Doug had been a decorated, high-ranking military leader, an experienced and inventive engineer, and a determined Christian from Presbyterian roots. It was he who first explained to me that when ministers sought to close traditional worship in the name of relevance and outreach, the message they conveyed to the people who depended on that worship was the Christian truths they had been taught in their youth were no longer considered true.
Doug described the harm he had seen this produce, as people left their churches of many years, their faith in Christ damaged at a time in life when maintaining confidence in the world to come was vitally important. I have met many of these traditional refugees, angry and wounded. Most could not articulate as well as Doug what has hurt them but changing and devaluing their worship traditions and personal history had damaged their faith as effectively as teaching them heresy. Their confidence in what they were first taught had been lost.
However, as pastors, we also know other ways of diagnosing the faith struggles of older church members. Sometimes there are older traditionalists who are unable to adapt. Some act as gatekeepers against gospel mission because their congregations lost their gospel heart to the optimistic naivety of old-school liberal teaching decades ago. The result was these churches eventually became about themselves. Their history and community mattered more than the mission, truth and glory of God’s gospel.
Pastors who want to see these churches grow feel compelled not only to stop liberal teaching but the traditions it became associated with. These pastors will then swim against a strong tide to update the style of worship in the name of mission and growth. In my denomination these efforts are often not welcomed and will mostly be costly for both the pastor and the congregation, too often ending in mutual frustration.
But, there is evidence we can do better and that it is possible to turn our ministry to older people and declining congregations into fruitful gospel opportunity. After all, if we are students of the Bible we know we are taught to treat our elders with respect[i], and respond to our opponents with gentleness,[ii] even love.[iii] I have seen this approach create an invitation that is more likely to help some turn towards God during a critical and confronting time of life. However, grace and graciousness will also confirm the hardness of others. Nevertheless, to be fruitful in any mission to older people, I suggest we begin our diagnosis of their faith by first describing, valuing, and nurturing them according to Paul’s advice in Romans 14 rather than rebuking or dismissing them by drawing parallels with Romans 2.
ROMANS 14
In Romans 14, Paul continues the application of the gospel (Romans 1:16,17) he began in chapter 12. By chapter 14 he addresses how to worship God (12.1,2) by acting in love within the cultural and religious diversity of the first-century church. The question is, how does a congregation live out the gospel expounded in Romans 1 to 11 given the diverse spiritual traditions that were being drawn together by this powerful gospel? If we consider the many strands of Jewish devotional practice and the multiple sensibilities burnt into the souls of Gentiles escaping their pagan pasts, it looks like an unworkable diversity to manage.
In Romans 14 there are religious clashes over traditions of meat eating, alcohol consumption, fasting, and the observance of holy days (14:2,5,21). Paul’s solution is to ask the church in Rome to protect and build up the faith of those whose religious identity is linked strongly to their traditions. He wants the strong in faith (whose beliefs free them, to some extent, from the traditions they inherited[iv]) not to cause the weak in faith (those who link their traditions more firmly to the truth of their beliefs) to act against their conscience because, for them, it would be a sin (14:23).
This is not pastoral relativism; this is Paul addressing a pastoral problem that remains common in our churches. That if we act against our conscience on non-essential traditions, that nevertheless was the packaging in which truth was delivered to us, then we risk becoming disoriented and could act against our conscience on essential gospel truths and behaviour.
The application of this for us as pastors today is, rather than seeing our elders as roadblocks of our ministries, it is wiser to spend our energy working out how to encourage their Christian discipleship using the traditions that helped form their trust in Christ. We also need to consider our wider mission field. Our ageing population relates more readily to traditional forms of Christian worship and many young, disillusioned post-modernists, are fascinated and moved by the traditional forms of Christianity they see are still ‘standing at their post’.[v] Meanwhile, contemporary forms of worship are viewed with increasing suspicion[vi].
I have seen how, in my denomination and others that, if sincerely done, traditional forms of worship combined with biblical, creedal beliefs, result in changed lives and therefore God’s heart for mission is revived. It is then possible for those congregations to grow in even the most unpromising parts of our city. The issue is less with the forms of worship and more with the openness of our hearts towards God and his words affecting our lives.
OUR TRADITIONS, OUR OPPORTUNITIES
All of us carry traditions which, at their best, have formed us to believe and live gospel truths and we are wise to be careful about our traditions because they are useful servants but deadly masters[vii]. But if we are formed by what now passes as contemporary worship, we need to accept it will be outmoded and set aside by the new leaders who are coming. The worship and church styles that once nurtured us will be challenged. As we age and we too struggle to hold onto energy, focus and habits that prompt our memories, we too will find the form (our traditions), has become a strong vehicle for the substance (the gospel).
So, dear pastor, please do not risk harming the faith and conscience of others or miss out on the missional opportunity older traditions offer to move many to Christ Jesus and deeper into him. Try to honour our elders and, in gentleness, test if they are in any way open to the words of God, even if that means honouring them as your weaker brothers and sisters.
Mike Flynn has worked in ordained Anglican ministry for over 30 years as a local church minister, university and aged care chaplain. He currently serves as Vicar of St. John’s Brunswick West in Victoria and as Archdeacon for Essendon in the Diocese of Melbourne.
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[i] For example: Exodus 20:12; Leviticus 19:32; 1 Timothy 5:1.
[ii] For example: Ephesians 4:2; 1 Timothy 6:11; 2 Timothy 2:25; Galatians 6:1, James 3:17-18, 5:19,20; Jude 20-22.
[iii] Matthew 5:43-48
[iv] See 1 Corinthians 8 for a longer explanation
[v] James Marriott, Full Fat Faith, the young people filling our churches (The Times, 28th of August 2025)
[vi] For example: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-11/afterthe-demise-of-hillsong-is-there-a-place-for-the-church-in-/102465418/
[vii] For example: Mark 7:7-13