Serving a greying church

“God must like old people. He keeps creating more of them.” So quipped Scott Tolhurst, a former pastor who, over the course of his 48 years in ministry, developed a heart for service to seniors.

Current demographics prove him right. According to Statistics Canada, seniors are the fastest-growing group in Canada. Today there are over seven million Canadians 65 and older — or about 20 per cent of the population. By 2068 that is projected to rise to 25 per cent.

But it’s not just society that’s greying; so are churches. According to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, in 2024 36 per cent of members of American congregations were over 65. At the same time, the percentage of those under 35 who attended religious services of all denominations fell to 32 per cent.

Or, as the institute put it, there are now more churchgoers older than 65 than younger than 35 in U.S. churches — and likely in Canada, too.

Despite the rising number of older adults in congregations, many churches are still focused mostly on serving younger people and families, Tolhurst said.

“Seniors can be people nobody thinks of much,” said the 69-year-old. “These are people who were very loyal, sacrificial, and who had a love for Jesus beyond words. But now they are often on the periphery in the church, left on their own.”

What hurts many seniors is how their churches don’t see them as having much to offer beyond money. For Tolhurst, that’s a form of spiritual ageism.

“Churches need to shift their thinking to see seniors as a resource in their congregations,” he said. “Seniors still want to serve. They have given all their lives. They’re not ready to stop now.”

He acknowledges seniors face unique challenges that can impact their service, such as health, loss, grief, loss of independence and other limitations. “But they still have much to give,” he says. “They just need someone to ask them.”

Jane Kuepfer directs the Schlegel Institute in Spirituality & Aging at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo. She also feels many churches today don’t value older people. Instead, many are putting all their efforts into attracting younger people.

This is a great loss. “There is great potential in older people,” Kuepfer said. “They are an incredible resource. We need to encourage churches to pay more attention to people in the third act of life.”

Kuepfer wants churches to realize God doesn’t stop calling people to various kinds of service just because they’re older.

“God will call us to different things at different stages of our lives,” she said. But, she added, God still calls — including when people are older.

The best way for churches to do a better job of serving seniors is by just listening to them, Kuepfer said.

“Find out what they need to keep them spiritually sustained and healthy. Ask them what they need, where they’re at and how they might become involved,” she said.

As for churches worried about their futures, she suggests they would do well to focus on who is in the pews right now. “What if the future is serving older adults? An older congregation doesn’t infer a dying congregation,” she said.

Tom McCormick, 75, felt a call to serve seniors when he was in his 20s. He ended up serving people in long-term care for some 50 years and also wrote two books on nursing home ministry.

For him, serving seniors is “about following a scriptural mandate. It’s what it means to be the people of God.”

What disappoints McCormick is how few churches seem interested in service to seniors.

“When I talk to churches, I’m often told they want to focus on the emerging generation, there’s more future there,” he said. “It must break the Lord’s heart to see older people neglected by the Church in this way.”

McCormick is also disappointed by the lack of courses about ministry to seniors at Canadian seminaries. “Seminaries tell me [that subject] isn’t marketable,” he says.

And yet, he noted, people graduating as clergy today will find themselves in churches with a large number of seniors — but with little training in how to minister to them and their unique needs. “Not enough seminaries are preparing clergy for this reality. It’s a real blind spot,” he said.

In 1971, singer-songwriter John Prine wrote a song titled Hello in There, about an older couple whose children had moved away and left their parents on their own. In the song, the couple describes the loneliness they felt. The chorus goes like this:

“You know that old trees just grow stronger

And old rivers grow wider every day

Old people just grow lonesome

Waiting for someone to say

‘Hello in there, hello.’”

I wonder how many churches, and other places of worship, are saying hello to seniors as society ages?

faith@freepress.mb.ca

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