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The Baby Boomer generation is aging and putting an incredible impact on social demographics. On this edition of the Exploring Aging Podcast, Host Ray Sanders and Co-hosts Dr. Bill Pierce and Greg McNeece discuss how The Bill and Susan Pierce Institute for Transforming Life Expectancies is working to change how older adults are perceived in society.
The Baby Boomer generation is aging and putting an incredible impact on social demographics. On this edition of the Exploring Aging Podcast, Host Ray Sanders and Co-hosts Dr. Bill Pierce and Greg McNeece discuss how The Bill and Susan Pierce Institute for Transforming Life Expectancies is working to change how older adults are perceived in society.
Exploring Aging
Society is changing. Baby boomers are producing an age wave that is having an incredible impact on social demographics. Because of an improved quality of life, people are simply living longer. Have you considered the strain an aging population will have on social services? How do churches and other community organizations engage and utilize active older adults who retire at age 65.
Ray:On this episode of the Exploring Aging podcast, you will learn how 2 Oklahoma pioneers are stepping up, taking action, and responding to the growing needs of older adults. Plus, we will learn more about how the Baptist Village Community's board of directors has responded to the need by launching the Bill and Susan Pierce Institute For Transforming Life Expectancies. These and other related topics on this episode of the Exploring Aging podcast. Welcome to this edition of the Exploring Aging podcast. I'm your host, Ray Sanders, and I'm joined by my cohost, Bill Pierce and Greg McNeese.
Ray:Bill, Greg, thanks for joining again on today's program.
Greg:Happy to be here today.
Bill:Here we are again.
Ray:You know, guys, I have really learned a lot from you guys as we are trying to raise awareness regarding the growing age wave that is swelling throughout society. You know, on our last podcast, you helped us understand how the BBC is working hard to help older adults maintain a healthy and well rounded lifestyle. You guys are really pioneers and innovators in dealing with the coming age way. Now I know that's making you blush a little bit, but it's true. You guys are on the front line and people look to you guys to help them address this issue that's coming, this age wave, as baby boomers are producing a phenomenon that is having an incredible impact on social demographics.
Ray:It's just a fact of life. So for those who might be just joining us on our podcast for the first time, please give them a bit of overview on the issues and challenges we will soon be facing as a society as it relates to aging. Here is the question, guys, first question of the podcast today. What strains on society will be soon coming into our lives? What can we be experiencing in the coming days?
Bill:You know, I'm gonna start on a light note and say, I hear I hear people all the time say, if I had known I was gonna live this long, I would've taken better care of myself. And so now that we're experiencing this age wave and there's so many older people who are living longer, We should have planned better in our society for this day. You know, Ray, we knew it was coming. Right, Greg?
Greg:We did. We knew
Bill:it was coming.
Greg:Saw it.
Bill:But we didn't do as much in planning for it, and now here it is. And so the strain on our society and the strain on social services is now huge. Not enough people to care and provide the services that are needed. Not enough money. Mhmm.
Bill:Many families experiencing shortages of of resources to care, no knowledge of how to care for your loved ones. So we're we're we're beginning to experience all kinds of strains. Greg?
Greg:I would agree with that. I would even say, when we look at that, I mean, the financial cost, I think we're gonna start seeing that and I'm going out on a limb here. I think we're gonna start seeing more and more families resorting back to an old paradigm of families living together. Multi generational. Multi generational living in under the same roof because it's just it's just not it is not financially feasible for some families in today's economy to be able to live independent of mom or dad, or vice versa, mom or dad living independent of their adult children.
Ray:Now Greg, prior to the show, you brought up something I thought was an interesting observation. Unpack this idea to kind of help people visualize this issue, that it's coming. The strain on social services, health care providers, retirement savings. You mentioned food insecurity prior to the show, Bill. There there's a the the pure financial strain that's going to be evident in society.
Ray:But it's all related to this little time period in American history, starting back, as you said, in January of 1946. Kind of paint that picture as the first baby boomer was born Yep. And how it rolls forward.
Greg:Give us that visual. Yeah. So in the demographic world of gerontology, we would say that, you know what, we look at this baby boom generation as that group of adults now, adults. The baby's born January 1, 1946 and for the next 18 years. So, 1946 and 1964, all those babies are deemed the baby boom generation.
