When the Gray is Gone
by Ted Knight, Conway, Arkansas
Psa. 71:18
The value of the gray-headed brothers and sisters in Christ cannot be measured. I am thankful beyond description that I have been blessed to be taught by them and follow their advice and examples. I have been privileged to preach in places as a young preacher where there were both men and women who knew more about the scriptures than I did and I will be forever grateful for their counsel and the faithful life that they lived before me. Elders in congregations at Bay, Arkansas; Swifton, Arkansas; Levy in North Little Rock, Arkansas, and their wives and many others have been of more encouragement to me than I could ever repay and their wisdom has benefited me in spreading the gospel to others. I was blessed to sit at the feet of men like E.R. Harper, V.E. Howard, Guy N. Woods, Boyd E. Morgan, Melvin Elliott, and many others who loved the truth and preached it faithfully and without favor.
For the past several years I have been very much concerned about the fact that the gray-heads are passing on and it seems that there are few to fill their places. I know today of congregations where the membership is almost totally made up of those advanced in years and there are very few young people. I know of congregations where the attendance 10-15 years ago was very good and today those numbers have faded drastically and one of the reasons is that our gray-heads have died and no one is taking their place. I am told over and over again by brethren in these places that they do not know what is going to happen when the gray-heads are gone. A dear friend told me this week that the church where he attends has some tremendous challenges ahead because even though it is an old, established, and faithful congregation, there are so few younger people in its’ membership. Those who are most faithful in attendance and those who most faithfully support the church financially are the gray-heads. Those who do most of the serving in the community, visiting the sick, caring for the needy, and trying to reach the lost are the gray-heads. I thank God for every one of them.
Pardon me, but I do not mean to be insulting to the wonderful young adult Christians among us who are striving to live the Christian life, build a Christian home, and build a beautiful church to the glory of God. My concern is that their number is not as large as it should be. So many are busily engaged in working to provide for their family in an economic crisis age and that is a difficult thing to do. But, the Lord must come first!
We have been losing our young people in very large numbers. Many of our young adults are not standing for the truth because they do not know the truth. A large number of them could not tell you for the life of them why they should not join the denomination that offers the most convenient and socially acceptable pleasures available. Even many of those who come from ‘our’ colleges and universities are not remaining faithful in serving the Lord. What can be done to reverse the trend? What are some things that need to occur to stop the loss of our brothers and sisters in Christ to the world? We must do something because the gray is disappearing quickly and will soon be gone altogether. May this gray-head offer the following suggestions for your consideration?
First, LISTEN TO THE GRAY-HEADS! Lev. 19:32; Prov. 16:31. We make a terrible mistake when we decide that our older brothers and sisters are deaf, dumb, and blind spiritually and we just sit them on the shelf. I was told many years ago that when I reached the age of 55 years I would not be used much any more to preach the gospel. I am thankful that has not happened to me, but I know of others who have had that kind of experience. I know of some who are in their Sixties and Seventies and are very seldom invited to preach any more. How sad!
I spent a few hours on New Years Eve 2008 with Brother Perry B.Cotham. Brother Cotham celebrated his 97th birthday on January 5, 2009. In 2008 at the age of 96 he published a book that would benefit every Christian greatly if they would read it. It is entitled, “Beyond The Sunset.” Brother Cotham was still making trips to India and other foreign countries when he was 95 years of age, preaching and teaching the gospel. Brother Joe Spaulding and his beautiful wife Donna continue to serve the Lord and Brother Joe is over 90 years of age and on January 6, 2009 Sister Donna celebrated her 96th birthday. Joe preaches almost every week. Recently I was asked if I thought that Joe could fill the pulpit in the absence of one of our local preachers and I said, “If he is alive and able to, he will do it”, and he did!
My precious young adult brothers and sisters, listen to the gray-heads that you have in your midst. They will bless your life richly. Do not make the mistake that Rehoboam made in 1 Kings 11 when he refused the counsel of the older men and followed the counsel of the men his own age and brought tremendous damage to God’s people.
Our son is 46 years of age and our daughter is 42. As much as I hate to admit it, I am in the gray-head group now although my hair is not yet gray, at least not very much of it. Not long ago I was talking with a preacher friend and he said, “Remember when we used to talk about what the older preachers thought about things? Well, now we are the older preachers!” Respect the wisdom of the gray-heads and LISTEN to them. We may not be right in every case but do not discard our suggestions and ideas and put them on the pew to die with our knowledge and wisdom passing with us. Use us! Listen to us! We are not experts in every field and maybe not in any field, but we have something to say and do which could help you if you will let us.
