read Psalm 71. I just said, “I’m going to read a Psalm every year on my birthday that corresponds to my age.” Well, Psalm 71 says in it, “Oh Lord, do not forsake me when I am old until I am able to share your message with the next generation and your power for all who are to come.” So I made that a very serious prayer.

I said, “Lord, help me to be able to share your message and to mentor young people. ” Well, the Lord took that very seriously. Not only do I have grandchildren and sons and laws that need some guidance and mentoring, but the Lord has just brought a lot of young adults into my life that I didn’t expect and it’s been the greatest joy that I have now. I have a Bible study for young adults that meets in my home. I do mentoring with … I found that an awfully lot of young men in their late teens and early 20s, they want guidance. They need … A lot of them haven’t had a father figure in their life and they’re confused. They want to know what to do. They want to know how to establish a close walk with the Lord, and they’re just hungry for that kind of mentoring.

And then when you go to church, there’s this thing called ministering by walking around. Or it’s not just necessarily in church, sometimes it’s in the supermarket or it’s on the pickleball court or wherever you go, but you just minister by walking around and you look at someone, you read their face, you say, “What can I do for you? How can I help you today? Or even what can I pray for you? ” And very often people are just waiting to share some burden and maybe have a word of prayer. So there’s just a lot of informal ministry that we do when we are mingling with people. It’s easy to isolate ourselves and sometimes it’s hard to put ourselves out there, but you’re right that socializing of ourselves with other people and with ministry in view is part of what keeps us healthy.

Jamie Mitchell:

Robert, I don’t want to cause some of our listeners to have distress, but ministering to your grandkids, that seems like that is something that you enjoy doing, that you’re doing a lot. You seem to be making memories with your grandkids. I know that we probably have some seniors who are listening as I know throughout the landscape of life that there’s some seniors that don’t have a great relationship with their kids or their grandkids, but for those who do, or those who can reclaim those relationships, does that give you life when you’re around your grandkids and you get to pass on things to them that you get to share at this point in your life?

Robert Morgan:

Yes, it absolutely does. Now, I will say some people do not have grandchildren and some people have troubled families. And to be totally honest, we all have troubled families and every member of our family is a problem in some ways. And I’ve gone through some deep waters with my children and grandchildren. So it’s not always easy, but to love on your grandchildren, being a grandparent, the relationship between a grandparent and a grandchild is the most uncomplicated of all human relationships as a rule. It’s the most uncomplicated of all human relationships. It’s basically just one of smiling and love and being together and being a model, being an example occasionally when it’s right, giving some advice or some counsel and certainly praying for your grandchildren. You can also do this with the children at church. The greatest ministry in a local church is the ministry with nursery babies, toddlers, and elementary children and middle school children because they are the ones most likely to come to Christ among all of the demographic groups.

So if we don’t have grandchildren, there are children or there are a lot of children all around us as a rule. I know some people live in retirement communities or in condominiums where there aren’t, but if you can find children, then you can find a way of ministering. It’s a powerful thing to learn to do.

Jamie Mitchell:

Robert, one of your books is entitled Calm Your Anxiety. As I look at a lot of seniors, but I also look at a lot of people who I interact with, there is some level of worry or fear or paralyzing imagination and they’re constantly in fret. How does focusing on others, interacting with others, blessing others, how does that both help you if you’re dealing with anxiety and how do you minister to those who are maybe gripped by fear and worry? How do we pass on the truths of God’s word about how to calm our anxieties?

Robert Morgan:

Yeah, let me say three things about that. I’m really prone to anxiety. I struggle. I’ve struggled with anxiety all of my life, but I found a great deal of help, first of all, by memorizing passages of scripture about it. God the Father said in Psalm 37, “Do not fret.” God, the son said in Matthew chapter six, “Do not worry about your life.” And God, the Holy Spirit said through the pen of Paul in Philippians four, “Do not be anxious about anything.” So I’ve memorized these passages and I’ve said, “Father, Son and Holy Spirit, come and help me with my anxieties.” So I think that has a lot to do with being able to overcome the fears of life. Secondly, Elizabeth Elliot always said, “Do the next thing. Don’t just sit around and worry and ring your hands, but just get up and do whatever needs to be done next.” It might be mopping the floor or it might be writing a letter, but we can’t just sit down and collapse into our anxieties.

