Churches Neglect Older Folks; Potlucks Won't Do
Meet the new U.S. Pentecostal missionary, the Rev. John Heide. His mission field: adults 50 years and over. That constitutes an even larger mission field than the teenagers most churches are targeting, according to Heide.
Society is seeing a shift in population to older folks, or what Heide and the Assemblies of God call "mature adults." According to Heide, there are over 90 million people in America who are 50-plus years of age. They are the Baby Boomer generation. And they are one of the largest mission fields and also one of the most neglected, Heide says.
"For the most part, the church is neglecting this area," Heide told The Christian Post. "Our goal is to change that."
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Heide became the first appointed AG U.S. Missions representative specifically to "mature adults" in September. But he wasn't sent into nursing homes, where only about five percent of those 65 years and older reside, he noted. Instead, he's going to the churches and Bible colleges to catch the huge population wave of senior adults and expose them as a significant mission opportunity.
"All the time and energy and resources have been spent and poured into the younger generation," said Heidi, adding that such investment is good. But he's trying to get the church to see the opportunity of tapping into the large senior adult generation, who a lot of times are neglected or pushed off.
Megachurches have largely geared their services and formatted their worship styles to be contemporary, the Pentecostal missionary pointed out. And that has pushed out a lot of the "mature adults" who either drop out of the church or seek other churches that make accommodations to their generation.
Other churches offer "perfunctory" programs for the elderly such as potlucks or sing-a-longs.
"That's not going to attract the baby boomer generation," said Heide. "They're not into potlucks."
"And what I call that is more maintenance than ministry," he continued. "It's just carrying them along month to month without utilizing their gifts and their talents."
As the first and newly appointed missionary to mature adults, Heidi is going into the churches letting the older believers make a ministry out of their interests and gifts. Rather than forcing them to do such traditional ministries as door-to-door evangelism or nursing home visitation, Heide encourages pursuing ministry around what they enjoy.
To reach non-Christian Baby Boomers, the new mission effort encourages bridge building where Christian adults reach nonbelievers through such casual and everyday activities as bowling or visiting car shows.
As the missionary effort is just beginning to bud with invitations from across the country, churches are missing out on a lot more than the large number of people. They're missing out on a generation that has the resources to be a help to the church in general, Heide pointed out.
"[Mature adults] have the time, the talents from years of experience, and the treasures including financial resources to help spread the Christian message throughout the world," he said.
Heide recalled a pastor who changed the format of the church's worship to gear his ministry to the youth. A year after making the changes, he was struggling with a lack of financial support as older adults fell out of the church.
"It's often times these mature adults that are financing the youth programs, supporting the missionaries and building the buildings," Heide stressed.
But mature adults don't want to just be asked to show up in church during offering time.
"Mature adults just want to be included and appreciated for their contribution rather than just kind of pushed off," said Heide.
