Committing to Be Age-Friendly Congregations

This article is featured in the January/February 2026 issue of the Older Adult Ministries e-newsletter. To have this e-newsletter delivered to your email inbox click here.

Faith formation ministries that guide children and youth into adulthood are commonly offered. However, many congregations stop providing programmatic and spiritual support for aging and older members. Age-friendly congregations, however, help to recognize the particular gifts and wisdom that God’s oldest adults have to share in the church’s ministry.

What is an age-friendly congregation? It is a congregation that understands that at each stage in life, we all have unique gifts, abilities, needs, goals, challenges, and expertise from which others can learn and grow. An age-friendly congregation’s priorities, core values and strategic directions affirm and encompass each age group, while also seeking to provide the compassionate care and support that is often needed during these later 30 – 40 years of life. When our denomination’s General Assembly voted to become a Silver Chalice denomination, we committed to being and becoming age-friendly churches.

Age-friendly congregations are vital, revering each stage of the spiritual growth process and affirming each person, regardless of age, as a valued member and teacher. The spiritual development and accumulated wisdom of older adults plays an important role in our churches’ missions.

One program example is the Older Adult Ministries’ ministry partner Rural Ministry Network. Many congregations having a great majority of older adults are rural, and they can teach us so much about being age-friendly as they so ably support relationships in community across generations. The Rural Ministry Network recently launched a spirituality page on its website, posting short readings offering encouragement and support. Youth and older adults are writing and sharing their thoughts about Bible passages and their spiritual growth.

Are you interested in becoming an even more age-friendly church? We have some resources to help get you started on the Older Adult Ministries resource page:

• A Toolkit for Creating Older Adult Ministries
• Bringing Generations Together
• Questions to Prompt Telling Life Stories