Living Hope Presbyterian is 'best of both worlds' for senior living community and church

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wisconsin — A few miles from downtown Milwaukee in the suburban community of Menomonee Falls, Living Hope Presbyterian Church is tucked away in the Dickson Hollow Senior Living Community, where Bible studies and services are enriched with deep thinking and the lifelong experience of residents.

The church, which on Sunday welcomed guests from the 227th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), draws most of its attendees from within the community, with about 30% coming from elsewhere.

“We have lots of folks who are older but young at heart,” said the Rev. Dr. Will Houts, Living Hope's pastor. “They understand how church is supposed to work, and they end up making that blossom.”

For example, there are “folks here that have a lot of curiosity, and that's one of the things I love about doing Bible study with this group of 70-, 80-, and 90-year-olds, because they're asking deep questions … and thinking in ways that your normal 20-, 30-year-olds aren't going to be able to share because they have that deeper life experience.”

Living Hope sprang from Brookfield Presbyterian Church, which was at a crossroads when the senior living community was being built about 10 years ago.

Brookfield was in an older building with a lot of deferred maintenance, and the thought arose, “What if we put in extra money and we end up coming and moving in?” Houts said.

The result is a building that incorporates stained glass from the old church and ensures that Living Hope has not only space to worship but extras as well, such as a separate entrance, conference room, office space, a Sunday school room, storage space, bathrooms and a kitchenette.

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On the flip side, the worship space provides flexibility for weekend activities, such as chair exercise, as well as Bible studies, for the senior living community, including those tuning in from their rooms. The seniors are "using the space all the time, and so it's the best of both worlds,” Houts said.

During the June 28 service, Houts gave a brief sermon, primarily focused on Romans 6:1-23, highlighting the Apostle Paul's arguments on justification, sanctification and grace.

“Justification is this ability to stand with a good conscience before God, that there's no condemnation because when God looks at us, (God) sees Jesus and loves us and says we are indeed part of Christ,” Houts said. “Being justified ends up giving us access to salvation because God loves us, and we were baptized into death and resurrection with Christ Jesus.”

He continued, “Now, sanctification is also something that comes by grace. It is that ability to grow that which is within us to be more holy, where we become more and more like Christ, and here, Paul uses the metaphor of being slaves. Slaves do what they're told, following their master's directions, and so Paul encourages the Romans to choose a slavery to righteousness that they may become sanctified.”

Instead of using grace as an excuse to continue to sin, “we should continue to seek to make ourselves dead to sin and alive to righteousness,” said Houts, who added that it’s important to “obey the master of righteousness because that is God. We should try to move in that direction where God is pushing us.”

Houts offered these three main takeaways:

• Realize that God does the heavy lifting. “God is indeed the source of grace,” he said.
• Remember that grace is not just for us but for everyone whom God loves. Therefore, “we have to give people the benefit of the doubt,” Houts said. “We end up giving them that grace, recognizing they're doing their best, and take a few moments to listen to how God is active in their lives, even if it's hard for us to see.”
• Remember that we have choices. “We have agency in this, not to move ourselves into perfection, not to move ourselves into salvation, not to sanctify ourselves or justify ourselves, but we have the ability to respond to what God has done, with thanksgiving and gratefulness, and make that known by us doing the best we can.”

When there are disagreements among Presbyterians at any level of the church, “we say that in that argument God's grace is present,” Houts said. “God's Spirit is there, God's acting in those times and places, so that we can hear what the spirit would have us do.”

It’s important to “come together under God's grace to know that God is active, and we are trying to respond the best we can with joy and thanksgiving to know that God is with us and giving us the grace we need for this day,” Houts said.

After the sermon, the congregation and Houts spoke of the need to pray for various people, including those coping with calamities, from illness and earthquakes to gun violence. 

Also, “I would ask that we keep the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in our prayers,” Houts said. “They are meeting, as I said, this week in person after a week of meetings online, and so they can always use prayers for us to help them in discerning what God is calling our church to be.”