RURAL HALL, N.C. — Making a tough decision to close its day care center after 20 years prompted a small North Carolina church to establish a center for senior adults in Rural Hall, N.C., a mid-state area with a high number of seniors who live alone.
A slow economy, loss of textile and tobacco jobs in this community 15 miles north of Winston-Salem, N.C., and increasingly stringent standards dropped demand for childcare.
When the day care — which at one time had as many as 100 children — closed, Keith McKinney, pastor of First Baptist Church, led his congregation to address the greatest unmet need in the area — a place for senior adults to gather.
The “world's largest jig saw puzzle” has attracted more than 50 people to the nascent senior center in the lower floor of First Baptist Church, Rural Hall, N.C., more than half of them from the community at large. The puzzle, measuring 14 x 5 feet is being assembled in sections. The 72-square-foot finished product will eventually be mounted and hung.
|
Surveys showed the surrounding community to have a high number of senior adults living alone. Their greatest indicated need was fellowship.
So McKinney, who is in his first pastorate after 10 years in youth ministry, is leading a broad-based effort to establish The Living Well Center for Lifelong Learning in the 7,500 square-foot lower floor of the church, which once was occupied by children.
“It was sad to close and we didn’t want to, but at the same time we realized things were moving in that direction,” said McKinney, pastor for three years.
Armed with survey information, a small, aging congregation and support from community leaders, McKinney has moved forward to establish The Living Well.
The name references three prominent touchstones: the desire of adults live well as they age; Jesus’ reference to himself as living water in John 4; and a well in the middle of Rural Hall’s Main Street that once was a regular stop for farmers carrying products to Winston-Salem.
With a $21,000 grant from the Cooperative Baptist Fellow of North Carolina and a $2,500 grant from the North Carolina Baptist Aging Ministries, McKinney has money in hand to seed his efforts for renovations and equipment funds.
The CBFNC grant followed a self-study through the group’s “It’s Time” process helping churches find a way “to be the presence of Christ in our community,” McKinney said.
As a part of the study on meeting needs and learning “what God is doing in your community,” McKinney said “one of the ways God is working here is among the seniors.”
The lower level of the church is accessible from the parking lot level. Six large rooms used for daycare each have a restroom and outside access. A former playground can be reconditioned for shuffleboard and box gardens.
McKinney is not leading the church to establish a senior adult center, but is corralling community support for a senior center that will be housed at First Baptist. An exploratory committee includes community leaders and members of other churches and he is seeking non-profit status for the center.
Hortense Hall gives pastor Keith McKinney a piece to place in the jigsaw puzzle, while Denise Wright (right) concentrates on finding the next piece.
|
The town of Rural Hall has already included the center in its upcoming budget and a businessman’s association has chipped in. But the gifts are small in the face of what is necessary to make The Living Well a fulltime center. McKinney hopes to open it in the fall, but will not do so until it is fully functional, with the necessary remodeling complete and a director — at least part-time — on board.
In the meantime, he is not letting the newly available space sit idle. McKinney bought a copy of “the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle” and set up tables at which anyone in the community can come and “puzzle” for an hour or a day.
More than 50 people have tried their hand at it, fewer than half of them members of First Baptist.
“We come here to hurt our backs,” said Sara Nance, noting the agony of leaning over the tables to search for tiny pieces to fit into the 14 by 5-foot puzzle. “It’s fun and good fellowship, but we told him not to order another one.”
Denise Wright said she’s gotten to know many people she otherwise would never have met.
And fellowship seems to be the single greatest need for seniors living alone. One weekday, most of the puzzlers were widows. Their chatter and laughter pealed through the cement block room like bells at Christmas.
McKinney, who even as a youth minister actively found senior friends and supporters among the churches he served, wants The Living Well to be more than a place where seniors gather.
While there will be plenty of exercise, education, dance, crafts, health and wellness activities and games, along with advice on finances, retirement, end of life issues, wills directives, power of attorney and tax help, he plans for it to be a place from which seniors go to volunteer in other community services.
The “future planning team,” which includes among others church members, community leaders, the town’s former treasurer and three pastors, is slowly transitioning to become a board for the eventual non-profit organization.
During the preliminary phase, McKinney said he needs prayer, because he is learning as he goes.
“There’s a lot of things we can do with our own wisdom and knowledge but the end result is only things we can do. We want God to show up and do things that only he can do.”
McKinney travels two days a week for Baptist Retirement Homes of North Carolina, encouraging churches to support its work among senior adults.
The Living Well’s progress can be followed at www.thelivingwellrh.com.
Norman Jameson is a contributing writer for the Religious Herald also reports for Associated Baptist Press on an interim basis.