Senior adults are invading Alabama Baptist churches with energy, purpose and a calling forth of ministry opportunities. And senior adult leaders say this is only the beginning.
“I don’t think the local church has a clue of what is getting ready to happen to them,” said Ronnie McCarson, minister to adults 55+ at Cottage Hill Baptist Church, Mobile. Calling the current growth among senior adult church members the “age rave,” McCarson said, “Within the next 15 to 20 years, the average church is going to be 50 to 70 percent senior adults.
“Churches have got to be prepared to minister to this 50-plus generation,” he noted.
Eileen Wright, associate in the discipleship and family ministries office of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, said a growing number of churches are catching on and implementing senior adult ministries.
And size is no excuse, she said. “Most of our state is made up of small churches, but they can work together,” she said, noting a group of senior adult ministries from several churches in Butler Baptist Association that meets together every Friday at a local nursing home to sing to the residents.
While each group’s dynamics will determine the kinds of activities that are planned, it is important to offer a variety of options, Wright and McCarson noted.
Most people involved in the senior adult ministries of churches want more than just a covered-dish fellowship time, Wright said. “People are wanting to find value in their life. The church gives them a place to serve and to be served.”
Wright and McCarson agree that a successful senior adult ministry is balanced. “To have a balanced ministry you have to cover the spiritual, educational, physical, social and ministry (to people and of people),” Wright said. “You need a little bit of all of them,” she said.
McCarson, who has worked in the senior adult ministry since 1987, said, “The ministry should encourage them to be all they can be in their second half. In a few years it will be nothing to live to 110 or 120.”
Along with social functions, the 55+ ministry at Cottage Hill offers missions trips (local, national and international), activities at Shocco Springs Conference Center in Talladega, a clothing ministry, a meal delivery program, computer camp, a low impact exercise program and “a lot of little stuff,” McCarson said. “It is really unlimited what they can do.”
The fact that people are living longer also forces senior adult ministries to have a multilevel design, McCarson said, noting the 50-year-olds and the 90-year-olds will not have the same interests.
“People will have to develop programs that will minister to several different age groups,” he explained. “The 50- to 69-year-olds are still working, so activities will need to be on nights and weekends, but the 70-plus group can attend daytime activities. There is also the money factor. Some are on limited incomes while others can do whatever they want.”
McCarson also pointed out that the 65-plus age group is the fastest growing population segment to experience divorce. “The pressures of having to raise grandchildren, taking in their adult children and financial mismanagement are issues facing this group,” he explained, adding this age group also is experiencing more second marriages. “There are more people getting married in their 70s and 80s now.”
For more information about senior adult ministries, contact Eileen Wright at 1-800-264-1225, Ext. 221, or by e-mail at ewright@alsbom.org.
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