Archive for April, 2010

Small bites

Jan Kinzel

Provided by CN Building Adult Ministries Resource Center

Bouncing back from surprising life changes is both informative and challenging!

Throughout this last year or so of economic reality, it became clear to my husband and me that we needed to downsize – and as quickly as possible.  We had always been on the way up. This new reality hit hard, bringing confusing and unwelcome feelings and pain as I began to understand the lifestyle changes that lay ahead.  I believe many (especially we seniors) are going through this complex undertaking; however, there is little comfort in that because a statistic is only a statistic until it happens to you and then it becomes personal.

In this column, I wish to address one huge lifestyle change and how I plan to embrace it!

Entertaining in a much smaller venue…hmm, doesn’t seem like too big a deal, but for someone who had a big stage, moving to a place one third the size…well, it was daunting.  We had dedicated our home to Christian hospitality, extending it to our family, friends and various church and civic events.  Overnight guests and large get- togethers were frequent and absolute joys – wonderful times that we will always treasure.

Now to the point of this – a creative response to a new situation is what I want to share.  A situation many of us will experience at this stage in our lives. Replacing the large – group – style entertaining with more intimate entertaining along with menus, recipes and tips. The lighter and more casual fare of a Sunday evening supper will let you give more attention to just a few guests and greater detailing of the food’s flavors and presentation.

MENU

Spinach Salad

Mushroom Cheese Omelet

Spinach Salad

Dressing:

½  cup balsamic vinegar

½  cup extra- virgin olive oil

1 small garlic clove, freshly grated on a fine rasp or pushed through a garlic press

1 tablespoon superfine sugar

Place ingredients in a small canning jar.  Seal with lid and ring.

Shake to mix and emulsify.  Set aside.

Salad

One large bag of pre-washed baby spinach leaves

Strawberries, 1 carton, hulled and sliced

Small red onion sliced into thin rings

1 cup Pecan halves, lightly toasted and slightly broken

6 oz. Feta  or blue cheese

Place washed and dried spinach in a large salad bowl.

Layer with strawberries, onion rings, then the nuts.

Sprinkle crumbles of cheese on top.

Just before dinner, shake the jar and carefully pour the dressing down the inside of the bowl so that it goes to the bottom without touching the cheese.  Toss at the table and serve on plates or in bowls that you have stacked at your place setting.

Mushroom Cheese Omelet

While in French Indonesia, I had occasion every morning to watch the grill chefs create omelets.  They did it with such ease and such excellent results that I began doing it at home the same way.  It’s a very simple technique that always turns out!  I tried the omelet pans with hinges and the baking in the oven and all of the complicated methods.  Cooking omelets this easier way was reinforced to me when our children moved to Kansas and we began to visit there and stay in an Embassy Suite.  The cooks there are breakfast grill masters and they teach me wonderful cooking skills each time we visit. Josie, Ophelia and Ben are the best!

1 ½ quarts EggBeaters or 12 fresh large eggs

¼ cup non-fat half and half cream

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Scant pinch of ground nutmeg

1- 16 oz. package shredded four cheese  blend – Italian or Mexican- style

½  tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 shallot, medium dice

2 – 8 oz. packages sliced baby Bella mushrooms

1 very red tomato, finely diced

One bunch chives

Whisk the eggs and cream.  Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Whisk until frothy, incorporating lots of air to make the omelet fluffy.

Transfer mixture to a pitcher with a spout.

On a hot griddle sprayed with butter flavored cooking spray add the olive oil. Sauté the shallots and mushrooms until softened.  Scrape away any excess liquid from the vegetables into the well of the griddle and move the vegetables aside to one corner of the grill keeping them handy .    Lower the griddle heat to medium and re-spray with cooking spray.  Pour 1/6th (about 1 cup) of the egg mixture onto the hot griddle, forming a circle.  The heat will keep the form as the egg mixture hits the griddle.  Keep the omelet thin as you pour it onto the hot griddle. The eggs will set in about 2 minutes.  Place sautéed shallots and mushrooms onto one half of the egg circle and sprinkle with 1/6th of the cheese.  The eggs will be set by now.  Fold it in half, enclosing the vegetables and cheese. Depending on the size of your griddle, several omelets can be cooked at once. Hold them on a buttered platter and cover with non-stick foil.  Place in a 2000 oven until ready to serve. Garnish the omelets with finely diced tomatoes and snipped chives.

