Churches Recognize Large, Underutilized Baby Boomers
As the Baby Boomer generation gives rise to the world's population over 50 years old, United Methodists have plans to utilize the elderly bunch.
"Over the next 14 years, the number of people over 50 in the U.S. will grow 74 percent, while people under 50 will increase by only 1 percent," according to research conducted by Edwin J. Pittock, president of the Society of Certified Senior Advisors, the United Methodist News Service reported.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 10,000 Baby Boomers are turning 50 every day and the trend will continue for the next 10 years. In 2000, the elderly population increased from 130 million to 419 million over the last 50 years, stated the Rev. Rick Gentzler Jr. in a report.
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Gentzler is director of the Center on Aging and Older Adult Ministries of the United Methodist Board of Discipleship. He just came out of a meeting last week to discuss how to minister to and utilize the "incredible resource" of the elderly.
According to Gentzler, 62 percent of the United Methodist Church are 50 years old or older and nearly 50 percent are 60 or older.
The denomination's Committee on Older Adults made two proposals for the future: training volunteer caregivers to interact with the growing number of older adults; and modeling intentional intergenerational ministry where older adults serve as mentors to the younger, according to the Comprehensive Plan for Older Adult Ministries for 2009-2012, UMNS reported.
The United Methodist plan is one of a growing number of initiatives churches are launching in recognition of the large but underutilized talent pool of leadership potential.
Last September, the Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal group in the nation, appointed its first U.S. missionary to "mature adults" - those 50 years and older. The Rev. John Heide, the Pentecostal missionary, is trying to get churches to tap into the large elderly generation who have the time, the talent, and the "treasures" but are often neglected.
Mature adults want to be actively included in church life.
Several trends highlight the large elderly population, United Methodists reported in their Comprehensive Plan:
More people are living longer; current markers of old age are changing which will cause all of the stages of life to shift; fewer children are being born and more older adults are living longer; and many older adults will continue to work long hours after "the normal" age of retirement.
The listed trends would account for an increased need in community-based services as society expects a rise in chronic disease, growing cost in health care and financial insecurity.
The Committee on Older Adult Ministries serves as an advocate for older adult concerns and issues and supports ministries by, with and for older adults throughout The United Methodist Church and in the larger society.
