Gather

What if I told you there was a group of people within a few square miles of your church who are as spiritually receptive as they are spiritually in need? 

You would ask me for their address! 

Good news: That group exists—and they’re as close to you as the nearest residential care facility. 

Older adults residing in long-term care and assisted living communities make up a growing demographic. This demographic is a reality of modern life that our doctrine of the church needs to account for. They have acute social, emotional, and spiritual needs that call for a full-orbed ministry. And for those who are Christians, they are also members of the Body of Christ, a fact which mandates churches to recognize and maintain their inclusion in congregational life.  

The Biblical Bar for Care

The Bible teaches us how to regard and treat older adults: as bearers of wisdom worthy of our respect, and as bearers of weakening bodies which require our protection.¹ But because care facilities were not a part of the biblical world, we need to employ biblical wisdom to discern how to best minister to older Christians who reside in them. 

Perhaps the best place to look in Scripture for wisdom concerning this modern cohort is in the ancient pairing of orphans and widows (examples: Psalm 68:5; 82:3; James 1:27). The shared characteristic of these two groups is their special vulnerability to exploitation and harm; they were dependent on others for protection and provision. Older adults in care facilities are similarly vulnerable and dependent.  

The Needs of the Vulnerable

Scripture gives us a consistent picture of God taking the needs of the vulnerable seriously: He watches over them (Psalm 146:9), calls his people to meet their needs (Isaiah 1:17), and judges those who would mistreat them (Exodus 22:22–24) or deny them justice (Isaiah 1:23). 

Acts 6:1–7 shows the nascent church grappling with widows being neglected in the daily distribution of food. Consider that the author puts the two mentioned tasks of ministry in parallel by using the same word: the diakonia (distribution) of food (Acts 6:1) and the diakonia (ministry) of the word of God (6:4). And even though the apostles delegate the task of distribution, it is significant that it is a “responsibility” (literally, “need”) requiring no less than seven people “full of the Spirit and wisdom” (6:3) to handle it properly. In short, in the apostles’ view, meeting the needs of widows was not a nice-to-have ministry but an essential one.

The widows’ status as full members of the church was recognized, not diminished in any way by their neediness. And this sets the bar high for ministry to older adults in care facilities. 

The Fallen Reality

But there’s a problem: The needs of older adults typically dwarf our ministry efforts toward them. As Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few” (Matthew 9:37).

Deep Needs

Theologian Vernon Grounds describes growing old as the inevitable and irreversible diminishing of life in all its dimensions.² One’s time shortens, body weakens, social circle shrinks, world contracts, responsibilities dwindle, and finances deplete. Aging in a facility can be a sustained experience of dislocation, isolation, and transition. Even in the nicest of facilities, the needs of residents are palpable.

So we ask: Are these needs being met? 

Shallow Efforts

Survey data shows that religiously engaged adults are interested in intergenerational opportunities. Unfortunately, such interest has not translated into vital ministry to and with older adults. If the disconnect between generations is being experienced within the walls of the church, we can be sure that it is felt even more by church members residing outside those walls. 

Consider all the ways in which you were connected to your church in the last week. 

Perhaps you went to a Sunday worship service, served in the youth group on Wednesday, and participated in a Bible study on Thursday. For most churchgoers, these activities are consistently available. But for care facility residents, these opportunities are practically inaccessible and effectively relegated to their past church-lives. 

Some churches try to bridge this gap through ministries of service, pastoral care, and visitation. Perhaps the compassion ministry prepares May Day baskets, the children’s choir performs at Christmastime, the pastor visits monthly and provides communion, and several church members see to it that they visit old friends. 

A church involved in these ways at a facility is on the higher end of engagement with older adults; even so, such efforts and connections are not spiritually sufficient given the depth of human spiritual need. In fact, while two-thirds of religiously engaged adults say that their spiritual communities make efforts to connect the generations, the vast majority of those say that their efforts are not going well.³ 

With honesty and grace, reflect on this question: Is our church’s ministry to and relationships with older adults in care facilities thriving, lacking, or missing? 

If you answered lacking or missing (as most churches would!), the appropriate follow-up question is “What gives?”

The Root Problem

I suggest that we begin with a spiritual eye exam, looking at how we are looking at older adults. 

So, we ask another question: Am I seeing older adults as God see them? Or as the world sees them? 

Affirming God’s Valuation

The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor . . . . But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.” (1 Corinthians 12:21–23a, 24b–25)

A classic Pauline paradox: The most dispensable are the least dispensable. We love the idea of the “upside-down kingdom.” But we should ask ourselves the pointed questions: 

• Are we actively honoring church members who now reside in care facilities? 

• Do we show them the same level of concern as we do others in our congregation? 

• Do we regard them as indispensable as God says they are? 

Renouncing the World’s Valuation

As Christians, we hold steadfastly to a most beautiful doctrine: Humanity is made in God’s image. We rightly reject worldly valuations that reduce humans to capital. But we need to be honest with ourselves: Do we ever give more weight to individuals or certain demographics because of what we can extract out of them? 

A well-to-do young couple just committed to Pastor Greg’s church, and they seem perfect for the welcome ministry. Meanwhile, a faithful, older couple residing in a facility nearby has recently depleted their resources due to the costs of care; they have not been able to serve in church for years. What would it look like in practice for Pastor Greg to show “equal concern” to both couples? To “treat with special honor” the older couple? 

We can begin to root out the problem of lackluster ministry to older adults only when we start seeing them rightly as God does and then aligning our ministry practices accordingly. 

Full-orbed ministry to older adults (especially church members) in care facilities—that is the biblical bar. 

Stay tuned for part two of this series, which makes the case for discipleship as the missing ingredient—and the greatest opportunity—for ministry among residents. 

More Resources to Explore:

Grounds, Vernon. “A Personal Perspective.” In Aging, Death, and the Quest for Immortality, edited by C. Ben Mitchell, Robert D. Orr, and Susan A. Salladay. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004. 

Kilner, John F. “Aged, Aging.” In Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics, edited by Joel B. Green. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011. 

Veeneman, Mary M. “Dependent Care.” In Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics, edited by Joel B. Green. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011. 

1. John F. Kilner, “Aged, Aging,” in Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011). ↩︎
2. VernonGrounds, “A Personal Perspective,” in Aging, Death, and the Quest for Immortality (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 3–4. ↩︎
3. “Religion Survey,” CoGenerate, accessed June 21, 2026, https://cogenerate.org/religionsurvey/#3/.  ↩︎