Greg:So if you take that and you look at that and you kinda play that out in time, Ray, that first baby boomer, if you will, that was born January 1, 46 turned 65 January 1, 2011. Okay. That's 12 years ago, 12 and a half years ago. So now you move that along, that first baby boomer is now in their mid seventies. It's one of those things where this age wave, if you will, is just it's getting older.
Greg:That front leading edge of this age wave is darkening the door, is creating all kinds of awareness to the needs of this generation. And remember, the generations to follow aren't as large numerically as that generation. So my generation doesn't have as many people in it as that baby boom generation, which creates all kinds of different financial issues as we look at, you know, Social Security and how that's going to be down the road funded. I mean, there are a lot of different issues that are in play there. But when you just think about it and just sheer numbers and what does that really mean?
Greg:You kind of put those in perspective of, Oh my goodness, here's where we are today.
Ray:The thought that came to my mind was the doom and gloom of the baby boom. You know, it's No.
Bill:I wouldn't go there.
Ray:Yeah. It's come I mean, it's so it's so it feels heavy to me though. And it and it feels like this this big massive need, and it's there and it's like, where do we go for hope? Where where's the answer? I'm joking of course, but I mean, where's the personal financial responsibility?
Ray:What role does the church play in this? What about government? You guys have launched an institute. You guys feel like you're pretty well prepared, but, you know, Bill, you you tried to keep it in a positive light, and I'm and I'm joking, of course, but it's serious. I mean, it's serious.
Bill:Very serious. Mhmm. You know, our country has taken on so many challenges in our history, and we have been successful in changing in positive ways. We've overcome our challenges, and so we have a big challenge now. And you could say that we have looked past it.
Bill:We have delayed it. We have not done enough about it. All that's true. But if you have failed to plan in the past, the best time to plan is right now, today. That's the time to start today.
Ray:Wow. Say that say say that again. Say that
Bill:If you have if you failed to plan in the past, the best time to start planning is right now, today. And we can. We can as a country, We can as a state, and we can as individuals. There's all kinds of things we can do to plan now, to start planning now for the challenges that we have. There are huge challenges, but there are ways to overcoming.
Bill:We don't have enough health care services, we don't have enough housing, we don't have enough money to meet the needs, we don't have enough people to provide the services. We have all sorts of challenges, but this country has overcome challenges many, many times in the past, and we can work on it right now together.
Greg:Bill, wouldn't you say I mean, it's very easy it's very easy to look at this in a very negative light when you just talk about all those different issues. If you look at those as a collective whole, you go, oh my goodness. There's no way to change our future, if you will. But the reality is if we would plan and begin to work a little here, a little there, and be effective in what we're gonna do, there's time. We can do something.
Greg:But if we kinda, if you will, stick our head in the sand, then that's exactly what's gonna happen.
Ray:Sweep it under the rug.
Greg:Yes.
Bill:I'll give you a great example, and that is that if you can delay health care services as a person, as an individual, then you're so much better off. And so just strength training. Senior adults, older adults need to be involved in strength training because balance is a huge issue. And we know what happens if we fall. Good chance of breaking a hip or something like that.
Bill:Being taking care of those things, eating a great diet, concentrating on your weight, strength training, and then, you know, my favorite, hydration. We've all got water in front of us right now. Right. You have to stay hydrated. You don't you do not want a urinary tract infection.
Ray:There you go.
Bill:So those things we can start planning
Ray:out personal responsibility.
Bill:To change our behavior. Mhmm. And it will be an advantage to us.
Ray:Well, now here's what I can also say. You guys are also pioneers and innovators and you have also been planning. You have been watching.
Bill:We have.
Ray:And when it comes to BVC in Oklahoma and where where you as an organization are, thinking about this, you you're in pretty good shape. It's not like you have it totally whipped, but a lot of people could learn from what you've been doing. I'm not saying we're the be all, but, certainly BBC is prepared, better prepared maybe than some. We can't look totally to the government, but if you're a government official out there and you're hearing this, wake up. Let's begin to really address this, we cannot ignore it.
