Will There Be Any One To Replace Me? by Maxie Dunnam

Two-thirds of the world’s population now lives in countries where the birth rate has dropped to or below 2.1 babies per woman, the number needed to keep the population constant.

When I first read that I was shocked by the language: 2.1 babies per woman.  However, it was the concern that really got my attention. Experts are concerned that the fertility rate has dropped below the so-called “replacement rate” of the population. Persons who study issues like this are concerned about what is described as the “coming demographic winter.”

Maybe because I will soon be 90 years old, all sorts of questions began to whirl in my mind. Who is going to replace me? Can I be replaced? But the important personal question is, do I need to be replaced?

The experts are concerned because shrinking population means more jobs will go unfilled, economic growth will slow, programs like Social Security—which depend upon the working-aged to pay in and support the growing ranks of the aged – may become bankrupt.

As one who seeks to be a responsible citizen, I’m happy “experts” are working on those issues, but there are questions and concerns we all need to personally consider.

• Am I sharing and caring for others in ways that need to be replaced?
• Am I filling a place in my family or community which someone else will need to be charged and equipped to fill?
• Is there a person that I am allowing to be dependent on me that I need to “set free”?
• Who are persons I consider “irreplaceable” that I need to thank and offer support?

The question presses, Who is going to replace me? As a minister,  I remember a word Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers.” What kind of image have I communicated?  

Will anyone who looks at my years, my efforts, and my call recognize a life which needs to be replaced?

The same can be asked of our communities. Will the next generation want to replace them or rid themselves of them?  A question many church consultants often ask is, “What impact would there be in this community if this church closed up today?” How we wrestle with that question sheds a remarkable light on how we each reflect God’s image.

There remains time for us all to address these questions, to alter the perceptions others have of us – to answer the God has for us.  For we all have a call on our lives.

Christ ordained his church to carry the good news of Jesus to all the nations, and by extension, all the generations.  My time is passing on and another’s will come. My prayer is that I have done well to live into the psalmist’s cry, 

We will not hide them from their descendants;

we will tell the next generation

the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,

his power, and the wonders he has done.

Psalm 78:4

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. May we never forget that claim.  Every generation which replaces the prior has a right to hear the good news and see God’s people making shalom in the communities where they gather.  And if we do that faithfully, we can trust in the Holy Spirit’s continued movement rather than our own deeds as we answer the pressing question, ‘will there be anyone to replace me?’