Episode S3E27 (131): Anticipating the Coming Silver Tsunami and What It Means for FWM

By the year 2060, over 95 million people in America will be over 65. That’s an increase of over 30+ million in just 36 years – by then 1 in 4 people will be over 65. How is FWM making a difference? How does God call us and the church to prepare for this population change? Let’s make a difference by being older people committed to God’s purposes in our aging years. Let’s call the church to grow their vision for an aging population.

Transcript

Seth Muse: 0:03

Hess Welcome to the finishing well podcast, where we encourage seasoned believers to find meaningful ways to impact their world for the kingdom of God, whether you're 65 and up or not quite there, yet, everyone can begin preparing to finish well. Now here's your host, Randy. Hess with the founder of finishing well ministries. Hal habecker,

Dr Hal Habecker: 0:24

welcome back to the finishing well ministry podcast. Glad you've joined us. I'm here with Randy. Hess my counterpart, and I want to talk about some things today as to how I see God using finishing well ministries and the needs that are out there for opportunity ministries like ours and we're one of a number of sister organizations that God is using in a great way to speak to the aging population in America. So let me give you one fact that is happening as we all know, our country is aging. The world is aging. I think currently, right now, there are about 53 million Americans over 65 in our country in a matter of 34 years, 36 years, by the year 2060 that number will approach 100 million people. Now you just you think about, I mean, this grips me. First of all, our country marginalizes older people. You know, we could support that in lots of ways, life itself kind of marginalizes all the people. You In fact, we may believe, believe in our own ageism. You know, I had a senior pastor from Tulsa recently tell me, I think that one of the big problems with aging people is that we, we ourselves, believe that we're not relevant anymore. But, you know, with the whole country moving this way, I mean even academics and all kinds of things, they're having to come to grips with the fact that our population of 65 or older is going to nearly double in the next 36 years. So, you know, ask a very practical question, what are we going to do with all these people. How are we gonna I mean, whether it's in Social Security or, you know, whatever it is in healthcare. I mean, what are we gonna do? How are we gonna anticipate that? It's a huge issue that our country needs to face, and the Census Bureau is always updating us, but just have that figure in mind now. Let me just back off of that figure and reflect on it. As a churchman, I'm a churchman. I've been a pastor all my life. Randy, you've been involved in the church all your life. You know, what are we as churches going to do to interact with that segment of the population that is going to be twice as more in 36 years than it is now. I mean, how will we reach those people in evangelism? How will we encourage those people in our churches? You know, Christians are being diminished in our society, our numbers are lessening. People go to church. So the whole trial of evangelism is going to be a whole new deal for our churches, the whole deal of encouraging older people in our church to be more aware of who they are and what God wants them to be. You know, I think that's the great mission of finishing well ministries, can we encourage people to latch on in a greater way and to recover God's sense of purpose in their lives, so that people wake up and say, I'm here. God has a purpose for me. And it doesn't matter what my age is or what my health is, you know, God has a purpose for me. You know, I Psalm 90, verse 12, so Moses, Christ teach me to number my days and value them where I'm at in this aging process so that I can present to you, oh God, a heart of wisdom. So you know that's that's the big vision. What's happening in our world around us. You want to comment or think about that? You're you and I write the same age. You're a little bit ahead of me, but

Dr Randy Hess: 4:24

four years ahead of you. Four years.

Dr Hal Habecker: 4:26

But how do you how do you see our country in its aging process?

Unknown: 4:31

I see it aging.

Dr Hal Habecker: 4:33

Yes, are people being prepared for it? But

Dr Randy Hess: 4:37

you know, we also have other generations, right, besides ours, besides the next one. So we have new generations coming in all the time, and they get the glorious duty of supporting us, whether they like. Or not, but I think it's going to get a little bit almost overwhelming for our country by that time, by that date you gave because of the just the sheer volume and weight of the older generations out there. So I think that's going to be a really huge political question coming up, maybe in the next 10 years. I understand, by the way, how that, and I may I could be wrong. I just hear bits and pieces on this from time to time. But I think our social security system in this country is due to have some sort of revamp or update or something by the mid 30s.

