The year was 1947. During a choir practice at St Clement’s, Mosman, Trevor Young was, by his own reckoning, ‘overwhelmed by Jesus’. Not having had much to do with church, Trevor was now passionately committed to serving the Lord. He recalls, “at home, in sport, in friendships, every moment was taken up in finding people with whom I could share Christ.”

Trevor became a leader in industry. He managed multi-national corporations but never lost his zeal for the gospel. “In the years of cut-throat business that were ahead, I sought to uphold Christian values and principles with my staff teams and in the way we ran the organisation. It wasn’t always easy but the directors were generally happy when profits flowed from honest, diligent trading.”

Trevor now serves on the ministry team at Christ Church, Springwood. He has a ‘seniors’ brief, and I asked Trevor why he moved from the ‘market place’ to ministry in a local church.

Stuart Robinson:  You’ve moved from being a senior corporate executive in Brambles to a ‘third age’  honorary pastoral worker?
Trevor Young: Sure. Since coming to Christ I’ve been involved in the local church because I really do believe it is the heart of mission. Having said that, I was also aware that in many churches there is, in my opinion, a distinct lack of management experience and the ability to dream about what, under God, could take place.
I took early retirement in my late 50’s, partly because of health, but principally to concentrate on the business of dreaming about and planning for evangelism in my local church.

SR: What is your specific role?
TY: My role now is to formulate plans and co-ordinate outreach to 55’s and over in our local target area. I serve on the parish Council, lead and preach (which I’ve been doing now for 50 years!), run a growth group and pastor our mid-week church. This ministry operates outside traditional buildings. Our basic objective is to save the lost.

SR: What is your strategy for reaching and discipling seniors?
TY: In our immediate area there are 6,000 seniors. Our strategy is to ‘connect’ with this group through activities like the walking club, exercise classes or the computer club, craft classes, ‘handyman’ gatherings and the like. Having made contact with people, they are then invited to more overt evangelistic programs.
These have included, ‘The Y Course’, ‘Lifeworks’, ‘Christianity Explained’, ‘Purpose Driven Life’, luncheons and dialogue meetings. A magazine, 55’s Plus, is distributed widely and will continue to be a source of information for the community.

SR: Trevor, do you have a clear vision for the work?
TY: We want to reach the 6000 people in our area (over 55) for Christ! Our initial goal is to be in touch with 500 people in our local area in 2003 with growth spurts thereafter.
You see, there is a mission field on our doorstep. Some 25 per cent of our parish population is 55 or over. That’s why this ministry is full-time.

SR: Is the work effective?
TY: Well, it has been difficult to generate local interest in ‘seniors’ work but suddenly the perseverance is paying off. The small, but highly dedicated team has doggedly stuck to the task of inviting people to events and praying for the Lord’s intervention.
In fact, it is beginning to snowball.  We started with zero and are now able to gather up to 100 people for a luncheon, for example.

SR: What are your current challenges?
TY: The major challenges are prayer – we need to keep at it and prepare our people to accept and grow with change. Like every other church body, we must carry our people forward with care and grace so that we might lead them to a saving relationship with Jesus.