Here come the baby boomers...again! Are you ready?

Preparing for the increase in church-going retirees and using them in the ministry of a congregation

John Schachinger is a Seventh-day Adventist pastor of the Morristown District, Morristown, New Jersey.

At one time it seemed that baby boomers were respectfully drifting out of the limelight, no longer in the crosshairs of desirable demographics. Little was heard about them unless it was a dire warning that boomers will bankrupt the Social Security system, overwhelm medical care, or introduce another line of loose-fitting jeans. Even in the church, boomer ministry had long been eclipsed by a vigorous Gen X and youth ministry. But all that is changing, drastically, and in ways undreamed.

Baby boomers, roughly 76 million strong in the United States, are aging. Born at about the time the armed forces were returning home after World War II, this largest demo graphic group in North America is about to enter its most significant stage of life.

Sociologists call this an Age Wave, and just like a wave it's forming below the surface, gathering momentum. When it begins to crest it will overwhelm everything in its path.1

Boomers will live longer, have more leisure time, more disposable income, more educational opportunity, and more mobility than any generation before. As we age (I'm a boomer!), we are rediscovering a commitment to personal and spiritual growth and will be making some significant contributions in that arena.

In the past, we have overwhelmed and transformed every stage of life we've encountered. From the cradle to young adulthood, entire industries have sprung up or been revolutionized to feed, clothe, entertain, and educate our societies. 2 Mega and Seeker Churches have arisen, in part anticipating the mass (yet to happen) return of baby boomers to the church.3

We revolutionized and transformed youth and young adulthood, and we'll also revolutionize retirement. Although we haven't put it together yet, boomer aging will bear little resemblance to the senior centers and retirement communities today. We'll face our mortality in our own way, and when we do we'll do it in such numbers that North America will actually shift from a youth to a senior culture.

Like many other institutions, churches will be overwhelmed and challenged by the demands and opportunities offered by aging baby boomers. However, our attitudes toward senior ministry and the absence of targeted evangelism to those over 55, could leave us ill-prepared to meet the transformation of aging about to overtake us.

According to accepted sociological age categorizations, the first boomer will turn 65 in 2011. This is the time to ready ourselves for the coming changes this generation will bring to our churches. This preparation requires two steps: an enlightened approach to aging, and an understanding of the forces defining boomer maturity.

Views of aging

Most of us would describe aging as a fairly predictable linear progression from childhood to adulthood and on into maturity. It is a series of stages, each preparing for the next along the way.

During adolescence and young adulthood we acquire the education and skills to pursue a career, accept responsibility, and start a family. We enter adulthood advancing our careers and raising our families.

Around age 55 or so our productivity begins to peak, we might experience a midlife crisis, and then accept the fact that our best years are now behind us. What follows is a comprehensive, inevitable decline.

We then enter retirement and aging, and largely devote ourselves to recreation, leisure, and obsolescence. By now our major decisions and life course have been determined. We've progressed as far as we can and it's time to move to the sidelines.

Although simplistic, this summary describes a linear view of aging born out of the industrial revolution. It has prevailed, more or less, for about 150 years.4 Although it may have worked, it has also produced most of the prejudice we have about our elderly in many cultures today.

Linear view of aging

The linear view of aging tends to cause us to define vital, growing churches, as those with younger families. Demographically speaking, we choose communities with younger families as being more favorable environments for church growth.

The linear view assumes someone over 65 is less likely to be converted. It narrowly defines senior ministry as consisting almost entirely of recreational projects and social gatherings. It tends to view the seniors in the congregation as a liability group that requires care-taking rather than care-giving. If seniors are involved in church leadership it's assumed they are conservative, risk-averse, and change-blocking. It may even assume that the church will be better off when they step aside.

The linear view of aging, according to Fredric Hudson, "creates social prejudice against the old, and it keeps those in midlife and retirement reminiscing and looking backward, wanting younger bodies and dreams. . . . [thus robbing] thousands of people of enormous possibilities that they are capable of attaining as they get older."5

Such a linear view may hamper the outreach and spiritual growth of countless unchurched seniors.

The cyclical view of aging

In contrast, a cyclical definition of aging is not only more helpful for ministry, but provides a more accurate picture of the process. Cyclical aging sees progress from childhood to maturity as a series of life chapters (adolescence, young adulthood, maturity, retirement) marked by transitions from one chapter of life to the next. Each transition is a fascinating period of time when we reassess and reinvent ourselves in light of six core values: (1) a sense of self; (2) achievement; (3) intimacy; (4) creativity and play; (5) search for meaning; and (6) compassion and contribution.6

Adult life is described as a reoccurring cycle of these six core values. Adolescence, young adulthood, maturity, and retirement are all life chapters with their own transitions from one stage to the next. As we approach each chapter and its accompanying transition, we cycle through these six core values, re-evaluating, renewing, and reinventing ourselves.7

As we age we also define and emphasize these values differently. Young adults, for instance, are more outwardly directed when they define their values. They seek a sense of self, achievement, and intimacy. Values such as the search for meaning or compassion and caring are generally less developed at this stage, or put on hold in the face of the immediate need for a career and relationships.

Ministering to seniors

Seniors however, have already acquired a sense of self and achievement. This frees them to search for meaning and to express the sense of compassion and caring that had gone unexplored earlier in life.

