A Hymn Celebrating Older Adults and Their Gifts for the Church:

God, We Spend a Lifetime Growing
HYMN TO JOY 8.7.8.7 D ("Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee")

God, we spend a lifetime growing, learning of your love and care,
Planting seeds you give for sowing, working for the fruit they'll bear.
Now we honor faithful servants who, with joy, look back and see
Years of growing in your presence, lives of fruitful ministry.

Thank you, Lord, for ones who teach us what has brought them to this place!
May their faith-filled witness reach us; may we glimpse in them your grace.
Strong in you, their strength uplifts us from our birth until life's end;
Spirit-filled, they give us gifts, as prophet, mentor, guide and friend.

Christ our Lord, you walk beside us, giving daily work to do;
Years go by and still you guide us as we seek to follow you.
If our sight fails, weak hands tremble, minds forget the things we've known,
Lord, we trust that you remember, hold us close, and see us home.

Tune: Ludwig van Beethoven, 1824; "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee"
Alternative Music: IN BABILONE 8.7.8.7.D "There's a Wideness in God's Mercy"
Text: Copyright © 2001 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved.
305 South Broadway, Pitman, NJ 08071 Phone: (856)-589-8444
Email: Bruce.Gillette@ecunet.org

Carolyn Winfrey Gillette is the co-pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Pitman, NJ and author of "Gifts of Love: New Hymns for Today's Worship" (PCUSA's Geneva Press, 2000).
A complete list of Carolyn's hymns, including links to a dozen of the texts posted online, go to
http://www.firstpresby.org/hymnlist.htm Please send her an email note at Bruce.Gillette@ecunet.org for permission to use this hymn. Thank you.