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Table of Contents
Identifying Receptive Seniors
When considering an evangelistic strategy for older adults, recall Christ’s words: "Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest" (John 4:35*). There are some people in our communities whom the Holy Spirit has prepared; it is our responsibility to find those ripe harvest fields.
What about senior adults? Are all seniors equally receptive to becoming Christians and members of your church? Probably not. Some seniors will be more responsive to your evangelistic efforts than others. Identifying those receptive seniors whom God has prepared—those ripe unto harvest—is a key part of effective evangelism.
The Receptivity-Resistance Axis is a helpful tool for understanding why people are more or less open to accepting Christ and becoming His disciples at a given point in time.
Every non-Christian—including every non-Christian senior adult—can be located somewhere on this Receptivity-Resistance Axis. This continuum describes a person’s openness to changing his/her religious lifestyle—to becoming a new creature in Christ. Some people are receptive—the good soil (Matthew 13:1–9). Other are resistant to the gospel—the rocky soil. When Jesus concluded this parable with, "he who has ears, let him hear," He was suggesting that the good news would not be heard and received equally. We are called to identify those who will hear, listen, and respond.
Not only does this R-R Axis help us understand that people are at different places in their readiness to respond to the gospel, it should be noted that people move back and forth on this axis over the course of their lifetimes. Sometimes a person will be receptive to the gospel, while at other times he or she will be resistant. A person who is resistant to the gospel today may be receptive 2 months from now.
What causes people to move back and forth on this R-R scale? It is transitional life events.
Transitional life events determine a person’s place on the scale as well as their movement toward or away from receptivity to the gospel. The more disruptive the event is to a person’s psychological equilibrium, the more immediate and dramatic will be their movement toward receptivity. The more stable and unchanging their life situation, the more resistant the person will be.
The key question is this: If some older adults in your community are open, interested, and receptive to the gospel, how do you find them?
The Senior Stress Scale on page 16 will help identify transitional events in the lives of older adults. These events have been shown to be indicators of a person’s receptivity to Christian conversion. Seniors who rate high on this scale will be more receptive to conversion than those who rate lower.
The number to the right indicates the relative severity of the event. These transition events can and do compound on each other. A person who has experienced major physical problems (53) and retired (45) during the past year will be more receptive than had either event happened separately.
Events that occurred between 18–36 months ago should be counted at half the point value. The farther away in time the event occurred, the less influential the event is in determining a person’s present receptivity. In contrast, the more recent the occurrence, the more receptive the person.
Charles Arn, Ed.D., Monrovia, California.
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