Accompany the salad and omelets with fancy breadsticks and a fruity fizzy drink and offer decaffeinated coffee and a plate of chocolate truffles for dessert.

I wish for you a great journey into the world of downsizing and the ability to embrace all of the new adventures and opportunities for creative endeavors that it brings.

TIP:  Once you get from ‘here’ to ‘there”, acceptance, understanding and joy set in.  It’s the journey from ‘here’ to ‘there’ that creates the enormous stress and uncertainty.

Count it all joy. James 1:2

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Dr. Pete Menconi

Provided by CN Building Adult Ministries Resource Center (a book review)

As Baby Boomers search for significance, meaning, and purpose for their lives, the local church is one place they will look. Today, local churches and the worldwide church are going through profound changes. In order for churches to minister effectively to Boomers in their search, pastors and church leaders must understand the changing spiritual dynamics confronting the church and our culture.

In his book The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church, Reggie McNeal (2003, Jossey-Bass Publishers) gives us six new realities confronting the church:

New Reality #1. The Collapse of the Church Culture

“The point is.. all the effort to fix the church misses the point. You can build the perfect church–and they still won’t come. People are not looking for a great church…The age in which institutional religion holds appeal is passing away.”

“Church leaders seem unable to grasp this simple implication of the new world–people outside the church think church is for church people, not for them.”

New Reality #2.  The Shift from Church Growth to Kingdom Growth

“The church was created to be the people of God to join him in his redemptive mission in the world. The church was never intended to exist for itself. It was and is the chosen instrument of God to expand his kingdom. The church is the bride of Christ. Its union with him is designed for reproduction, the growth of the kingdom. Jesus did not teach his disciples to pray, ‘Thy church come.’ The kingdom is the destination. In its institutional existence the church abandoned its real identity and reason for existence.”

New Reality #3. A New Reformation: Releasing God’s People

“The time is ripe for recapturing this original appeal of the gospel. People are interested and searching for God and   personal salvation through a relationship with him. Increasingly they are not turning to institutional religion for help. They don’t trust religious institutions because they see them as inherently self-serving. So they are off on their own search for God.”

New Reality #4. The Return to Spiritual Formation

“I am recommending that churches provide life coaching for people. We need to view this as spiritual formation. We   cannot take the approach that we just need to teach people the classic spiritual disciples, assuming that a person already has a developed center. We must use spiritual disciplines to help people form the center. We must attend to their self-awareness and life relationships.”

New Reality #5.  The Shift from Planning to Preparation

“Faced with diminishing returns on investment of money, time and energy, church leaders have spent much of the last five decades trying to figure out how to do church better. Emphases have come and gone in rapid succession. Church and lay renewal has given way to church growth, which has given way to church health. The results beg the question.”

New Reality # 6. The Rise of Apostolic Leadership

“The appropriate response to the emerging world is a rebooting of the mission, a radical obedience to an ancient command, a loss of self rather than self-preoccupation, concern about service and sacrifice rather than concern about style.”

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Harley Schreck

Provided by CN Building Adult Ministries Resource Center

The second largest population of older adults in the world.

In January, 2009, Karen Tangen, who teaches business at Bethel University, and I were able to take 20 Bethel students to India to study globalization. One of our visits was with the Sisters of Charity Home for the Aged in Chennai. India has the second largest population of older adults in the world (7% of the population of over 1 billion people), after China. With few older persons covered by any kind of pension or social security system, older adults rely on traditional patterns of family care to help them when they face the difficulties associated with aging. Yet, issues of globalization and urbanization have been undercutting these forms of help as the all too familiar factors of fewer care givers due to more women in the workplace, smaller families, high mobility, and ever-rising demands of consumerism are challenging the abilities of families to provide support for their older members.

