Commentary by Lorene Burkhart
It’s easy to get caught in a rut and resist change. It seems that the older we become the less we welcome change, whether it’s our schedule, our surroundings or what’s happening in the world.
Recently, I experienced this with organizations where I’ve been a member for years. They are complaining about not getting new members and some thought maybe it was time to discontinue the organization. When I began to ask questions, it became apparent that rather than looking at their changing demographics (ages of existing members), they had used their preferences to decide their projects and activities.
Being in the older group myself, I understood the desire to just get together for lunch or dinner, have a nice program and go home. The problem with that was, none of us wanted to be actively involved in projects. Of course, I contributed my “two cents-worth” and explained that by drifting into a passive mode they had eliminated the desire of younger women to become members. I’ve learned that the middle age group likes to be actively involved in a worthwhile project and those even younger want to do service projects.
By choosing to be victims of their age group – even though they have great resources and contacts to contribute – they were going to do less rather than more.
It was a coincidence that our pastor also talked about the church remaining relevant to the changes in society and serving those needs.
Maybe this is a good time to take stock of your own attitude and contributions to society. Being relevant just means paying attention to what’s happening around you and thinking about whether you have a role in contributing. Think about it.
