Growing Strong Churches by Building Strong Older-Adult Ministries

In today's church landscape, there's an overwhelming emphasis on reaching the next generation. While this is undoubtedly important, it raises crucial questions: “What about churches predominantly filled with older adults? Is it possible to build a thriving, vibrant church community centered around older adults? Or should the focus always be on attracting younger members?”

These questions frequently arise in discussions about church growth and sustainability. The answer, perhaps surprisingly to some, is a resounding, “Yes!” Not only is it possible to build a strong church by focusing on older adults, but it can also be incredibly rewarding and impactful.

Many congregations are situated in communities with a significant older adult population. This demographic alignment presents a unique opportunity for intentional ministry and community engagement. Moreover, it's essential to recognize that younger generations often gauge a church's witness by how well it cares for their parents and grandparents. A church that excels in ministering to older adults can, in turn, become attractive to younger people seeking a multi-generational, caring community.

Small-church specialist Karl Vaters shared five key principles for building strong, healthy churches with predominantly older congregations. These principles offer guidance for churches looking to strengthen their ministries by, with, and for older adults.

1. Do It on Purpose

Older adult ministry must be as intentional as every other ministry. Older adult ministry is ministry for, with, and by older people. Karl says: “A church that’s filled with seniors because they’re the only ones left from the bygone glory days is not healthy. But a church filled with seniors because it’s intentionally ministering to their needs and utilizing their gifts can be very healthy, strong, and a blessing to their community.”

Your church may be graying unintentionally. But maybe that’s the church’s gift and what it is called to be. If so, don’t fight it; lean into it. If you’re already doing older adult ministry by default, imagine how well you could do it on purpose.

2. Train, Don’t Just Teach

Most of today’s older adults were raised in an era in which we outsourced ministry instead of doing it ourselves. Other than ushering, teaching Sunday School, or singing in the choir, the average churchgoer in the 1950s-1990s put their money in the offering so that others could do ministry for them.

We paid our pastor to visit the sick. We paid missionaries and evangelists to share the good news with others. On Sunday mornings, we paid to hear great teaching and preaching.

It’s time to make a shift. Great teaching isn’t enough anymore, if it ever was. You can hear a fantastic sermon and go home impressed but unchanged. Teaching and preaching churches need to become discipling and training churches. This applies as much to faithful older adults as well as younger churchgoers.

Older Christians have a lot to contribute – and not just financially. But they’ll never step into their own gifted ministry unless we expect it from them and equip them for it. According to the late writer and Christian teacher, James Houston, “Our society is doing a good job of producing seniors, but not elders.” Training is what makes the difference between just getting older or becoming an elder.

3. Send Them, Don’t Just Tend Them

Older adults may not have the physical stamina to do some tasks anymore, but they often have more time, finances, and wisdom than their younger counterparts. Yes, in a church filled with older adults, there will be more need for hands-on pastoral care. However, pastoral care should be distributed among the rest of the church body. Becoming a caring congregation and not leaving care to the pastor is vital for discipleship.

Valuing older adults doesn’t mean doing ministry for them; it means doing ministry with them. Older adult ministry is by definition ministry for, with, and by older adults. So, the church can still take older adults on bus trips to a fun destination for fellowship, but when they get home, they can and should be invited into vibrant, life-giving ministry for themselves and others. There’s no excuse for a church filled with passive Christian older adults any more than there’s an excuse for a church filled with passive Christian youth.

4. Keep a Forward Focus

The older adults who have been the backbone of your church are different from the older adults who are coming next. Karl Vaters expresses it well:

“Grandma went to Woodstock. She’s more likely to have hidden a copy of Rolling Stone from her parents than to have displayed the Saturday Evening Post on the coffee table. This upcoming group of older adults won’t want the same things from church that your parents wanted. And they likely won’t contribute to ministry in the same way, either.

A church that ministers to younger people needs to anticipate the needs of the next generation. A church that wants to stay strong while ministering to older adults needs to do the same thing. Look at least a decade ahead. Start asking how the fifty-somethings of today might want to participate in the life of the church differently as they start graying. The “Jesus People” of the 1960s and 1970s changed the way churches did ministry. And they’ll change the way churches do ministry in the future.”

5. Find New Ways to Reach and Keep Them

Just because a church is ministering primarily to and with older adults doesn’t exempt it from the Great Commission. Here’s Karl again in his own words:

A vibrant older congregation needs to reach out to the older folks in their community, not just caring for the ones they’ve got (although that should certainly be done, too).

But the next generation of older adults will have far less interest in church traditions than the current one. Many of today’s older adults never attended church. Some never had a praying parent or grandparent.

So, the tools we relied on to reach and keep previous generations of older adults won’t work on the next ones. We’re going to have to think differently. The pace of change will be slower than for a church that’s ministering to young people, but it will be just as relentless.

The Vital Older Church

Intentionally ministering to and with an older congregation does not have to mean the church is dying. It can be vital, valuable, and look forward to making great contributions to the kin-dom of God. But it won’t look like it used to look. And it won’t happen by mistake.

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Karl Vaters produces resources for Helping Small Churches Thrive at KarlVaters.com.

He's the author of five books on church leadership, including his newest, De-Sizing the Church: How Church Growth Became a Science, Then an Obsession, and What's Next. His other books include The Grasshopper Myth and Small Church Essentials.