Customer Reviews

Designing an Older Adult Ministry

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Designing and Older Adult Ministry is part of the United Methodist Church's effort to help congregations better serve older adults. While there are a fair number of Methodist-specific references (e.g. quotes from the Book of Discipline), as a non-Methodist, I still found this to be a valuable resource.

The book explores basic issues such as the needs of older adults and reasons ways congregations fail to understand and meet these needs. It also provides a sample process for developing an older adult ministry and examples of effective ministries. A useful list of resources and an extensive set of assessments and sample forms are also included.

While Gentzler does not explore subjects in great depth, the short, easy-to-read sections both enlighten and challenge. Portions of the book could be used as discussion pieces with groups of congregants or among a large staff.

Whether you are seeking to develop an older adult ministry in your congregation or to improve an existing ministry, you will certainly find something useful in Designing and Older Adult Ministry.

This book must have been hard to write, considering the large range of environments to apply it to. My comment is not to detract from the book, which is excellent, but to suggest another consideration. The small church is common in rural environments, and in many areas of the country, heavily ethnic because of immigration patterns that happened years ago. Small churches in small town environments, where the influence of a really big city is almost absent, presents a challenge where Dr. Gentzler's approach might seem heavy handed. A bottom up approach, backed by the councils and committees described in this book, might make more sense. Find a church that is already doing a program of interest to older adults, and publicize it to the church community. Follow up and assist. Network. Have at the ready a group of dedicated, trained people to jump at expressed interest, assist in getting an activity going in a church, and then help it grow into a OAM program. Keep networking.