STARTING an OLDER ADULT MINISTRY (SOAM)

SOAM #1  --  ALL of us.

A church congregation is built around a sense of community.  We parishioners have a common interest in expressing faith in God, and living our perception of the teachings of our church.   So how can a church go about reaching all of us older adults?

I am going to draw on what congregation leaders have shared with me of their own efforts to develop an older adult ministry.  However, none of us suggest that the way we have done it, or seen it done by others, is the “right” way to do it for everybody.  We just hope that our experiences help stimulate some cool  ideas.

But before we begin this journey I want to address the importance for you to consider personally attempting to engage ALL older adults in your congregation.

I fear that sometimes as parishioners and church leaders reach out to engage us older adults, they touch those who are already most active and most engaged in the activities of the church.  They know us best, and we may have a history of friendship and respect together.  But even those of us who have been reasonably visible in church will change as we age.   Both my Pastor, Tim McDermott, and my long time friend, Bob Phelps, have observed that even among those older adults who have been active in the past, it is at the point when their capacities are perceived by them to fade a bit, that they may reduce their usual engagements in the church.  So perhaps it is at this point in people’s lives that a variety of types of engagement opportunities might be most helpful.

In addition, how about those of us who haven’t been involved in many church activities, or those who have moved to a new community and are newcomers in the congregation?  In our town, we see a lot of retired older adults moving to town as strangers, except perhaps for their past ties to either Carleton or St. Olaf College, or family who live in the area.  We “newcomers” might be those who need active engagement the most. 

Research identifies that close to 50% of us consider ourselves to be somewhat shy, and thus we would be a bit less likely to step up and “join” new engagement opportunities -- unless personally invited do so.   We “shy people” might need more than a few general invitations in the church bulletin to come to a new older adult activity.  We may only be motivated to attend a new event if there is an invitation from another parishioner or church leader suggesting that we are needed in a particular activity -- because others would enjoy having us be with them, for instance.

In our town (Northfield, Minnesota) there is an extremely important educational option for older adults called the Cannon Valley Elder Collegium (See http://cvec.org/ ) that reaches over 500 older adults each year with high quality educational courses.    

Cannon Valley Elder Collegium Class taught at the Village on the Cannon

Recently I was a member of a Collegium team that began reaching out to community organizations to give short 20-minute mini-courses to older adult members of those organizations.  We did this in part to encourage more older adults to consider taking Collegium courses and in part to support older adults in their own organization (i.e. their church).  The first outreach was with my church, Bethel Lutheran.

One of the most dramatic outcomes from this “experimental” outreach by the Collegium was the intentional personal phone calls I made to a list of 13 older adult Bethel members who had NOT been active in Bethel events such as past older adult activities.  Nearly 70% of the people I called came to the Collegium event (or would have come if they had been in town that day)!  Since an active engagement in meaningful activities has one of the most significant correlations with the well-being of older adults, this clear identification of a way that works for increasing people’s decision to participate in a church activity has immense importance.

In phone/email follow-up evaluations, I asked each person that I had called and who came to this event why it was that they decided to come (what was their motivation)?  Each mentioned my phone call in one way or another.  One said she has needed to get involved and my phone call motivated her go out to church right away and sign up.  Another said that she has been looking for some way to get involved in an activity and my phone call pointed to just what she had been looking for.   A third person said my phone call prompted a conversation with her daughter-in-law who really encouraged her to come. 

This last point is very helpful for it identifies that the motivation to attend such an event is not always (not ever?) made only in one person’s head.  One’s motivation to become engaged in a “program/activity” is a complex mix of needs, interests, feeling welcome, and encouragement (say by spouse, adult children, friends).  This suggests that advertising for an older adult event should be distributed to a broader audience that includes those who could encourage older adults to attend as well as to the older adults audience itself.

Bruce