IRONTON – The Baptist Home launched a new podcast this month to spotlight what God’s Word says about aging.
For more than 107 years, The Baptist Home has been known for providing compassionate, Christlike care to the aging. More recently, The Baptist Home has been working to share their time-earned insights on aging issues by offering many educational resources for churches, pastors, caregivers, and other agencies focused on improving the quality of life for the aging. This month marks a new frontier for the ministry of The Baptist Home with the launch of their new podcast, “Biblical Perspectives on Aging.”
Based on Psalm 71, the “Biblical Perspectives on Aging” weekly podcast will feature one-on-one conversations with Christian aging experts from The Baptist Home and other industry leaders who will fearlessly apply biblical truths to difficult and sometimes controversial aging issues related to moral relativism, eugenics, ageism, sanctity of life, and ethics and aging.
The podcast’s first guest, Ben Mitchell, retired Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy at Union University in Tennessee and author of Ethics and Moral Reasoning, discusses moral relativism’s impact on ethics and aging. In the interview, Mitchell was enthusiastic about the new podcast saying, “I’m a Boomer. There are many of us who will have to learn both what it means to honor our fathers and mothers and what it means to have our children care for us. With a growing aging population which is living longer, but not always more healthily, the issues are alive and more urgent in many cases.”
Baptist Home President Rodney Harrison, former Dean of Postgraduate Studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, spearheaded the launch of the podcast and is passionate about addressing resident rights and aging issues. When asked about his goals for the podcast, Harrison shared, “Our objective is to bring together the foremost voices from the academy and practice to speak to the issues of aging from a biblical worldview. The podcast is a resource for all who hold to the sanctity of life to natural death, be they pastors, students, the elderly or children of aging parents.”
Andy Braams, pastor, adjunct professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and host of the weekly podcast, Christian Educator Weekly, also serves as the host for “Biblical Perspectives on Aging” and is excited about the podcast saying, “As a middle-aged adult with aging family members and as a pastor of a church with many senior adults, this podcast is not just an opportunity to serve others by hosting, it is a personal opportunity to learn and grow so I can better serve the aging in my life. The initial interviews I have conducted have already been a tremendous encouragement to me personally, and I look forward to continuing to gain insights to benefit everyone who may listen to this podcast. And although my voice serves as host for this podcast, my commitment is to ask questions from each guest to enable and encourage all of us to truly become a voice for the aging.”
The Baptist Home was established in 1913 and has four campuses across the state of Missouri, in Arcadia Valley (Ironton), Ashland, Chillicothe, and Ozark. The Baptist Home provides continuum of care retirement communities in a Southern Baptist, faith-based setting and is unlike many long-term care facilities in that it operates without direct Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement. Residents living in assisted and nursing units pay for as much of their cost as they are able, but if funds are depleted The Home’s benevolent program enables them to receive the same care and services as private pay individuals for the rest of their lives. Residents who are able to live in the active living apartments do not receive benevolent support but do have access to long-term care services should they require higher levels of care.
For more information about independent living, assisted living, or nursing care services, call (866) 454-2709 or visit www.thebaptisthome.org. To listen to Ben Mitchell’s and other aging experts’ full interviews, download the “Biblical Perspectives on Aging” podcast on iTunes, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, or listen via the podcast’s landing page, www.biblicalperspectives.org. Interviews are also available for viewing on YouTube at TheBaptistHome1.