Panelists were the Rev. Sharan Knoell, pastor of Valley United Presbyterian Church in Waverly, New York; the Rev. Burnetta Armour, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Cleveland, Georgia; and the Rev. Dr. Lorraine Leist, associate pastor for congregational care and older adults at Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church in Denver.
Armour has completed all four online courses required for the certificate, as well as her capstone. Knoell and Leist have completed three of the four online courses and said they plan to complete their capstones following completion of the final course.
“I’m 12 years out of seminary” where “there was a lot of theory, but not a lot of practice,” Knoell said. “This program is designed for you to leave class, walk into church and implement what you’ve just learned.”
She’s now better able to facilitate Bible study for the congregation of about 100 people, almost all of them older adults, and is now able to better communicate with the older adults in the church. “And that was after day one” of taking an online course called Teaching for Transformation, she said.
“A powerful thing for me has been to learn to think theologically with members of my congregation,” said Leist, who ministers directly to about 600 of Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church’s 1,800 members. “Working as a chaplain for so long, it was an underdeveloped skill of mine. Focusing on the Christian practice of theological reflection has been super helpful.”
A spirituality course enabled Armour to help older adults in the church become more interested in their own spirituality. “It was exciting to learn something new and share it with them about the stage they are in,” Armour said. One person in Bible study told her, “old is a number in your head.”
To date, more than 175 people from 36 states have participated, Erickson said. Fifty-seven have completed all four courses and their capstone.
Valley United Presbyterian Church has started an intentional older adult ministry, “which is kind of silly because everyone is an older adult,” Knoell said. “It’s fun and it’s meeting a need, especially for those who live alone or who have a spouse of a different faith.”
“We want to make it less about going to movies and ballgames,” she said, “and make it more spiritually enriching for the people who participate.”
For her capstone, Armour worked for six months on learning how to better communicate with people with dementia.
“A lot of times, pastors and elders are reluctant to visit [members with dementia] because they don’t know how to communicate. What if they go back in time? It can make us uncomfortable,” she said.
She created a presentation called “Talking Through Dementia” for use in the congregation as well as the community. “We talked about how to talk through these things,” she said. Armour said she learned about theological, developmental and spiritual aspects of dementia. “I was able to draw on that when discussing things like permission-giving,” she said.
Armour plans to share what she’s learned at POAMN’s annual conference, “Rooted in Hope,” set for Sept. 15-18 at First Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. Learn more here.
Erickson asked panelists how they manage their time while taking courses.
“To be honest, I didn’t think about the time commitment. I was just interested in the classes,” Leist said. “The time commitment is robust, but the learning through the readings, written assignments and responses were powerful and worth the time spent.”
Knoell said she completed coursework Sunday afternoons following worship. “It was time for me to connect with ministry in a way that felt like worship time,” Knoell said.
“I don’t think there was a reading I didn’t enjoy,” Armour said. “I used continuing education to pay for the courses, which made it affordable.”
“One thing I love about online learning is building community through your responses to one another,” Leist said. “You can get to know people, even in a virtual space.”
“It was helpful to show up in shorts and a T-shirt and not have to account for lodging and travel,” Knoell said. “That helps me with my busy schedule.”
She called older adult ministry “kind of cutting edge right now. Since churches across mainline denominations are predominantly older adults, it’s the logical way to connect with a large subset or maybe the entire congregation.”
“It’s helpful for younger pastors in their 40s when a 99-year-old asks you, ‘why am I still here?’ It warms my heart to see younger pastors in some of the classes,” Knoell said.
The program “has equipped me for ministry with older adults in practical ways. One is pastoral care,” Leist said. “The courses helped me understand what is the process this person is going through and how can I respond to it pastorally? There is this underlying sense that this is what older adults are experiencing and this is how we can respond.”
“So much of ministry is focused on getting young people in the pews and we miss this beautiful ministry with our older adults,” Armour said. “You can be a beautiful and alive church and be a graying church.”
One church member keeps asking her pastor when she’ll start teaching some of what she’s learned.
“They don’t realize that every sermon has something from class,” Armour said. “This is cutting-edge ministry, and it’s one we need to pay attention to.”