The Sisters of Charity provide solace for around 90 older adults who have nowhere else to go and no one else to whom they can turn. They arrive on the doorsteps of the good Sisters in absolute destitution. The Sisters welcome and accept them, clean their wounds, provide medical help, and invite them into a worshipping community. This is a place of rest, a loving community. As a visitor, I saw that the home offered a place of rest and a loving community that was a sharp contrast to the bustle of cars, bikes, buses, motorcycles, and auto-rickshaws that defines public life in this fast-paced, fast-growing city.

The residents told stories of unbearable suffering and pain, yet they were peaceful and at rest in this place. Young volunteers from local schools and churches, tended to their needs with smiles and with much touch. This is a place of touch and connection. In the courtyard, a statue of Jesus with outstretched arms reflected the home’s vocation. The inscription read, “See, I have no hands. Will you be my hands?” It was true in this place. Hands were outstretched. The rejected were embraced. The abandoned were found.

Ministering to 90 persons in a city of 8 million might seem like a drop of help in a bucket of need. Yet, these good Sisters had claimed the poorest of the poor as neighbors and had chosen to fold them into their worshipping community. While praying in the chapel, I was reminded of this as a person with some form of dementia entered, speaking loudly and somewhat disjointedly. The Sisters acknowledged him with a smile and a show of love that drew him into the time of prayer, reminding me that this was his community and he belonged here.

As I reflect on this, I think about the lack of medical equipment and other resources that I associate with top line care in the United States. The Sisters offered their residents love and support, touch and embrace. Complete acceptance. It reminded me again of how things are truly important as we build communities of care for older adults.

Harley Schreck is Professor Anthropology/Sociology at Bethel University, St Paul MN

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“Even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to all the generations to come” (Psalm 71: 18).

In 1967, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act was enacted to protect those age forty and above. In spite of this attempt to stop the practice of age discrimination in employment, it remains steadfastly embedded within American society today.

In 1968, Pulitzer Prize winning author, gerontologist and psychiatrist, Dr. Robert N. Butler coined the descriptive term, “ageism,” to describe discrimination against older adults (a term consistent in usage with ‘sexism’ or ‘racism’). Here is my point. While the problem continues in the secular world, age discrimination is also tolerated and practiced widely within the Church. This is not only not right, it runs against the grain of biblical scripture.

In recent years, when church professionals, ordained ministers and Directors of Christian Education reach the magic age of older adulthood, Search Committees often overlook these experienced persons because they are “too old to attract young people.” The practice is a subtle one. Committees say they checked out older candidates, but they did not meet the qualifications; a practice that appears legal even though the primary qualification not met was one of suitable age. One seminary has reported some alumni pastors in their late 40s and early 50s being let go in order make way for hiring a younger person “to bring in the young crowd.” Wisdom, skill sets and life experience no longer count as they once did.

While recently traveling with one denomination’s presbyter in California, he spoke to me of the difficulty leadership is having in connecting young pastors with those older and more experienced. “The younger leaders are not disrespectful,” he said. “They simply don’t want to waste time interacting with leaders they believe have little in common with them and with the way they want to ‘do church.’”

The challenge of connecting the generations is increasingly difficult. My presbyter friend said that even some 30-something pastors are beginning to have trouble connecting with and keeping their 20-something constituents.

Dr. Richard Gentzler, Jr., Director of the Center on Aging and Older-Adult Ministries for the General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church, is a proponent of “mobilizing our older men and older women, organizing them to confront the ills of our society, sending them out in pairs like the original disciples. He declares, “We could change the face of this land. Our times demand just such a ministry.” I concur. Failing to inspire and equip the entire body of Christ will over time topple much of the Church’s leadership resources, both spiritual and financial.

Ageism separates societies and divides churches. It is an issue that church leaders must speak into. It is not going away. Wise leaders cannot afford to bury their heads in the sand nor talents enriched with age in the ground. “Young men and young women, old men and children … let them all praise the name of the Lord. For his name is very great; his glory towers over the earth and heaven!” (Psalm 148:12,13 TLB).


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Daniel Potts

Provided by CN Building Adult Ministries Resource Center

Why me?

In all this faceless wall of flesh

that marks His march of death

why must I bear the load of One

condemned to hang upon the Skull?

Why me?



Are not my clothes and skin the same

as many here who’ve come to view

His punishment for blasphemy?


