It was a Good Opportunity to Understand the Elderly’s Views

I am afraid that some elderly people felt left out and displeased after reading my previous two Pastor’s Corners. One of the postings received lots of comments and there were some offline discussion on church cemetery. Some sent letters to me, too. First of all, I honestly apologize to those who felt left out and displeased. Our church respect and honor the elderly in making our decisions. What I meant to say was that our mission as a church is more important; I am afraid this was interpreted in a wrong way.

At the same time, it is true that I did not fully understand the elderly’s needs and difficulties. Until now, I, rather than doing something specific for the elderly in our church, was thinking more about supporting the Korean Senior Citizens Association, senior apartments, and nursing homes. I thought, by doing this the elderly outside of our church can also share the benefits. However, this was a good opportunity for me to think about the elderly in our church and their needs in a more specific way.

I realized that how grateful we are to our elderly members. To be honest, our church is not the best church for the elderly members, but they are keeping their pace with us. I heard that even younger people sometimes get an urgent call of nature during our long service, but our elderly members have not complained about that. I tend to speak fast and our songs are focused to younger people, but they do not complain about that, either. And our elderly members wait in line along with young people at our cafeteria. When I think about these things, I am really grateful to our elderly members for being patient for our church.
Accordingly, I hope all of us, including all leaders and me, are more aware of our many elderly members and their difficulties before we make any policies or work for our church.
For that, as planned before, we will add a new team within Love/Service ministry team from September, the beginning of our new fiscal year. This team will perform a survey about the needs of the elderly so that our leaders can make necessary adjustments. We are considering providing some classes about Medicare and Medicaid services, health issues, and funeral procedures and so on. There might not be a dramatic change all at once, but I hope these activities help our elderly members feel more supported and comfortable in our church.