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The Periodic Midlife/Longlife Update E-newsletter - August 2005
The Periodic Midlife/Longlife Update E-newsletter is devoted to sharing information and enhancing excellence in ongoing faith and holistic formation for maturing adults from midlife through end of life.
Bill Prather, Founder and Director
Partners in Pastoral Care
Seeks to provide members with an ongoing flow of practical information that leader/models can use directly with adults of all ages, and by offering training through its educational arm . All opinions expressed herein are those of the author. Permission is granted to reproduce this issue in whole or in part as long as its source is identified.
8695 College Parkway The Renaissance Executive Building
Suite 327 Fort Myers , FL 33919 239 466 8664 Shepardscare@aol.com
In This Issue:
Volunteering and A Few Recourses
Statistics on Our Changing World
Have Another Wonderful, Spiritual, Moral and Value-Packed Meeting
Book Review: “One Church Four Generations”
1. Older volunteers are tremendous assets to their faith communities and their communities at large. Whether they are delivering a hot meal to a homebound senior, reading to a preschool- or elementary-aged child, hospital visitation, or answering church phones, volunteers aged 55 and older are making a difference.
According to the Independent Sector’s Giving and Volunteering in the United States 2001 national survey, 58% of people aged 50-64 volunteer and 42% of those 65 and older do so.
Increasingly, studies indicate that there are real health reasons for older persons to volunteer.
While researchers agree that additional research is needed, all also agree that volunteering improves the overall quality of life for older persons because it gives meaning and purpose to their lives.
It also offers the following specific benefits:
Volunteers are healthier—studies show that older persons who volunteer have fewer medical problems than the senior population in general.
Volunteering increases one’s physical health and agility—volunteer activities help older persons stay physically active. lder adults who engage in regular physical activity, whether moderate or intense, have lower incidences of heart disease and diabetes and are at lower risk for other cardiovascular diseases.
Volunteering increases one’s cognitive and mental well-being—this points to the "use it or lose it" theory for cognitive ability. Volunteering helps keep the brain engaged, which helps protect the memory as people age.
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Since older volunteers are impacting virtually every aspect of our society including health, education, social services, youth, culture, the arts, and the environment, we sure could encourage our parishioners to become more involved. Admittedly, I don’t know your situation and/or group of elders, so it is difficult to give specifics as you get your folks involved. Therefore, here are some resources that just might kick-start your thinking about volunteerism and show you how you might facilitate it with your groups involvement:
www.1-800volunteer.orgor 800-VOLUNTEER is a website and call center that provides volunteers with a direct connection to local volunteer opportunities that match interests, skills, and the common desire to make a difference.
www.aoa.gov/smp The Senior Medicare Patrol projects teach volunteer retired professionals.
2. Today, if you live in New York City, you see 8,000 commercial messages a day.
The pace of change is so fast on the Internet that cyberspace time must be reckoned in dog years: just as one year of a dog’s life is like seven years of our lives, so one year on the Internet is like seven years in real life.
Of the Fortune 500 companies on the 1955 list, 70 percent are out of business today.
Scientific information doubles every 12 years. General information doubles every two-and one-half years.
A weekday edition of the New York Times now carries more information than the average seventeenth-century person would have digested in a lifetime.
About 500 computers were connected to the Internet in 1983. Now there are al least 500 million hosts.
Approximately 1000 new books are published every day.
Tired yet? “The speed of life is leaving skid marks,” quips cultural historian Leonard Sweet.
Boomers mean business!
The burgeoning boomer market is now 78 million strong.
It represents more than $2 trillion in annual spending.
Households headed by someone 40 or older hold 91percent of America's net worth.
Churches on the cutting edge are tapping into the fastest growing market segment in the U.S. You may be interested in the book, “The Purple Cow” and also check out these two wonderful and proven ministries of marketing:
Harvest Unlimited focuses on assisting the local church in reaching “unchurched” in the immediate vicinity of their location. It is reported that 65 percent of Americans do not go to any church and the percentage is growing. To receive a packet of information on Harvest Unlimited, send an e-mail todpmn1999@aol.comand request it.