Second, RESPECT THE AUTHORITY OF THE WORD OF GOD. Do not engage in the practice of things just because they please you. Do not forsake the authority of God’s word because you want to appeal to numbers with innovations which are not authorized in the word of God. The preachers, parents, and teachers when I was growing up taught me the importance of listening to the word of God and refusing to be drawn away and enticed by the popularity of a thing. That was valuable to me, not because it was their opinion but because it is plainly taught in the word of God. What is wrong with ‘speaking where the Bible speaks and being silent where the Bible is silent?” Is that not what Peter teaches us in I Pet. 4:11?
Why are so many of our younger people today accepting the use of mechanical instruments of music in worship? Why are they content with the use of women in the roles of leadership in worship and other areas? Why is our focus shifting to things that interest us and appeal to us instead of reaching out to the world with the gospel? Why does it seem that we are fast becoming more of a social and recreational organization than a body of people who want to do everything possible to turn many to the Lord? Why are we not raising more Godly, qualified men to lead us as Shepherds of God’s flock instead of just appointing the most popular or successful men in the church to that office? Could it be that our knowledge of the word of God is so shallow that we don’t know the importance of insisting upon authority for our actions? Or, do we not care whether a thing is authorized or not? Are we so blinded by our pleasures that we cannot see the need for authority for our actions?
I want to challenge you younger adults to study your Bibles! Know the difference between what is right and what is wrong. Listen to the Hebrew writer in Hebrews 5:11-14. Make time every day in that busy, challenging schedule of yours to study the word of God. When you read what it says, LISTEN TO IT and DO WHAT IT SAYS! You will never regret doing that.
Third, TEACH YOUR CHILDREN THE WORD OF GOD AND THE IMPORTANCE OF RESPECTING IT’S AUTHORITY. How many of you reading this right now have children that have lost their faith and just gone off into the world? How many have been disappointed in some thing or someone in the church and have just walked away from the Lord? How many have gone off into denominationalism because they did not know why they should not go to church with their friends at their church? How many of our children have married out of the church and gone with their spouse into some church that we do not read about in the word of God? Honestly, how many of our children are lost because we did not make the time and expend the effort to teach them the word and impress upon them that this is the ONLY way to please God? I heard a man recently say that when he was dating the woman who would eventually become his wife and they were contemplating marriage, he was not a Christian and she was. She told him, “There are two things that you must know.” “There will be no divorce and there is ONE church.” To say that lovingly and be ready to give an answer as to why it is said is a wonderful thing.
Have you studied Deut. 6 recently, especially verses 1-9? Have you considered Eph. 6:4? Have you thought about Prov. 22:6? Parents, there is no more solemn and serious responsibility that rests upon us than raising our children up to submit to and follow the Lord. That demands that we teach them the importance of respecting the authority of the word of God. As a part of that teaching and training we must make it clear that there is something very distinct and different about the Lord’s church and that leaving it is spiritually fatal.
I challenge you to teach your children from the very beginning of their ability to be taught, WHY we commune with the Lord every Lord’s day; WHY we do not sing with mechanical instruments of music; WHY one must be baptized in order to be saved; WHY one must be a member of the church that we read about in the bible in order to go to heaven, and many other vitally important issues.
My beloved brethren, if we would be convinced of this matter of respecting the authority of God’s word and pass it on to our children we would once again see the church moving forward and having a great influence for the Lord in a lost and dying world.
Fourth, WE MUST FOCUS ON EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. The gray-heads of the past did that because they recognized the example set for us by the early church. I like this…”We must evangelize every person who is not a Christian and equip every Christian to evangelize.” The early disciples of the Lord were commissioned to emphasize one thing primarily and that was to take the gospel to the world as the Lord Himself had commanded them to do.
Evangelism may be the forgotten commandment today. We are so focused inwardly that our view of world evangelism is woefully distorted. We have missionaries in fewer foreign countries today than we had many years ago. We are baptizing fewer people at home than we have in days gone by. WHY? Would it be insulting if I were to suggest that we do not have a fire in our bones today to teach the lost?
The Lord’s charge to ‘preach the gospel to every creature’ has not changed. We gray-heads, the young adults, the teens, all of us, must be missionaries right where we are. Let’s get to it right now!
Yes, I am deeply concerned about what is going to happen when the gray is gone. But, I know that we have marvelous potential to reach greater heights than ever before because we have the talent to do it, the money to do it, and the methods to do it. All that we need is the faith to do it, the interest to do it, and the determination to do it.
When this present generation of gray-heads has passed on to their rest, I fervently pray that the next generation will have benefited from them and that they will pass it on to the generation that follows them. I have two Great-Granddaughters and one Great-Grandson that I will not be allowed to influence for very long but I hope that the gray-heads that follow me will give them faith, courage, an example, and a determination to follow the Lord faithfully.
Thank you, Gray-Heads of today and God bless you. May you spend the rest of your days seeking and speaking on behalf of the Lord. May others be caused to follow, not us, but the Lord.