Because I have no choice

I shoulder now the splintered weight

and focus on the stones beneath

as upward toward death’s hill we climb.


(My strength has been a source of pride.)


I pause to wipe the sweat and spit of jeering mouths

and shore up timbers for the steeper stretch ahead.


Briefly, as this sweltering gauntlet

seems to close its tomb-like walls

oppressively upon my way,

imagination places me in His dark path.

But then the vapors of my mind’s mirage

burn off as noonday nears.


Though straining fast to look away

I feel compelled to turn toward Him

as if His glance has cast its net around my eyes

(as if His heart knew where to cast).


Surrendering, I turn His way

and indescribably am drawn

to depths I cannot now express,

I feel the farthest reaches of my soul

are hauled aboard a sturdy ship

and lain secure upon its deck.


Turning back toward the Skull

I sense the wooden weight becoming

more than I can bear.

The strength upon which I rely

is fading fast,

and not a single soul

within this wailing wall of flesh

will stoop to help me on.


Unthinkably I somehow feel

inside my inner self compelled

to draw upon a greater might than I possess,

which seems as though it lies within my reach.


I look again upon the One

whose surrogate I have become.

His broken, bruised and crumbling frame

has surely trudged its final steps,

and leaves a wake of life’s-blood

like a river through this fleshly gorge.


How can it be

that as my gaze meets His once more

within the bedrock of my soul

I sense a power more secure

than any ever known,

and feel it offered me?


How does this One who now appears

to cling to life with thread-bare grip

save strength enough to somehow help

the man that’s helping Him?


I know not how nor why,

only that in these final weary steps

I see in places deep within

a sturdy ship a-sail upon a crimson tide

which flows from out a barren hill

with me aboard

at rest in Him.


Dr. Daniel Potts practices Neurology in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

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Don Hinkle

Provided by CN Building Adult Ministries Resource Center

“Antiquing,” the lady said on TV, “saved my life!”

That’ll get your attention. At least it sure got mine. I was drifting through the stages of a lazy Memorial Day Monday afternoon when I heard the phrase.

My oldest daughter had turned on a PBS program that features experts telling collectors what they’ve brought in to be evaluated and appraised is either junk or an incredible treasure.

This lady, in her mid-to-late 70s, had brought in a Duncan Phyfe sewing table. The value–which she already somewhat knew–was good, but the appraisal, I think, surprised her. It was valued at $100,000 plus. That’s what a collector would pay for the piece.

Amazing.

My first thought was, “not this collector–not me.” But my second thought was the lady’s phrase, “antiquing saved my life.” She had been diagnosed with cancer more than twenty years ago and was not expected to live. But she had a passion for antiques. Her passion gives her a spark, a drive. It’s what gets her up and going each day. She declares that it gives her a reason to live. Clearly, antiques are the passion of her life. And twenty years later, she is still going strong.

Passion will do that. An intense desire can overcome lots of obstacles. But if “antiquing” isn’t your passion, what is? Grandkids … stocks and bonds … golf… quilting … fly fishing … being left alone … reading … beating the contestants on Wheel of Fortune? All are possibilities. Let me suggest that an ideal passion is one that pays you well—gives you a good return on your investment—not so much in money as in life and vitality.

The lady ended up with a piece of furniture worth more than $100,000. Not bad. Yet, reality is that one day that $100,000 will be gone. How much wiser to invest your life in a commitment to eternal values. A passion for God will grow stronger each day and the payoff is great, both now and in the world to come.

I pray you have a passion in your life and that you are living passionately this very day.

Years ago an older adult told me, “Just because there is snow on the roof (his white hair), that’s no reason to think there’s no fire in the fireplace.”

So if you’re starting to feel a little distant and a little cooler in your relationship to life, then stir yourself into action. And may your fire burn bright all your days!

Don Hinkle, Senior Pastor at Yucaipa Christian Church in California shares a lesson in hidden values.

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Wes Wicks, Founder/President YES

Provided by CN Building Adult Ministries Resource Center

SO WHAT’S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT AGEISM?




2008 Open Championship - Tom Watson



No one anticipated that Tom Watson, at nearly 60 years of age, was young enough to be a serious contender in the Open Championship.  Perhaps no one but Tom Watson himself.