Dr Hal Habecker: 5:55

It will have to, yes, it will, in order

Dr Randy Hess: 5:57

to survive, yeah, in order to just keep going. Think of that that's a lot quicker than the 2060 you know, 2035 somewhere in there, comes a lot quicker. So some people listening to us out there are going to be going, I'll be around in 2035 quite a few of us will say, No, thanks. I think I'll I'll pass on being around then, you know, I'd rather be gone. But what if we don't do anything about it? There's a question for finishing well is, how do I then get income? How do I then get income? How do I survive? Who's going to take care of me, but not going. Let's not go there, because that's just too far ahead actually, to be serious about right now. But I do think that it's important for us where we've been the last 10 years with finishing well, and where you want people to head or where you think it's important for them to consider is, how are they handling all those older friends they have? Are they what do they see around them? What are they mimicking that those older friends are like, and what are they trying to change that they see around them, that they don't particularly care for? And how much of the How much is it? How much is the Lord involved in that? How much is your church involved in that? Because part of finishing well is a big part well, central to finishing well is a relationship with Jesus, but very close following that is our relationship with our friends in our church. At least that's my bias. I'm sorry, but that's just it. I tend to think that way, that that church should be as a key part of your life, and what you're doing with it often involves friends in that church. Fortunately, I finally talked my counterpart here into going to my church, and I think he likes it so he's happy. But it is interesting that we are both in a church where this topic, this very subject, is a living, ongoing study. Right now it is. We are, if I might just add a little bit here, how please we are a church meet up. I won't call them elderly, but they're older, aging, gray hair, people who know how to have fun, who know how to love one another, who know how to be really friendly. So there's nothing wrong with that, but I'm just saying we're coping with that right now. And the question is, how much of that of their time do they see being valuable in devoting it more to building the kingdom? And we have seen different reactions that way, but always interest, always interest, not necessarily always follow through, but a lot of interest. How in our church? So we've got a case of one here, an n of one in our case here, of a church where we're dealing with that subject almost every week, older people, what are they up to? What do they want, and what do they want to do to give back, and what do they want to do to be meaningful to the ones around them?

Dr Hal Habecker: 9:53

You know, a couple statistics here for us. And finishing well by my. Guess. My best guesstimates are, there are between two and 3000 churches scattered all over our country using the finishing well materials, the seven essentials and the stuff that we're putting out on the website, the Bible studies, etc, etc. And we ask for feedback when people take this series and, you know, the number one feedback that we get response evaluating the course or whatever, is Thanks for making me think or helping me think about the latter stages of my life, because nobody's helping me do that. You know, unless I had taken these seven essentials and thought about that, you know, I wouldn't be prepared, but it's helping us prepare for the years that are ahead of us to be equipped in all kinds of ways. Now, let me give you a there are a lot of ways to go about this, but I have a good friend in Alabama, Michael Parker, who has a ministry similar to ours, and he is focused on equipping the church to help its aging people age well with respect to health care. So he has a mechanism. It's a tool called age ready now, where you can evaluate your church with respect to the overall health care needs in the church, and then think about how we as a church with our peers or even younger generations coming behind us, can address that issue. So if you go around senior healthcare facilities, one of the things you run into right away, there's not enough help. They're all short on help and reliable help. So if that's true now and our numbers are going to double in the next 36 years. Mike Parker says the church is part of the answer. You know, we need to help each other in our healthcare needs, our spiritual needs, our relational needs, and all of that. To finish, well, we can help each other, and if we don't, you know, we're dependent on the government or what kind of facilities out there are available, but this is God's open door for the church to help meet our own needs as we age, and to involve the whole church in it younger people as well. I'm fascinated by that. So you think about this whole dementia. They call it the silver tsunami that's coming across our country and literally around the world. So I think that's a fascinating thing and a needful thing that we need to address in our churches.

Dr Randy Hess: 12:52

Well, in our church, the silver tsunami has already rolled through it has you know, we're surfing in it, but it's a good thing. There are opportunities for further growth in that, terms of implementing, if you want to call it that, ways for people to use their finishing well,

