Recent Barna Group data shows that 87 percent of Christians ages fifty-five and up want to keep growing spiritually, with 45 percent agreeing strongly and an additional 42 percent agreeing somewhat.

As churches, we’ve subdivided our congregations for a long time - especially when it comes to our children. I’ve heard from some church members that their congregations “seem to only care about the college kids,” or fill in the blank with any other age group of young people.

Is that claim overblown? Probably. But it’s also easy for a church to be so “youth centric” that it forgets about older saints, who obviously want to keep growing and can still bear fruit (Psalm 92:14). This Barna report is a good reminder that older Christians need developing and are still striving for Christ - just like our young people (we hope).

Please don’t cancel your youth classes or get togethers because of anything said in this space. Both young and old need the ministry of the gospel. Timothy was told to “fulfill his ministry” (2 Timothy 4:5), and fulfilling our ministry means equal time and service to all ages in our churches.