Ray:And dare I say, dare I say that if you are a pastor or a minister in a local church, look around you and let's talk about how to engage this older adult population. Let's keep them healthy. How can we as the church respond to this need? Because here's here's another here's another observation, and we've touched on this before and we we were gonna continue to beat this drum, but there is a growing and kind of a perspective that, older adults lose significance as they age. And I'm curious, when you combine that thought with this this age wave that's coming, and a lack of preparedness to a certain degree, how should churches and other community organizations respond to this perception of older adults lose significance as they age?
Ray:How do how should they respond to this perception and how can they engage, and dare I say, utilize active older adults who retire at age 65. I mean, how do we get them involved? You said on the last podcast, you said, we don't want you to just think about how you can be served as an older adult. We want you to be thinking as an older adult, how can you serve? But so many times, they're not being asked to get engaged and we're putting them out to pasture when they got a lot of time and a lot of opportunity, to serve.
Ray:What are your thoughts? How do the churches and other community organizations respond to this perception, and how can they engage and utilize active older adults who retired age 65?
Bill:Yeah. It is a perception and it's an incorrect perception. Older adults don't really lose significance, but the younger generation forces it on them a lot of times. And so it's a it's a misperception for sure.
Greg:Can I just say real quick, it is not biblical? So when a pastor, if you will, I'm probably I'm probably way off in the weeds here. But when a pastor or church staff member kinda pushes older adults to the side, there is no biblical there's no scriptural model for us to go, this happened in scripture. The older adults were pushed to the side. It's anything but that.
Ray:Oh, true.
Greg:When I look at scripture, I see where where through scripture, older adults were used to draw people in. They were they were the key to help connect. And so if we've got churches and leadership who are pushing older adults to the side, it's not biblical, it's ungodly.
Ray:Think about Jethro. Where would Moses be without Jethro?
Greg:The list can go on and on of examples.
Ray:In the book of Kings, how many of those kings got bad advice from young bucks when they should have been listening to the older guys? Right. Yes.
Bill:You know, we sometimes think we're doing older adults a favor by expecting less from them. You've done your part. Mhmm. You know, just rest. That is such a bad way of looking at things because our expectations for older adults, Christians who serve in the church, should not go down.
Bill:They should go up.
Ray:Sure.
Bill:Yep. Because that's where the joy is found. Joy is found in serving the lord and glorifying the lord and becoming being involved in the church. I cannot tell you, Ray, how many times I've seen people hurt who have not been engaged or asked to be engaged in the in the ministry of the church. They wanna serve.
Bill:Sure. They wanna serve with everyone, and they wanna be treated like everyone else.
Ray:Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Sure. Here's one thing I've learned about you guys.
Ray:You guys aren't sitting this one out. You guys you guys are active. You got your sleeves rolled up. You're engaged. In fact, the Baptist Village Community's board of directors recently responded to this need, and you guys prompting and your insight, by launching the Bill and Susan Pierce Institute For Transforming Life Expectancies.
Ray:As I understand it, the institute will work to change the landscape of how senior adults are perceived in society. Am I tracking? Am I right?
Greg:You're tracking right. Okay.
Ray:So Greg, here's what I know. Much of your career has been focused on senior adult ministry and certainly Bill, you have been active in for decades in in this in this industry and in this ministry. While Bill continues in the role of president of BVC, many are saying that the BBC could not have found a better, more qualified person to lead the new institute than you, Greg. Now I know you're in my presence and I know you know, you may want to think humble pie and all that, but here's the deal, I think it's true. But I want to ask you, as president of the institute, how would you explain why the institute is needed?
Ray:I think we're getting a hint out of it, but why is the institute needed?
Greg:You know what, really and truly, Ray, it's because we as believers have dropped the ball. I mean, we can go back and say, okay, we can see where certain denominations have done certain things along the way and they've been a pioneer in that particular area. We as Baptists have really not done much in the field of aging. We've done some things that I would say are lip service things. We might do an event here, an event there, we might produce a resource here, but we didn't keep that momentum as a denomination.
Greg:Our state conventions have not done that. And so we've not had a good, healthy model of how do we serve older adults? How do we serve older adults and their families? You and I both know, as we deal with and Bill, when his parents were living, there are times where you have to how do I, as a adult child, help serve my aging parent? How do I help that local church serve my aging parent?
