Senior adult ministry finding new approach to age-old problems

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. — The concept of old is changing. Aging baby boomers can’t escape their role in the graying of America. Older adults are recognized as the fastest growing demographic group in the nation and in many churches.

CASA is an idea whose time has come.

As a ministry, the Christian Association of Senior Adults is a major resource to churches and groups that minister to adults over 50.

On Feb. 28 CASA will host its annual “Life Celebration” at First Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton.

The Saturday morning event will honor Lloyd Ogilvie, Jack Hayford, Ray and Anne Ortlund and Hermano Pablo for their years of ministry and service for Christ.

Each year the organization recognizes several people with 50 or more years of Christian ministry to be honored at the Life Celebration event. Last year the group presented “find us faithful” awards to Pat Boone, Brother Andrew, Kurt Kaiser and a surprised Ed Neteland at the gathering, held at Saddleback Church.

CASA got its start in 1983 when three Southern California churches, Emmanuel Faith, Escondido; Calvary Church, Santa Ana and First Evangelical Free, Fullerton came together to provide fellowship and inspiration for their senior adults. Since then, the non-denominational organization has grown to include member churches in 36 states as well as Canada, Australia and Brazil.

In 1993 Ed Neteland became CASA’s first executive director. Equipped with only a $2,000 annual budget and an office in his garage, he put to work his unique combination of organizational skills and ministry experience. Under Neteland’s leadership CASA has become an internationally recognized organization that has developed three different publications and a number of leadership resources, including a speakers and consultants network.

In addition to the yearly Life Celebration event CASA organizes an annual two-day Leadership Conference in November and an Adult 50-plus ministry conference in October that has been sold out in recent years.

The largely volunteer-driven ministry has a nine-member board of directors and a five-member associate board. Neteland and his wife, Doris, now oversee the non-profit organization from CASA’s office in Laguna Niguel.

“We provide practical tools to help those people in the trenches,” Neteland said as he talked about resources the ministry has developed.

Legacy Living is a quarterly publication directed to the “boomer” population with the challenge to pursue a life of purpose and significance. The Energizer quarterly for the older “builder” generation (65-plus) provides topics for reflection and application. Both are designed for duplication and distribution by churches.

The CASA Intergenerational Leadership publication is a quarterly resource for pastors and lay leaders of adult (50-plus) ministries that provide practical ideas and discussion of current issues.

“We’re going into an ‘age wave’ of change,” Neteland said, acknowledging the demographic shift now taking place within the church. “In CASA we are doing niche marketing to focus on the boomer and the builder.”

Some churches find themselves unprepared to meet the challenge of a growing population of older adults.

“Seminaries are lucky if they have one course directed toward this area of ministry,” Neteland said. “Life isn’t over because you’re 70 or 80.”

The one-time executive pastor emphasized the importance of intergenerational ministry.

“If we get away from age-drivenness to family, that to me is the greatest need in the church today,” he said. “You don’t build relationships and understanding without communication.”

Changing worldview
There is a lot to learn from those who have experienced the mountains and valleys of living a long life in God’s truth, Neteland suggested.

“When you get older you realize that the most lasting things you have are relationships,” he said.

As people discover this their priorities shift and purpose and meaning become more important.

Charles Arn, executive director of the Institute for American Church Growth, has been studying the church’s demographic landscape for decades. The term “senior citizen” has become politically incorrect, he said.

“There is increasingly a new generation of middle adults 50 to 70 who don’t think of themselves as senior adults,” Arn said. “Today’s senior adults are a far cry from our grandparents.”

Most of them do not need a ride or use a wheelchair. Arn said it is important for churches to construct a new model for ministry to this age group. He explained that an outdated approach to older adults may actually drive them away.

“CASA provides the opportunity for leaders in older adult ministries to network with each other,” said Arn, author of “White unto Harvest: Evangelizing Today’s Senior Adults.”

“There is a new old out there,” said John Coulombe, pastor to senior adults at the First Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton. “We’re ministering today to the generation of Youth for Christ. Now we’re ‘Older for Christ.’”

For more information, visit the Web site gocasa.org or call (888) 200-8552.

Published by Keener Communications Group

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