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Older Adult Ministries
The Memphis Annual Conference Older Adult Ministries is dedicated to informing older adults and enriching their lives. The mission of the Memphis Annual Conference Older Adult Council is to provide practical tools to start, build, energize, and/or strengthen vital Older Adult Ministries in the Conference. The Council is active in many ways to support this mission: We sponsor two older adult training events each year that benefit congregations by supplying current information, building knowledge, and providing training opportunities in the area of older adult ministries—a seminar in the spring and workshops in the fall. The workshop, Starting or Energizing Your Older Adult Ministry, will be offered on Tuesday, September 15, 2009, from 9:00 A.M.-2 P.M. The Rev. Vida McClure will discuss "Designing a Ministry with Older Adults." Ms. Elyse Bell and the Rev. Daphne Moses will present an emphasis on Missions. They will discuss "Doing Mission Work at Home" and "Mission Opportunities for Older Adults in the US and Around the World." The host church is First United Methodist Church of Jackson, Tennessee, located at 200 South Church Street. Cost, including lunch, is $15 per person. (Scholarships are available.) Registration deadline is Tuesday, September 8, 2009. (No walk-ins, please.) Contact Luci Cromer at We publish a newsletter twice each year that is mailed to people that have attended Older Adult Council events, older adult coordinators, Church Council/COM chairs, and pastors. In that newsletter we promote the upcoming training event, have an article on a featured topic, review new books or audio/visual programming of interest to older adults, and provide lists of resources both in the form of appropriate written materials and people who may be of help. Click here to download the current newsletter. We encourage people to attend the SEJ Older Adult Conference at Lake Junaluska in August. At this conference, participants have the opportunity to attend a variety of workshops or intensive professional track training. We offer scholarships to offset the cost of this event as well as our two older adult training events. To see a downloadable copy of the brochure and registration form click on http://www.lakejunaluska.com/olderadult.aspx. We have District Liaisons to the Conference Older Adult Council in place in all seven districts. These people attend DCOM and Conference Council meetings and are the conduit between each of the districts and the Older Adult Council. These people are trained to speak about designing a ministry with older adults and are available to speak at district training meetings, individual church meetings, cluster meetings, or at meetings of local church Older Adult Councils to help them start or re-energize older adult ministries in their churches. OLDER ADULT COUNCIL MEMBERS SERVING AS DISTRICT LIAISONS Brownsville District, Adele Davenport, jwdavnprt@gmail.com Dyersburg District, Barbara Stephens, barjstephens@aol.com Jackson District, Pam Jaco, pam@jacksonfumc.com Memphis-Asbury District, Mary Johnson, atokamimi@aol.com Memphis-McKendree District, Wendell Smith, wgsmithsr@comcast.net Paducah District, Rev. Vida McClure, vmcclure1227@att.net Paris District, Martha Campbell, mlc.wrc@att.net Older Adult Coordinator, Luci Cromer, luci2@comcast.net , 901-755-0803 These people are trained to help you start or re-energize your Older Adult Ministries. You may contact them, and they will be happy to meet with you, your Older Adult Council, or your Church Council/COM. The United Methodist Church is the oldest denomination in the United States—the median age of a congregation is 60. By 2010, people 60 or older will outnumber children and youth under 15. The Conference Older Adult Council realizes the importance of its mission and how quickly we must move to provide the necessary tools and resources to enable churches to have older adult ministry programming in place as the Church gets grayer. Luci Cromer, Older Adult Coordinator
For more information and older adult resources, link to the Center on Aging & Older Adult Ministries at the General Board of Discipleship: http://www.aging-umc.org/ To learn more about the Southeastern Jurisdiction Association of Older Adults and its activities: http://www.reneweddisciples.com For accessibility issues for persons with disabilities using wheelchairs and/or scooters, such as bathrooms, ramps and parking, go to http://www.memphis-umc.org/ and click on Ministries, then Disability Concerns. There are several resources listed.
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