Hearing and comprehension work together

Dear Geezer,

Our pastor speaks so quickly when preaching that some elderly friends and I have a very hard time understanding what he says. He has been told of our difficulty, but nothing seems to have changed. Do you have any suggestions?

Tom

Dear Tom,   

Perhaps you could “listen faster.” I’m kidding about that, Tom. Your dilemma is not really a joking matter, but smiling about it might let you consider a few alternatives.

Your question makes me think back and feel sorry for older adults who heard my very first sermon. I was 15 years old. I wrote and rehearsed my sermon so it was 20 minutes long.  But I raced through it in 10 minutes flat!  It must have had many of those older folks just shaking their heads.

One obvious question is whether you and your friends have hearing difficulties. It could be an issue. But we let’s not stop there.

Do you folks, and your pastor, know that aging impacts our ability to comprehend what we hear and read?  Many brain-studies today confirm that while aging brains are still very capable of learning new things  — “old dogs can learn new tricks” — the learning process is different. It’s slower.

So one theory you might discuss with your pastor is this:  his faster-paced words may enter your mind faster than you are able to process them, so if he could slow his speech down a little, you would be better able to understand what he is preaching about.

In the situation you describe, you could be dealing with two challenges: 1) if hearing is any kind of issue, being in a larger room like a church sanctuary with its background noises makes actual hearing harder; and 2) the faster-talk might simply make it more difficult to process your pastor’s thoughts.

Until you can convince your pastor to slow his speech pattern down, find seats closer to the pulpit where the background noise might be less. You might also ask the pastor for written copies of his sermons so you can learn his thoughts at your own pace.           

Learn more about how elders learn. Then teach your pastor something he doesn’t know.

Paul Graves, M.Div. is founder of Elder Advocates, Inc., a consulting ministry on aging issues. Contact him at elderadvocates@nctv.com or 208-610-4971.