Florida churches celebrate senior adults

JACKSONVILLE (FBW)—Nursing home personnel and residents filed down a ramp leading to the cafeteria. Two men, with the help of nursing home personnel, led residents to their tables. Some smiled as they sat on their walkers while others shrunk into their wheelchairs as 40 voices sang a cappella.

For Derrick Young it was just another typical Sunday. Since February of 2004, he and Bobby Genckle have taken church to Lanier Manor in Jacksonville.

“This is something God just pressed upon my heart to continue to do because they are so blatantly forgotten about,” Young said of the elderly who regularly attend services.

The ministry grew out of a church start when Young’s new congregation began to drift apart and the building in which it met became unavailable. One Sunday, Young sent Bobby Genckle, his associate, to preach at Lanier Manor. Genckle returned with the nursing home’s request for a full service every Sunday.

It was hard-going at first. Nursing home residents, Young said, are used to people coming and leaving a short time later. He had to earn their respect and trust before they fully accepted him.

“It’s hard for them to be in there,” Young said. “They have me pray for their souls, for their health. They ask me to pray for them just to get through this.”

Young shared the story of a 97-year-old woman whose home and furniture were sold when she was placed in the nursing home. She told him, “This is my home and because of you, I have a church.”

He preaches messages that focus on uplifting the residents’ spirits, Young said, using a music stand as a pulpit.

“Gabriel has not blown the trumpet,” Young said of his new friends. “They still have life…they still have purpose on this earth.”

Soon into the ministry, Young said he felt God was leading him to administer communion once a month. On hearing this plan, one woman began to cry. She had not shared communion with a body of believers in eight years.

Young’s convictions also extended to bringing the community to the nursing home.

Recently organizing a party for all ages to “celebrate life,” church members dressed in clown costumes and children jumped in an inflatable. Outside the elderly licked sno-cones outside. With the community’s support, Young’s ministry spent just $120 dollars on the event.

The residents look forward to each Sunday, Young explained. And knowing he brings them the only church experience each most likely will have for the duration of their lifetime keeps him committed to his aging congregants.

“I’m all they have as a means of bringing a message and bringing them a word,” Young said. “Other churches come and they sing to them or they may work in arts and crafts with them, but to be their pastor, to be their spiritual guidance, I’m it.”

Every church should send their associate pastors to a nursing home, Young said. He said it is the church’s responsibility to care for the widows, orphans and the elderly rather than the secular world’s.

It’s not hard,” Young said. “You’re just showing them a little love.”

According to Young, if churches went back to caring for seniors, there wouldn’t be so many neglected and destitute.

“I‘m hoping that some pastor will pick it up and say, ‘You know, this is really not a bad idea,’” Young said. “There’s just too many of our mothers and fathers in nursing homes and no one goes to see them.”

Often weary and discouraged, Young said his church, First Timothy Baptist Church, Jacksonville, and his pastor Frederick Newbill, support him “300 percent” making sure he is spiritually nourished and giving him financial backing.

Young became a Christian while attending First Timothy, he said, and became involved in several different churches and ministries. But when he needed support for his fledgling nursing home ministry, he came back to First Timothy.

“Its remarkable how God takes you all the way around the world and then brings you back home,” Young said. “Remarkable.”

Throughout his ministry, Young and his wife, Virginia, continued to attend First Timothy for Sunday services before he drives the seven miles to Lanier Manor. Young has two children and attends classes at the Jacksonville extension of The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville and is working towards a bachelor’s degree in divinity.

Young has learned through each of the twists and turns in his life.

“I just think that everything God has done He’s done for His purpose,” Young said. “[No matter] how weary sometimes you get, you got to stand back and say ‘you know, all that was from God because now I am who I am because of what has transpired.’”