3. You may want to have a community-wide, meaningful informational meeting sponsored by your group on the subject of Organ and Body Donation. This segment of a PIPC Seminar entitled, “Preparing for Your Future,” has always stirred a great deal of interest among the participants. Powerful, spiritual, moral and valuable discussion always occurs.
There are literally thousands of Senior Adults who would like to know the facts about how to perform a meaningful service and also avoid costs by donating their body to a medical school and their organs to someone who needs them. Organ donation means that you can live on in a special way by saving the life of someone in need of an organ transplant. You may be able to donate a heart, kidneys, or some other organ if you so request. Organ transplants are done at no cost to the donor; the recipient hospital will cover the cost of donation. Following organ donation, the family of the deceased may hold funeral and memorial services. To find an expert to come and talk to your group about the donor program, you may call the United Network for Organ Sharing at 1-800-24-D-O-N-O-R.
Your local hospital may also have available and knowledgeable speakers on the subject. Of course, you can contact me via e-mail, telephone or the PIPC website about facilitating the workshop mentioned above.
4. Gary McIntosh gives us a thought provoking, data-packed, and well-targeted book that is sure to rearrange your thinking about “who” the Church is. The book is subtitled “Understanding and reaching all ages in your church,” and is published by Baker Books.
He identifies the four generations as:
Builders born 1925 – 1945
Boomers: born 1946 – 1964
Busters: born 1965 – 1983
Bridgers: born 1984 - present
Some of the author’s thoughts about Builders:
They defend the status quo.
Strong sense of obligation to serve the Church
Learned about their faith, but don’t always let these “truths” penetrate their lives
Hard workers, savers, frugal, patriotic, loyal, private, cautious, respectful, dependable, stable, and intolerant
His researched thoughts about Boomers:
High mobility damaged the normal networks of relationships and commitments of past generations
Reluctant to form long-term commitments
Resist joining organizations
Crave frequent change
Generally distrust authority
More comfortable with uncertainty
Seek personal relationships
Accent on relational not institutional
Look inside for spiritual guidance
Thoughts about Busters:
Twice as likely to come from broken homes; value true family
Can be lonely
More politically and religiously conservative than their parents
Very practical/vocational about education
Make protective parents
Like choice
Value and guard their time
Attracted to things fast-paced
Want ‘whats’ and ‘hows’ rather than ‘shoulds’ and’ oughts’
And about our precious Bridgers:
Too early to have clear generational definition, but …
Entrepreneurial
Technologically savvy
Neotraditional
Super-fragmented
Sophisticated
Interactive
Demanding
Diverse and tolerant
Want to be connected … to belong
Group reliant
McIntosh weaves together a tapestry that allows us to see more clearly the beauty in each generation and helps us to interrelate with those outside our own generation. He encourages intergenerational communication, and relates all these divergences to their connection to Church and mission.
I recommend this book for your reference shelf; I have no doubt that I will visit this book often since it stands as another, not-so-subtle reminder that not everyone thinks like I do. You can purchase this book and others from our bookstore at a 15 – 30% discount. The website is: www.partnersinpastoralcare.org.
For more information on how to help meet the spiritual developmental needs of all generations in your church, inquire here at PIPC. Ask about the workshops or seminars that John and Marti Gordon, David Patterson and/or Dave and Sue Rose facilitate. You will find links to each facilitator and workshop titles, along with descriptions, by visiting us at our website at www.partnersinpastoralcare.org.
This periodic e-newsletter is sent free of charge to pastors, leaders and interested individuals. If you have friends that would like to receive this newsletter, please have them e-mail Shepardscare@aol.com and we will add them to our list. If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter please e-mail Shepardscare@aol.com and put the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.
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