The six core values come together to define the senior adult life cycle as a time for:

Spirituality—Seniors describe a deep appreciation for universal meaning and mystery.8 They're eager to experience a profound sense of otherness, or a sense of God.

Personal integrity—No longer driven by careers or advancement, seniors turn their attention to making a difference in their world. Social activism, altruism, and leaving a legacy mark this life cycle; what Bob Buford aptly calls moving from success to significance.9

Mentoring—The quest to acquire and share knowledge and wisdom is very important to seniors and they will work to create an environment for that exchange to take place.

It is critical then for churches to understand that whether or not we're converted or churched, as we age we are hard wired to seek out some sort of significant, serving, spiritual life.

In addition, there are two factors that will define boomer aging: life expectancy and memory.

Life Expectancy—Boomers will retire on the heels of skyrocketing life expectancies. Age 65 is already considered questionable and even laughable as a retirement marker, as health professionals push life expectancy and more important, life quality well into the 70s and 80s and beyond.

The sociology of an entire generation actively living beyond 75 is not something we're used to, or have thought much about, and we can only speculate about how an entire generation will spend an extra 20 to 25 years of quality life. Furthermore, when such a generation numbers 76 million (in the United States), it means we're facing a dramatic social upheaval.

Memory—The events that ushered boomers into early adulthood have not left us. The late 1960s and early 1970s were not only traumatic, they were intensely, albeit naively, spiritual.

Regardless of the degree of participation, the lifestyle experiments and the activism of this period deeply imprinted every one of us. The advent of EST, Lifespring, Silva Mind Control, and the general rush of self improvement plans of the late 1970s, were all manifestations of the boomer spiritual quest.

Churches should be acutely aware of the spiritual subtext that marked the late 1960s and early 1970s, and that earned boomers the title, A Generation of Seekers. 10

Our spiritual memory will resurface dramatically as all these forces come together in a seeking generation turning 65 and 70. The church that can be there to mentor us in this quest will be the church that finally ministers to what has largely been a lost generation.

Five initial steps in ministering to aging boomers

There are five steps that will begin a ministry to aging boomers:

Examine your own aging process. What are you learning about yourself and your core values? What transitions have you experienced? What does Jesus Christ mean to you now that you missed when you were younger? What about a maturing spirituality? How could you impact someone who is aging and rediscovering a spiritual quest?

Examine your church's attitude toward aging. Are your aging members considered an asset or liability? Are they a vital part of your church or are you waiting for them to move out of the way? Does your church see them as care-givers, or care-takers? If you knew an age wave was approaching how would your present attitude change?

Develop a ministry for the aging—now. Our present older members are the pioneers of this coming age wave and they can teach us a lot about aging. We need to spend time with churches in our communities who effectively minister to seniors; then read, research, and work with what we have. We don't need to be revolutionary, but we need to get something going. In doing this, we will not only reach our senior members, but possibly also develop significant relationships with their boomer kids, whose biggest present stressor is caring for their own aging parents.

Make no mistake, they're watching how we treat their parents, and if they're unchurched, this kind of ministry can be critical.

Watch for trends. Boomers will not age quietly (they've never done any thing quietly!). They'll write, publish, and network. Currently there are numerous boomer Web sites that come and go, and watching them can act as an effective trend indicator. Rather than recommend any specific site I'd suggest entering "baby boomer," "baby boomer aging," "baby boomer spirituality," etc., into a search engine and choosing the sites you find most helpful.

Some sites are nostalgic, some are informational, but together they give insight into boomer attitudes toward aging.

Acquaint yourself with the literature. Several excellent books have been published during the past decade. Here's a brief list:

Age Wave (Bantam Books) and Age Power (Penguin Putnam) by Ken Dychtwald. These have great statistics, sociological insight, and a wake-up call for social change.

Half Time, by Bob Buford (Harper Collins/Zondervan) is one of the better Christian approaches to life after 50.

Prime of Your Life, by Woodrow Kroll and Don Hawkins (Fleming H. Revell) is one of the first Christian how-to manuals on aging.

The Adult Years, by Frederic M. Hudson Jossey-Bass). Although a little new-agey at times, Dr. Hudson's book remains the seminal work on self-renewal and aging in the twenty-first century. The bibliography alone is worth the price of the book.

Catch the Age Wave, by Win Arn (Beacon Hill Press). Good first step for churches looking to begin a ministry to senior adults.

The Baby Boomerang, by Doug Murren (Regal Books). A valuable single-volume review on boomer ministry. Interestingly enough, this book was released the same year (1990) as Dychtwald's Age Wave.

1 Ken Dychtwald, Age Wave (New York: Bantam Books, 1990), 21.

2 Ibid , 13-20.

3 George Barna, The Bama Refml 1994-9S, 49, 308.

4 Fredric M Hudson, The Adult Years. Mastering the Alt of Self Renewal (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass 1999), 37, 38.

5 Ibid., 33.

6 Ibid., 134-136.

7 Ibid., 128.

8 Ibid., 181.

9 See Bob Bufoid, Half Time (Grand Rapids, Midi.: Zondervan, 1994).

10 See Wade Glark Root, A Generation of Seekers: Tile Spiiitiml Journeys of the Baby Room Generation (San Francisco 1 Harper, 1993), Charles Reich, The Greening of America (New York. Random House, 1970).

 

 


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John Schachinger is a Seventh-day Adventist pastor of the Morristown District, Morristown, New Jersey.

September 2003

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