A New Older Adult Ministry Curriculum: Insights from a Pilot Course
Beth Truett, Lisa Peters-Beumer, Eric Moeller

TL;DR
A new curriculum for older adult ministry was developed and piloted, showing promise in training leaders to better serve and engage older adults in faith communities.
Contribution
The paper introduces a novel educational curriculum for aging ministry, addressing a gap in available resources for Christian denominations.
Findings
Twenty-five faith communities participated in the pilot, with 77% of participants completing evaluations.
Modules on ageism, isolation, and caregiving were most impactful, and 83% of participants plan to use their training as volunteers.
Revisions include expanding the format to 90 minutes and creating discussion exercises based on feedback.
Abstract
Faith based communities which effectively engage older persons can satisfy the desire for meaning, benefit from wisdom and experience and positively impact congregational connectedness. A search for nationally available programs to train leaders among Christian denominations about the dynamics of ministry for, by and with older adults revealed an absence of an educational curriculum. The Center for Gerontology @ Concordia University Chicago developed the Specialist in Aging Ministry course to educate leaders about key gerontological and theological imperatives for effective ministry, including the desire to age in place; need for physical, emotional and financial support; and surviving loss, grief and bereavement. The six-module curriculum has online and in-person options. Congregations (N = 12,227) from four Midwestern states were invited to webinars with the objective of recruiting…
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Taxonomy
TopicsAging and Gerontology Research · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Adult and Continuing Education Topics
