A Panel Discussion on Aging featuring authors Missy Buchanan, Rick Gentzler and Richard Morgan In Honor of Older Americans Month (May)
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"Talk with me. Sit with me. I'm still here."
Seniors living in nursing homes, assisted living centers or retirement centers see themselves in a spiritually barren land — disconnected from family, friends, the church and (sometimes) even God. Because it's so hard to see the losses of aging, we tend to neglect the aged, who remain souls in need.
We're all failing in our ministry with senior adults.
"The culture and the church focus today on a ministry of youthfulness and spiritual growth," says a panel of gerontology experts. "What we're missing out on is the viable ministry of mutual blessing that is with the spiritually mature. And their numbers are increasing: More than 78 million Baby Boomers soon will retire, reaching 'senior' status. And we're unprepared."
Listen as Buchanan, Gentzler and Morgan discuss:
how the inner spirit can be renewed every day in spite of physical losses
how the image of seniorhood is changing, including the story of a panelist's mother who, at age 75, recently bought her first red convertible
how living long isn't the goal but living with purpose is
how the church's focus on Boomers is actually ministry trained on their children, foreshadowing another vital ministry miss
"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?"
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Gulf War (#1) veteran, Emmy-award winning TV producer and journalist Jim Melchiorre tried not to write this book.
It evolved from his journals as war raged (in Iraq and elsewhere) and casualties mounted. He reflected on his Catholic heritage and the practice of novena — a prayer of devotion and intercession offered over the course of nine days or weeks.
As a Christian, just how are you supposed to pray about war? As people of faith, how can we work for peace? Is the absence of war the definition of peace?
Melchiorre and Donigian talk about:
War as the ancient and terrible genie
Examining our unexamined assumptions
"MethoCatholicism" borne out of Volunteers in Mission
Seeing the “other” as part of your family and praying until you believe it
How the story of a single thread demonstrates unity and diversity
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Is the church really talking about Christianity anymore? Or is it just marketing?
"We've allowed other storytellers to co-opt our healing narrative," says Sarah Arthur. "The church needs to trump all of the empty stories, false promises out there." The way to do that, she says, is to "reclaim the 'good spell' or the enchantment of the gospel" through holy dreaming.
The imagination reminds us to pay attention. Through it, we connect seemingly unrelated things — symbols, words and sounds — to learn intuitively without even realizing it. That may be why you find more spiritual resonance in The Lord of the Rings than in anything on the shelves of a Christian bookstore. And that's okay! Jesus' parables are vivid examples of compelling storytelling that help us understand concepts in a firsthand sort of way.
In this episode, Arthur and Donigian discuss:
The church's historic mistrust of the imagination
How grandmothers in the pew need what kindergarten Sunday school teachers offer
The Bible story that Shakespeare would envy
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How is God writing a story in your life?
Instead of seeing the Bible as a daunting read about somebody else in a distant land doing something a long time ago, Ciona Rouse says the Bible is part of our own story.
"If you read the Bible with the eyes of the heart," she says, "you'll see how the stories play a role in what you're doing. The Bible is a history of who we are, and it gives us the tools and the map to keep going."
Listen in as Rouse and Donigian talk about:
the concept of the "lectio of life" and how to live it
how Bible reading compares to basketball practice
why the music of Coldplay, Feist and John Legend are as spiritually relevant as that labeled as Christian
what US churches could learn from those in South Africa
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