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THE “AGE WAVE” HAS ARRIVED

“There is a BIG story in the making and it’s getting bigger every day! This BIG story will impact everyone in America in many ways. The BIG Story is about an approaching tidal wave – called the “age wave”. Win Arn

By: Frank E. Fain, Ph.D.

Author Ken Dychtwald popularized the term “Age Wave” to describe the growing senior adult population in the United States. The Age Wave is driven by the aging of the Baby Boom generation. This generation of 78 million individuals born between 1945 and 1964 has altered the behavior patterns of every age group they have passed through and it is expected they will have a dynamic impact on the way senior years are lived.

January 1, 2005 the first Baby Boomers celebrated their 60^th birthday the generally recognized entrance age of senior adulthood. Everyday for the next twenty years 10,000 boomers turn age sixty and enter the senior adult stage of life.

By 2025 the “Age Wave” will push the number of senior adults in our country from 12% to 22-25% of our population. In other words by 2025, almost 1 in every 4 people in our country will be a senior adult.

This major demographic change will have profound effect upon local church ministry. It is projected that by 2020 the typical Baptist church will experience in their ministry area a 74% increase in the over 55 years of age population, while only seeing a 1% increase in the under age 55 population. Following are some changes churches will need to make due to this Age Wave.

1. Outreach to and by senior adults must become a priority. Only 38% of emerging seniors attend church regularly while 40% of them claim no religious faith or church affiliation. Each church will have a field of seniors “ripe unto harvest.” The question is “Will we be willing and ready to harvest the crop?”

2. Each congregation will need to increase the number and types of senior adult ministry activities. A single senior adult program will not fit every seniors needs. Therefore churches need to plan to provide multiple activities, events, programs, and ministries to meet the needs of the senior adults in their area.

3. Each congregation will need to provide challenging ministry/mission opportunities. Emerging senior adults desire to use their remaining years to make a difference in society. They will volunteer to fill leadership, ministry and mission positions IF the positions are challenging and worthy of their time.

4. Educational programming will need to include courses dealing with the spiritual, emotional, and physical challenges of aging.

5. Homebound, caregiver respite, and nursing home ministries will need to be enlarged.

6. Church buildings will have to be built or remodeled to be senior adult accessible and friendly. For example church buildings will need to be on as level surface as possible. Ramps and elevators will need to replace where stairs are used. Facilities will also need better lighting, handicap accessible restrooms, larger print directional signs, wider halls and doorways.

Those congregations who will be proactive over the next few years to make the necessary changes to their buildings and programming to meet the needs of emerging senior adults that will ride the “Age Wave” to new heights of ministry. The front edge of the Age Wave has arrived, how is your church responding to it?

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