And then thirdly, like you say, do something for somebody else because other people have problems and anxieties too. And by focusing on others, you’re lessening the focus on yourself. So learning to deal with anxiety is a lifelong, I don’t want to say struggle, but it’s a lifelong education for me. I’m still working on it, but we can’t let anxiety cripple our lives. We’re more prone towards anxiety, I think, when we get older because we have physical problems and doctor’s appointments and we have sometimes more children and grandchildren to worry about, but we also have a greater level of faith than we’ve ever had before. We have accumulated grace. We have the years of testimony of God’s faithfulness to us. So we should, I think we’ve just got to preach to ourselves and talk to ourselves and build ourselves up and quote scripture to ourselves and go on victoriously.

Jamie Mitchell:

And part of that, Robert, is that as we get older, we do have experienced losses in our lives. We experience changes that equal to almost like a death. I mean, I’ve been around seniors who they had to give up driving. That was like a death in their lives. And so we are, as we get older, facing some times of loss and grief and disappointment. But again, it’s a great time for you who are listening today. It’s a great time if you can grab hold of the Lord and work through your grief and loss and anxiety. And then Robert, you put it on display for others to see. And that’s really what we’re trying to encourage our listeners today, isn’t it? That at our age to put our life with God on display.

Robert Morgan:

Well, my wife, Katrina, she loved the Lord. She had her devotions every single morning at her desk and reveled in her relationship with the Lord. She just kept declining with multiple sclerosis and then she began having a series of UTIs and the time came when I knew that she wasn’t going to live very much longer. And I remember one night putting her into bed and I was so troubled and distraught and I went outside to the patio and sat down and just had something to drink and to talk to the Lord. An old song came to me that I hadn’t heard for years, but it says that our heavenly Father watches over us and the words say, if I can think of them, that come what may the Lord will care for us whether on the ocean deep or on the mountaintop that the heavenly Father watches over us.

I can’t quote it to you exactly, but that song and the truth of it sustained me through that last month between its life. And about six years since she passed away and I still miss her. But I look back with Thanksgiving and I look forward with anticipation.

Jamie Mitchell:

Amen. Well, Robert, when we finish up in this next section, I want to talk about how the church should encourage those in their golden years. We face a lot as older people and the church will be there to help us. Well, even though we have flipped the calendar that didn’t change the hands on the clock and our time is just about complete, we’ve had the privilege of having Robert J. Morgan with us. We’ve been talking about how to maximize our golden years. Robert, before we end, can you tell people where they can find out about your books and videos and podcasts and all things that you’re doing? And would you take a moment also and mention a new book that you have coming out in line with a movie that’s coming out? What’s happening on your front that our people can be encouraged by?

Robert Morgan:

Well, thank you, Jamie. Yes. Robertjmorgan.com is my website and you can find information there about of all of our books and resources about the Bible study podcast I do every week. And also on social media, robertjmorgan.com, I put a 59 second sermon on every day. And then the book you’re referring to is called The Origin of Hymns, The Origin of Hymns. And it’s the story of the great hymns of the faith and it’s coming out in conjunction with the movie. I can only imagine two, but you can pre-order that book now wherever fine books are sold. And let me just add a final word, Jamie, that it is attitude, not arteries that make up the quality of our golden years.

Jamie Mitchell:

I like that. I’m going to use that. Robert, I have to tell you though, I don’t encourage people to listen to your 59 second sermons because then they expect me only to preach that long. And they also say that they get more out of your 59 seconds than my 55 minute sermons. So just a little disclaimer that I’m not encouraging people, but in all seriousness, we are so thankful and you’re a real gift to the church and we’re so thankful for you being on here. Robert, you’ve served as a senior pastor for 40 years. Now you’re in associate role in a great church in Tennessee, and I know you have a heart for the church. You’ve been talking about seniors keeping active, making a difference, and a place that they could find help is hopefully their church. What would you say to a pastor or church leader listening today about how they view seniors and the kind of things that they should be doing to help senior saints maximize their golden years?

