My professional setting is Rockwood Retirement Community, 95 acres of a beautifully treed and landscaped area on the South Hill of Spokane, WA. The community consists of the lovely Forest Estates with 166 cottages and approximately 180 residents; the Ridge, a 7-story independent and assisted-living apartment building, with 200 residents; and an up-to-date skilled nursing facility, with a memory care unit. In a sense, I have become the “village pastor.” My research seeks to explore ways to preach and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in order to enrich the spiritual experience and lives of the residents at Rockwood Retirement Community. Often, older residents can feel like they are too advanced in age to make a difference; they feel disenfranchised by society; and they are often fatigued by the demands of keeping up with both the changes in the society and their world and their personal changes in health, mobility, and status. I want to impress upon them the importance of the wisdom they bring to the spiritual conversation and interaction between themselves and between the pastor and the resident. My goal is to preach so as to bring the residents God’s message of love; to encourage them to live joyfully and with hope; and to illuminate their faith in Jesus Christ. In my thesis project, the means to that goal is to preach with invitation, with authenticity, and with clarity. This thesis articulates the relationship between the goal and the means of accomplishing this goal.