Unknown: 13:18

commitment, commitments, uh, out away from

Dr Randy Hess: 13:26

our church and in other areas, so to speak, and I and our church is really working, trying to do the best it can, I think, to help them see that, to help them see that there are opportunities. And I think every week, somebody new asks about something or other that our church says is an opportunity for you to to look at or to get involved in. But I think we all I'm saying is, I think everybody would agree we have room to grow there and to help people see that once you kind of catch on to the value that finishing well as a concept provides to you, that the encouragement it gives to you, the way you treat other people, for sure, the way you treat your family, the way you treat your friends. There's also this thing called helping yourself be able to do that. Yeah, absolutely, and be mindful of that. So I go back to some of our early talks about, uh, finishing well, how? And I think one of the things, I thought it boiled down to quite a while, quite a while back, is aging well, relating well and impacting well. And in my discussions with you and others, thinking about those, those that those things. Pillars or whatever aging well was, was kind of the selfish one, if you will, or the personal one, compared to the others. Because in the others, you're reaching out by relating well, you're you're involving other people. You're thinking about something beyond yourself, right? And that's what we're saying. Finishing well is, as a concept is trying to put across to you, is it's good for you to be able to encourage other people besides yourself? And then the third one is, are you making Are you doing anything with it? Is there any fruit there? Is there any impact? Is there any dent? Is there any movement of the dial? And that one's a tough one to get into, too, because we're not saying you should measure things. And it's, you know, if I do six of those and you only do four, I'm finishing well better than you are. That's, that's that's the danger of measuring stuff. But we are saying you can measure yourself by how much you want to impact, and who you want to impact, and whether you're whether you're actually making a difference in somebody's life, and stuff like that. That's up to you. But if I could, I just go back to the first part of that. Is kind of the first things. First is if you're going to age well, or if you're going to do the other things, if you're going to be able to relate well to other people. And what I mean by relate well in a friendly way. Relate well as a smiling person, not a negative, you know, begrudging person, but a happy person, you have to be feeling pretty good yourself, so that you're not trying to, so that you don't accidentally, if nothing else, carry all that stuff you got going On with yourself into the conversation with other people. It's hard to do unless you take care of yourself first and maybe get yourself to the point where now I can think about other people so aging well to me, meant a little bit of selfishness in strategic way, a strategic way, not just because I want to be selfish and I need to be selfish, and I'll just concentrate on me. None of that. It's more. Let me get myself in some kind of working order here so I can go back to thinking about others. That was the purpose of aging well, in my book. So I think in our aging society, we got a bunch of people that need to be doing that, you know, we got a bunch of people in our own church that need to be doing that exactly, taking care of themselves, making sure their health is sufficient to allow them to get up in the morning and think about other people.

Dr Hal Habecker: 18:04

Yeah, you can't say it better. Randy man, I think it's Yeah, God has us here to abide in Jesus for ourselves, but also to produce fruit. You know, the fruit comes out, and the opportunities to do that are as rich in our aging years as they ever have been at any other season in our maybe more. Well, maybe more. And then there again, that's the vision for finishing well ministries. Can we encourage aging people in our churches

Unknown: 18:35

to sign up

Dr Hal Habecker: 18:38

with having a fresh vision for God and what He has for us to experience ourselves and with others in our aging years and

Dr Randy Hess: 18:47

finishing well, I'll just suggest one of the things that I need to do to think that way is to make myself available.

Unknown: 18:54

How available am I? Is my calendar booked with me? Stuff me my us. No, thank you. Or is it booked with an openness to

Dr Randy Hess: 19:16

making myself available to suggestions, invites maybe have to get up and get ready to go to a meeting just to find out what they're doing with that. Am I available for that kind of stuff?

Dr Hal Habecker: 19:32

Yeah, you know, for me, I was mentioning to you, you know, yesterday I encountered three different people that probably took an hour to an hour and a half out of my life in that sense. So at each situation, you know, did I take advantage of the opportunity to extend myself and say no to something else

Dr Randy Hess: 19:58

you had your own calendar? Yeah, you

Dr Hal Habecker: 20:00

had your own schedule, yes, but there is the bigger sense in that. I mean, am I being available? And how do I see God using me in our church? I mean, that's the value of having a sense of your mission. And I think the more every year, every other year, you know, you kind of revise yourself and say, God, what? What is it that new? What is there anything new you're doing in my life that you want me to zone in on? Nobody

Dr Randy Hess: 20:28

models that better than you do. How, by the way, well, making yourself available.

Dr Hal Habecker: 20:33

Yeah, but I'm saying as we age, all of us have the opportunity to ask ourselves, and I would ask you, as our listeners out there, did you have a deep sense of awareness of what God wants to do through your life? And are you opening yourself up to that and pursuing it?