The world loves unlikely heroes. We can expect to see Tom Watson on the cover of dozens of magazines both inside and outside the sports arena.

In the end, the victorious 36-year-old Stewart Cink was at center stage, more in line with our definition of a likely hero.  But he was flanked by 16-year-old Italian amateur, Matteo Manassero, and the 59-year-old Watson.  Three generations together in the limelight, all demonstrating tremendous talent and poise in this major golf tournament.

What can we as Christians in our second half of life glean from these four days when the old guy remained at the top of the leader board after 72 holes?

SO WHAT’S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT AGEISM IF THE WHOLE WORLD WAS ROOTING FOR THE OLD GUY?

With everyone rooting for the past champion, it may seem like ageism is not a true problem. But ageism often surfaces in our low expectations for people based on their age.  It’s not that we’re against or in direct combat with older adults or young whippersnappers.  We just don’t expect much from them and treat them as outsiders, off our radar.  We forget about their current value and under-estimate their potential.

Yes, we all celebrate when the young and old break age barriers.  But all too commonly, negative stereotypes based on age reinforce timidity and diminish opportunity, inside and outside the Church.  We are called to encourage the timid, not write them off.

God values every generation and calls us to the same.  It’s not just the older generations who get stuck with negative stereotypes.  It can happen to persons of all ages.  May we encourage those both inside and outside our peer group to pursue their godly potential!

LESSONS FROM THE LINKS:

Here are a few free lessons for those young enough to serve, even those of you with little to no interest in the game of golf:

◦   Tom Watson stayed in the game. He didn’t let his age tell him to stop competing.

◦   He didn’t let others’ low expectations of him define his potential.  At the start of the competition his odds of winning were calculated at 1000 to 1.  But he felt fine and approached the event with confidence.  Even hip replacement surgery last October didn’t stop him.

◦   He kept preparing.  He knew that his past laurels would not be enough to carry him.  His practice rounds boosted his confidence.

◦   He remained realistic about his abilities.  In a post-event interview, he confessed that some competitions such as the Masters at Augusta were pretty much beyond his scope unless he played perfectly.

◦   He wasn’t content just playing “ceremonial” golf, simply showing up and being honored as a past champion.  He wanted to compete on the merits of his current abilities.

◦   He was attracted by the unique challenges of the course at Turnberry, knowing they were a great match for his experience, maturity, and skills.  His knowledge of the course and strategic game plan had the potential to keep him in serious contention.  It was the difficulty, not the ease, of the course and conditions that kept him in the game.

◦   His story brought special excitement to the game.  One commentator said that Watson’s near triumph made all of us feel about twenty years younger.

◦ Close counts.  Don’t believe the old adage that close only counts in horseshoes. Although Tom didn’t get his name engraved again on the Claret Jug, coming that close to winning was very significant and inspiring.

◦ Every generation of golf fans was rooting for Tom.  His potential victory was not viewed as a setback for younger generations.  It was unifying.

◦   In the end, golf is just a game.  But it can also be a great tool for relationship-builiding and for influence with your peers and younger generations.  Scripture is full of references to athletic competition, and the real value comes when we can carry these inspirations into our daily lives, our relationship with God and our relationship with others.

The Word is also full of unlikely heroes.  Many, if not most, of our heroes of the faith were under-estimated because of stereotypes based on their young age, old age, vocation, location, education, race, or even their circle of friends.  Jesus Himself, the stone that the builders rejected, became our Chief Cornerstone.

May stories like this go beyond inspiring us to get the clubs out of the attic.  Many other important victories await us in the second half of life!  We are not called to just watch unlikely heroes from the sidelines.  Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

With Christ’s help, let’s follow His calling through the final round. And let’s become unlikely heroes in our own churches and communities.

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Meet Dr. Gordon MacDonald at ICL Atlanta!

Visit the Resource Center for When Silence Isn’t Golden where Dr. MacDonald says, “Here are three themes I’m not hearing much about. Each is likely to provoke or irritate sensibilities or cause someone to wonder where in the world I’m coming from. The themes are not related at all except that they tend to drop between the cracks of discussion.”

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