Elder Care Seminar

Some of you have either been able to meet my parents recently, or at least heard about how my brothers' and I have recently been trying to care for them in this season of their life where they have more needs, but less strength to meet them. We've been trying to make the best decisions we can, but sometimes we find out later that it wasn't the best decision in the long run. Who knew? And then we get mixed advice, so we can't even determine if we did the right thing or not!

Others of you in our congregation have just gone through this, are just now starting to, or see it on the near horizon. Like me, perhaps you regret ignoring notices you've seen of "Elder Care" seminars, not thinking you needed to go to one, and now quickly realizing that you do. And if you search online, you'll soon discover that there are way too many resources to be able to navigate it all.

That's why I decided to speak with the folks at Heritage next door to see if they had good contacts for who could do a quality seminar for us. I learned two things - first, that they are fully equipped to put on a seminar themselves, and second, that there are far more issues to cover than a single seminar can possibly hope to address.

We don't have solid plans, yet, but at present, we are tentatively planning on hosting an overview seminar in the Spring to explain the kinds of issues that we need to think about, address them to modest degree, and then poll the crowd to see which issues they would like to see future, more in-depth seminars. We will announce these plans when they begin to firm up.

What I would like from you is a little feedback. What are your needs on the issue of caring for aging relatives? What questions do you have? What concerns do you have? What are the issues your friends and neighbors have? Please email me as much feedback as you can - that will help us tailor our overview seminar.

Also, this is a tremendous outreach opportunity! We want to invite churches in the neighborhood, and those who live near the church. Our goal is not necessarily to be the best church in the neighborhood, but to focus on being the best church for the neighborhood (to borrow a phrase from the Externally Focused Church). So look at this as an easy way to reach out to your neighbors. As we get this planned and produce hand-out literature, we are equipping you as an agent of the church to intentionally cultivate relationships to evangelize and disciple our world for God's glory.