Ministering to Those in Assisted Living

Introduction

James 1:27 – Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Matthew 25:40 – And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Recently, Zion Presbyterian Church resolved to minister to an assisted living facility once a month. The plan is to conduct a devotional time there after our regular PM service concludes.

This past Lord’s Day was our first visit, and I wanted to relay some observations, as a question has already been asked on social media about how things went.

My primary aim in writing this piece is to encourage more churches to minister to those who live in assisted living facilities. The need is very great. Souls are perishing that may be saved at the 11th hour. In addition, true believers are suffering a spiritual drought and are starved of Christian fellowship.

This was first impressed on me as an intern at the Stillwater Reformed Presbyterian Church in Stillwater, OK. During a visit to a memory care facility by that congregation, a woman became desperate for us to take her to church. It was hard to not be in anguish for her thinking about the final years of a Christian person divorced from the ordinances of God. What would it be if I were in such a place and in such a state without the Word being brought to me? It would be a tragic thing.

So, I was pleased that the congregation here was desirous to minister to those in a local assisted living facility. One of our members reached out to them, and they were quite happy to have us come and lead services for Christians there. If you have a facility like this near your congregation, reach out to them; they may well be eager to have you visit.

Worship

For our first time out, several of our families came to an abridged worship service at the facility. I have previously written “Simplicity of Worship Leads to More,” and it is the case that the NT doctrine of the simplicity of worship leads to more occasions to worship God.

I led the congregation in a service that consisted of two psalms, prayers, and the reading as well as the preaching of God’s Word. I preached out of John 11 on this occasion. I read most of the chapter before preaching for about 25 minutes. About fifteen residents were with us. Before I started, I introduced our congregation and why we were there, and that we believed in the Bible as God’s Word and the gospel of free grace – saved by Christ alone by grace through faith.

I was unsure of what to expect in terms of response from the residents. But I was surprised, in a blessed way. Psalm singing was new to them, but one of our congregants printed out the psalms we sang in sheet music form, and so as we sang, some of them sang along. But it was when the Bible was read and preached that I saw many become very attentive. They were more interactive than a typical Presbyterian congregation would be. But that was encouraging in that I could tell they were paying attention.

At the end of the sermon, after preaching the gospel, I asked, as Jesus asked Martha, “Believest thou this?” I preached – if we believe that those who believe in Christ will never die – should we not say Hallelujah? That is the kind of thing that would be a moment of silent reflection in a Presbyterian congregation, but not there! A chorus of ‘Hallelujahs’ rang out in response. Whatever one thinks about the propriety of such a response within a congregation, it clearly indicated that they were mentally engaged.

Interactions

Afterward, we had a time of interaction with the residents. This seemed to be a tremendous blessing for them. They enjoyed our people coming to visit with them, to learn about them, and to speak about the things of God. One woman asked me a couple of questions she said she had “never asked a pastor about before,” concerning repentant persons who fell into the sin of transgenderism and the resurrection to come. I was encouraged that she was satisfied with the answers I provided.

As I looked around, there were groups of our people sitting with the residents. It was heartwarming to see. The residents seemed quite pleased to have Christians to speak to, and many of them had very interesting life stories that they were happy to relay to us!

Some things of note from our visit:

1) These residents are sorely neglected by the Church. One person commented that they have had people come to sing ‘carols’ to them, but no one comes to preach the Word, and they have missed it very much. This also shows the utter vanity of doing those things which God has not promised to bless. Yet, faith comes by hearing, and hearing the Word of God.

2) The eyes of some of those who professed faith were quite moist at the reminder of their Savior’s love for repentant sinners. This was very touching.

3) One said that when prior ministers have visited them, they would just read one or two verses. But a woman said that she enjoyed hearing so much Scripture read (I read almost all of John 11) for the preaching of the Word. They get so little Bible day to day that hearing so much of the Savior’s voice was wonderful to her. His sheep long for his voice. They say – “The Voice of My Beloved!” There is a temptation to think that they will not sit and listen to a significant amount of the Word. But I found, at least with these people, that they wanted more of the Word.

4) It does not seem like they have had many Christians sit down and talk with them. They enjoyed that so many of our people came and sat down to sit and talk with them for a while. Their eyes lit up at the sight of the children.

5) I noticed something interesting about a woman locked in on the preaching. She would smile, and her eyes lit up at the Savior’s word. However, when I went to speak to her one-on-one after the service was concluded, she was not really there mentally. She seemed to be a different person. One wonders what the Spirit was doing in her soul in the context of worship. It always gives hope to see how he can work beyond our mental capacity.

Conclusions

This is a neglected ministry in some parts of the Church. Many do this well, and I praise God for them. But more congregations should join in this work. For there are many people in the 11th hour in these places that need to hear the gospel and turn from their sin and to Christ for a free and full salvation.

Let us not forget that there are also true Christians in these places, Christ’s brethren, bereft of the ordinary means of grace, especially preaching, confined and unable to go to church anymore. One man who had lost the ability to read lamented that he was unable to go to church and read his Bible. It was moving to hear his lament over his loss. He reminded me of the dear woman in Stillwater, OK. How many more are like them in these facilities?

There is a joy in ministering to these people. Personally, this will remain one of my sweetest memories of the ministry I have had thus far. Our Lord Jesus Christ reminds us that when we minister to the least of his brethren, we minister to him. In that, we find it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Freely we have received, freely we are to give.