Dr Randy Hess: 20:51

And if you're the, if you're the, if you're in that family of somebody that's kind of in that mode, if you're the son or daughter, grandson or granddaughter? Yeah, what's it worth to you for grandpa to have a whole new purpose in his life, for grandma to be smiling because of her purpose she feels and taking care of something that she didn't have before? What's that worth to you? Is that worth you encouraging them? Is that worth you maybe suggesting that they keep going back and doing more of a finishing well? Is that worth it to you to get involved yourself, because you're getting older, and maybe it's time for you to start thinking that way, even though you're caught up in all your life's duties right now.

Dr Hal Habecker: 21:42

And the best thing I want to add to that come to grips with it, because there aren't many years left. There aren't as many years left in my life as it were when I was 50 or when I was 30. Well,

Dr Randy Hess: 21:55

you're, we're, we're but a we're what's we're but a vapor, yes, and that's hard to see when you are middle of raising young kids, getting through, getting them to school, all the school activities, still doing your job, maybe both of your working full time jobs. It's really hard for you to see anything relevant in this idea called finishing. Well, I get it. I'm just saying. You could see it in your parents, because they're almost, they may be almost in are ready to retire. You can see it in your grandparents, if they're still living, they're there. You can watch them. How do they act, you know, how do they act? Do they act like vegetables sitting on the couch? Or are, you know, do they seem to have anything they care about? So I'm just suggesting that finishing well is if you see that glimmer. If the coal is still flickering, you know, in their eye for something they'd like to be involved with. And we're not talking about a gigantic new ministry. I mean, that would be great. That would be wonderful if they want to do it wonderful. But if it's not that, it can be a zillion other things that involve smaller but still meaningful and helpful and really valuable to God and His Kingdom, even though there may be only one or two things involved in it, but it's a big deal for that person to to carry that out that gives them purpose that you haven't ever seen them have since they've been retired. And I think it's a value to you to consider that yeah,

Dr Hal Habecker: 23:58

really is, and that's what we keep getting feedback on on our evaluations, that people are renewed in their sense of purpose. They've been challenged and encouraged to revisit that and find ways that God wants to use them right where they're at with their families, in their church, in their community. And it's really thrilling for me to watch finishing well, ministries have that kind of impact. Yeah, me too. Couple other things, and then we'll wrap this up. I'm amazed at doors that are being opened around the world,

Unknown: 24:32

the UK,

Dr Hal Habecker: 24:34

Hong Kong. We haven't talked about much about that, but you know, our seven Essentials is all translated into Chinese. And we have churches in Dallas, Chinese churches that are using our stuff. There's a Korean church in Washington, DC that's using it. You know, we had a zoom class on line the other day, and somebody from South Africa. Do you believe it was there? I asked. Her name was Mavis. I said, Mavis, where are you speaking from? And she said, I'm in South Africa, you know. So there are places all over the world that are impacted by what we're doing, and it's really thrilling to watch what we want. It is. And one more thing I want, and I'd say this is the last thing as you experience as you listen to this, and as you're involved in your church, your family, your community, and as you age, tell us things that we can profit from, that you wish. Golly, would you write something on this or what's available on this? Or could you help me on this part of my life and send it to us, send us a note, and on that note, I think we're going to try and do some new things in podcasts. We're going to be interviewing more people from around the country, different places. You're going to hear people's stories, and it's, I think it's going to be good. And we're asking God to bless and enlarge our ministry. Yep, Randy, that's what you've been for me, you've you've been a blessing and an encouragement, and you'll continue that. And I, I'm blessed by you, so let's be a blessing to each other. Thanks for joining us today. Pray for finishing well. Ministries. Support us as God moves you to support us financially, but be involved in your own area. And if we can encourage you in any way, contact us. Hallet, finishing well. Ministries, Randy at finishing well. Ministries, go to our website, finishing well. Ministries.org, and we'll do our best to encourage you and thanks for joining us in this mission. Mission. God bless you. You

Seth Muse: 26:44

music. Thank you for listening to the finishing well podcast. We hope you're encouraged by today's conversation to continue living out your God given purpose. Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, or you can find us at finishing well ministries.org/podcast, and don't forget to follow us on social media at finishing well ministries, we'll see you next time you.