Two stories have come to light recently that bear sharing. Two people in their 80s, lifelong church members, moved from the passive sidelines to the active frontlines!

My friend Ray in New Hampshire talked about an 80-year-old lady who became a widow. The other ladies wanted to include her in a bible study for “fellowship” even though they didn’t expect her to do anything other than attend. She “has a Bible” – her old KJV given to her when she was baptized, and “if the pastor thinks I need to know something, he’ll tell me.” But within two years, she was reading her New Living Translation, memorizing verses, and having a daily time with God. She reminds me of the lady I wrote about in the blog “The Church Has Failed Us.”

The second story is about a fellow right here in our area that a friend told me about. Bob was saved at a Billy Graham Crusade in Denver in the mid-60s and didn’t remember getting any follow-up other than someone telling him to “Stick with it. The commitment you made is real.” He was then an active member of a good church from then until now. 50+ years. Sang in the choir, served on the deacon board, etc.

About two years ago, he went to a meeting and had, as he described it, an encounter with the Holy Spirit. In addition, someone met with him to personally disciple him. Amazingly, he has turned right around and begun to evangelize and disciple others!

Bob told my friend something like, “The power of the Holy Spirit and personal discipleship are new to me.” I said to my friend, “Well, there’s a story in itself!” To which my friend responded, “Well, that’s 95% of churches.”

That’s another story. Why do we take it for granted that learning to live the Christian life, experiencing true discipleship in the power of the Holy Spirit, and helping others do the same is not happening in our churches? A few years ago, I was preparing to go to India, and we told some folks we’d be teaching practical methods for making disciples. Everyone we told that to said something like, “We need that here!”

As Ray and I were sharing these two stories, we were asking ourselves, Why? I think this is part of the answer:

Our churches are not expecting anything other than attendance and enough volunteers to keep the church running.

These two stories of people in their 80s indicate that it doesn’t have to be this way.

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2.1 – 4, ESV)