I remember the flush of pride and success as one day I stood before my church community to preach and thought, "I'm getting to be one of the oldest people here!". It was quite a moment. When I had first started at that church, I had got up to preach and calculated that I was one of the youngest there.
Then it hit me. On one hand we had achieved something: a church not known for its ministry to youth and young adults was slowly building a ministry in those areas. Young families were feeling encouraged to come in and stay. My inevitable pop culture references were beginning to get nods of approval rather than blank stares.
On the other hand, through deaths, relocations and some discomfort with the new culture of the church community, our "pointy end" of the age pyramid had been flattened. Many had left when they saw that the "young ones" could handle the ministry of the church in their place.