Robert Morgan:

Well, there’s a lot of things pastors can do. A pastor has got to be aware of all the different age groups in a church. And too many pastors, especially younger ones, are focused on winning people, teenagers and people in their 20s. And as a result of that, they shift all of the programming in that direction. But there is a growing, wonderful group of godly people who are getting older every single day, as we all are, who are available there. We’ve got to make sure that our worship services will be sensitive to the needs of senior adults. I don’t believe in segregating senior adults and just having one night a month when they can sing hymns. I think that the worship services should have the kind of liturgy and hymnody and fresher music and newer music and prayers that will be appropriate to every age group.

And then to find ways for senior adults to minister. I mean, that’s not very hard to do. They make the best greeters. They are the best in the children’s areas. They have the experience to mentor young people. So pastors, they can focus on reaching younger adults, but they cannot do it to the neglect of making sure that the needs of senior adults are fully met and celebrated even. They need to be celebrated.

Jamie Mitchell:

And for seniors, as they look at their church, they see changes happening, they see different ministries starting and maybe some long time ministries coming to an end. They see the change in the worship style and even how people dress when they come to church. For seniors though, Robert, a word of encouragement, how do they need to approach, as you mentioned there, what kind of attitude should a senior now have when they are at church and as they stand there and watching some of the things change at their church?

Robert Morgan:

Well, we should always be open to change. Change is inevitable, change is good, change isn’t necessarily threatening. Things are not going to be permanent on this planet. And so change is all right. When the changes though are detrimental in some way, then we need to pray about it. And sometimes very kindly we need to address it. I mean, to be able in a very kind way to talk to your pastor or your worship leader or the director of your age group ministry and say, “This isn’t working for my age group.” And you’ve got to be sensitive to where we are. I think our input is needed, especially younger staff members and younger pastors, they need mentoring too. They don’t need to be scolded, but they need to have some good wisdom given to them by senior adults in an appropriate way because we can have a governing effect on what is good and what is bad in terms of these changes.

Now, if the changes are truly detrimental and they are damaging, and especially if they are theologically careless, then the time may come when we find another church. But I think that’s the last resort. I think most congregations want to really embrace and love their senior adults. We just need to be embraceable and lovable and usable and let the Lord use us wherever it is that he has placed us.

Jamie Mitchell:

You know, Robert, I was talking to a number of pastors about this and I do a seminar entitled Reclaiming Your Seniors and really challenging churches to look at where they’re at because I think there are these segments of seniors throughout the evangelical community that are wandering. They’re nomads. They’re looking for a place to land because they feel like their church have left them behind. But one of the things I tell pastors all the time is that if you have seniors in your church, occasionally have a lunch or have a fellowship time and as the senior pastor, say to your seniors, “Tell us how we’re doing. Tell us what you think about the church, what concerns you, what encourages you and begin this dialogue.” And when they do, the pastors that I have encouraged to do that, if they’ve done it, you know what they say, they say, “Man, we learned some things that we just didn’t understand.” That would probably be a good place for some of our pastors to start, wouldn’t it, Robert?

Robert Morgan:

I love that advice. When I was pastoring the church that I was at for 42 years, we started the senior adult group, my wife and I in our living room, because when we went to the church, it was relatively small. And as it began to grow, we got a youth minister, we got a children’s pastor, and I looked around and some of the older people, they really didn’t have much organized for them. So we invited them up to our house we fixed, I think, or durves or something for them, and just said, “Now, what do we need to do to really take advantage of caring for you and abusing you? ” So we started our senior citizens ministry there, and I was always close to that particular group. I began pastoring when I was 27 at that church and pastored until I was in my upper 60s, and I was always close to our senior adults.

They were a blessing to me. They were always behind me. They were always supportive of me. They didn’t always agree with something that I did, but they would tell me, and we’d do our best to find a resolution. There’s one particular time when we just couldn’t, and it broke my heart and I still look back with grief over that. But for the most part, that interaction between the pastor and my older people, it was so enriching both them and to me.

Jamie Mitchell:

Amen. Robert Morgan, you’re a gift to the body of Christ. Thank you. What a way to start our new year. Be blessed, be used. And remember, God has not forgotten you. Pick up Robert’s book. I know you’ll be encouraged. And so until tomorrow, thank you for joining us here at Stand of the Gap today. You have a great day. And for you seniors, we pray you will be ignited with passion for the Lord today. God bless you. Have a great rest of your day.