The Church Must Use the Gifts of Older Adults

Too often, those of us in the mainline church lament the "graying" of our denominations and, like Hollywood and Madison Avenue, set our sights on ways to make our congregations more appealing to youth and young adults. The church should reach out to younger generations, but we need to be careful not to do so at the expense of older ones. I fear that we're becoming a society in which youth is idolized and old age is simply put up with, and the church should hold itself to a higher standard.

These thoughts are not entirely original, but were inspired by a recent UM News Service article:

The world's elderly population has nearly quadrupled in the last 50 years, and The United Methodist Church needs to find a way to use "this incredible resource," said the Rev. Rick Gentzler Jr. . . .

Gentzler suggested that The United Methodist Church identify a modern purpose of a longer, healthier old age and seek to answer the questions: “To what use do we put the incredible resource of elderhood, and what are the new models of old age for our coming maturity?”

Sixty-two percent of The United Methodist Church’s members are 50 years old or older, while nearly 50 percent are 60 or older, Gentzler said.