A Vision for the Aging Church: Renewing Ministry for and by Seniors
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Are we ready for the opportunities and challenges facing the aging church?
Now is the time for the church to offer ministry to its increasing numbers of seniors and to benefit from ministry they can offer. In this book James M. Houston and Michael Parker issue an urgent call to reconceive the place and part of the elderly and seniors in the local church congregation.
Confronting the idea that the aging are mostly a burden on the church, they boldly address the moral issues related to caring for them, provide examples of successful care-giving programs and challenge the church to restore broken connections across the generations.
Cowritten by a noted theologian and an expert in the fields of social work and gerontology, this interdisciplinary book assesses our current cultural context and the challenges and opportunities we face. The authors show us that seniors aren't the problem. They are the solution.
- Challenges the church to restore broken connections across the generations
- Examines our current cultural context and the challenges and opportunities we face
- Provides examples of successful care-giving programs
- Part I: An Ageist Zeitgeist
- Part II: Biblical And Historical Themes Of Aging
- Part III: Solutions For An Aging Church
- Part IV: Late Life Significant Living
- Part V: Finishing Well
- Epilogue: Dying Elders, Living Church
- Appendix A: “The Life Review” Preparation Tips and Questions
- Appendix B: Church Survey Questions
- Appendix C: Parent Care Readiness Program
- Appendix D: Sample Senior Ministry Association Correspondence
- Appendix E: State Agencies on Aging
A Vision for the Aging Church brings together both scientific learning and spiritual wisdom on the increasingly important issue of aging in our society today. We have here a valuable resource for professionals, pastors and laypersons everywhere, a groundbreaking work in the field.
—Timothy George, founding dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford University and the general editor of the Reformation Commentary on Scripture
With A Vision for the Aging Church, Drs. Houston and Parker challenge the church to reimagine its ministry by and to seniors, encouraging the church to embrace and honor the contributions that can be made by its senior members while more effectively ministering to their needs. The book provides an important bridge between the scriptural imperatives which must drive the church’s senior mission and the realities of aging in the United States at the start of the twenty-first century. To be effective in ministry, church leaders must understand the basic medical, social, legal and spiritual issues facing our aging population. The authors have effectively identified many of the issues to be addressed by the church and have provided the scriptural inspiration to move churches forward.
—Hugh M. Lee, director, Elder Law Clinic, University of Alabama School of Law
Houston and Parker have written a critical book for our day. They detail well how the prejudicial practice of ‘ageism’ by Western culture and the church has far-reaching and devastating results for our time. As one with an interest in spiritual formation, I’m grateful that we finally have someone providing a vision for the church regarding how the elderly are a potential powerhouse of spiritual depth and vitality as well as examples in life and sacrificial caring for others. Without elderly persons’ profound leadership, involvement and interaction, the church, family and society are destined to become a truncated community bent on self-referential consumerism and impersonal overproductivity. God help us in opening to this timely message.
—John H. Coe, director, Institute for Spiritual Formation, Biola University
- Title: A Vision for the Aging Church: Renewing Ministry for and by Seniors
- Authors: James M. Houston, Michael Parker
- Publisher: IVP Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2011
- Logos Release Date: 2020
- Pages: 279
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Church work with older people; Older Christians › Religious life
- ISBNs: 9780830869527, 9780830839483, 0830869522, 0830839488
- Resource ID: LLS:VSNGNGMNSTRSNRS
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T03:40:01Z
James M. Houston (MA, Edinburgh; DPhil, Oxford) is founding principal, former chancellor, and emeritus professor of spiritual theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is the author of some forty books, including I Believe in the Creator, The Transforming Friendship, In Search of Happiness, The Heart’s Desire, and The Mentored Life.
Michael W. Parker (PhD/DSW, LCSW, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army Retired [AMEDD]) is associate professor at the School of Social Work & Center for Mental Health & Aging, University of Alabama, and adjunct associate professor in the Division of Geriatric Medicine & Palliative Care and Center for Aging at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.