wfn.org | Conference explores older adults' role church

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

March 22, 1999 News media contact: Linda Green*(615)742-5470*Nashville,
Tenn. 10-71B{148}

By Cheryl Capshaw*

NASHVILLE,  Tenn. (UMNS) -- Helping older adults recapture a dream and a
sense of worth is an important role for the church, according to the Rev.
Richard H. Gentzler Jr., a United Methodist executive who works in that area
of ministry.

Gentzler, director of adult ministries for the United Methodist Board of
Discipleship, told more than 60 people attending a March 16-19 training
event that the church needs to help dispel some of the myths about aging and
find ways to keep older adults involved in the ministry of the church.  

He decried the lack of training in both seminaries and medical schools
related to working with older adults and explained that although more than
62 percent of the membership of the United Methodist Church is made up of
people over 50 years of age, no seminary has made courses in older adult
ministry mandatory.  Until recently, only six of 126 medical schools in the
United States required courses in gerontology, he said.

Older adult ministries are often a low priority on the local church's budget
because people tend to think that the spiritual formation of older adults is
complete, Gentzler observed.  However, in the average community, some 50
percent  of older adults are "unchurched," he added.  

Ministry with older adults is biblical, he stressed.  "Moses was 80 when God
called him to lead his people out of bondage."

In a workshop on "Grandparenting Traditions and Innovations," the Rev. Fred
Cloud, professor of sociology and psychology and a human relations
consultant, told participants that as the number of divorces have increased,
the role of grandparents has taken on greater importance in the emotional
lives and development of children.  "It sometimes happens that children can
unburden to grandparents when they wouldn't with the parents. Grandparents
can even serve as a mediator between parents and children," he said.  

Cloud  pointed out that surrogate grandparents can fulfill many of the same
roles as biological grandparents, and he encouraged participants to consider
developing surrogate grandparenting programs in their congregations.

In another workshop, Gentzler said ministry with baby boomers, when they
become older adults, will be significantly different than ministry with the
current generation of people in that age group. "Just as we no longer can do
youth ministry the same way we did twenty years ago, neither can we do older
adult ministry in the same way," he said.

The conference was cosponsored by the United Methodist Board of Discipleship
and the Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville.  

Other speakers and leaders included Susanne S. Paul, president of the U.N.
Global Action on Aging; Marvin Cropsey, editor of Mature Years, a quarterly
publication of the United Methodist Publishing House; Liberato Bautista, a
staff member at the United Methodist Board of Church and Society; G. Rumay
Alexander, an executive with Clinical and Professional Services, Tennessee
Hospital Association; Robert Howerton, a staff member of Health and Welfare
Ministries for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries; Jane Hull
Harvey, staff executive at the United Methodist Board of Church and Society;
and the Rev. Sik Hong, associate pastor, First United Methodist Church,
Hendersonville, Tenn.  Jim Hawkins, president of the Network for Seniors,
Nashville, was the music leader.

# # #

*Capshaw is communications director for the United Methodist Board of
Discipleship.

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