March 31, 1999
Wave of senior adults growing
___By Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___CORPUS CHRISTI--"Two-thirds of all the persons in the history of the world who have ever lived past 65 are alive right now," Tommy West told a group of Texas senior adults.
___That fact could have major implications for Texas Baptist churches, said West,a former minister to senior adults at First Baptist Church of Georgetown.
___In 1790, 2 percent of the United States' population was 65-plus. That grew to 4 percent in 1890 and 12 percent in 1990.
___"That will grow to 23 percent--almost a quarter of the population--by 2050," he said.
___In Texas, 1.7 million people already are 65-plus, which represents 10.1 percent of the state's population.
___This will challenge Texas Baptist churches, said West, di-rector of New Creations Educa-tion Services. For example, he estimated that more than 60 percent of the seniors in the Dallas/Fort Worth area are unchurched.
___"I am afraid we are going to assume a lot of senior adults into hell," he said, saying many Baptist ministries assume someone is a Methodist or a Presby-terian or an Episcopalian and therefore do not contact them.
___West was a speaker at a series of Senior Adult Workshops held across Texas this month under sponsorship of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commis-sion.
___Churches now must be prepared to minister to two generations of senior adults at once because people are living longer, he said. And as the life span and health of seniors increase, churches must prepare for the prospect of ministering to three generations at once, he said.Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!