Greg:Especially if I'm not around geographically, Lord as a young 20 year old man feeling called to ministry, I felt like the Lord say, I need you and want you in this in this field, into the field of aging. Now when I went through, that was in the late eighties, it was unheard of. What do you do with that? I mean, there is no specific training. When I did my undergraduate degree, it was a degree in religion, but we basically because there was nothing in the field of aging at the university where I attended, it was, well, we can help you by taking this class out of a sociology field and this class out of a philosophy field.
Greg:And you know what they were, Ray? It was aging and death and and the philosophy and evil and suffering. That was it. Are you serious?
Bill:That was
Greg:it. And so it was one of those things where as the Lord began to use that to say, okay, now I want you to step to the next level. When I graduated and moved on to my graduate work, to begin to get a broader perspective of how do we serve an aging population. And for me, I was the first person at at that time to say, my call is to help the local church. How do we impact the local church and its ministry to aging adults?
Greg:And that's really where it's that's where I've been for many, many years to say, how do we change that trajectory? How do we help? And so I'm not asking for our church staff people to have this long extended degree plan of academic in the field of gerontology. But I want them to be able to go, I've got resources that I can access as a leader of adults, as I pour into people, as I help families, where do I go to turn? Where do I go to get some resources?
Greg:Where do I go to get help?
Ray:I wanna come back to that, resources. I wanna come back to that. But before I do, Bill, you've been a practitioner of this for decades. I mean, there's probably no one that I know
Bill:3 decades.
Ray:3 decades. Alright. That's just that's only half your life, right, Bill?
Greg:I'm just 3 decades here, plus everything before that. Yes, yes.
Ray:I mean, for such a time as this truly. But here's the thing, there's no mystery about the naming of this institute, but if there's any I mean, you are a practitioner, you know this inside and out and you have to be seeing this as part of you and Susan's legacy, of the hard work and energy that you've put into it. But when you think about it, what you would hope that this institute would accomplish and do and you think about the fact that you now have Greg coming along and you're excited about his involvement in it, what do you hope for this as you look to the future and the role that the Institute will play in Baptist Life?
Bill:Equipping. You know, we're gonna we hope to equip people. Gray and I, equipping is a big word to us. And so we wanna equip people in a lot of areas. We wanna equip them in evangelism.
Bill:We wanna get we want to equip them in discipleship. We wanna see a focus in senior adult ministry, in the church, on some things that perhaps we've not focused on as much as we have in younger age groups, evangelism and discipleship. Those three words, transforming life expectancies, are really important words. Transforming has a verse tied to it. Don't be conformed to this world.
Bill:Don't be influenced by this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Change your mind about how you see yourself in the kingdom of god and serving in the kingdom of god. And then that word life is tied to, I am come that you might have life. Jesus said, I am come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. We believe an abundant life is available to everyone who's in Christ in the church.
Bill:And the last word, expectancies, is let's not lower our expectancies. Let's raise them. What we expect of each other, Ray. I expect you to serve in the church, Ray. You expect me to serve in the church, and it's tied to the great commission.
Bill:The great commission will always be your mission as a Christian, no matter how old you get. And the spiritual gifts that you get from the Holy Spirit, they're not for part of your life. They're for all your life. What better thing could we do in our life but serve the Lord all our life and then we go to heaven? Beautiful.
Greg:Ray, you know what? And just to tap into that, that is so different than what our culture says. Because our culture says, you're done, you're all washed up. There is no there is no joy, there is no hope, there is no abundance. So the Institute is gonna stand on a platform that says, oh, yes, there is.
Greg:Culture says, you are older, there's no renewing of anything for you. When the institute says, oh, no, it's all about a renewal of your mind because from that point, you can renew so much. If you take your mind and you begin to say, this is what the Lord's given to me, those are those are amazing new days for people. And so when you are at a point of renewal, it changes everything. And so the Institute's gonna stand for things and help us to understand culture doesn't have this right, but our culture feeds that to people over and over and over.
Greg:And so through the institute, we can help churches, help church leaders to go, you know, there's a new day. There's a new day for us to walk forward and these are the ways we can do that.
Ray:So Bill, when you talked about transforming of applies to anyone at any age. What you just described is for all of us. That's not just an older adult, senior adult slogan. That applies that applies to all of us. And the tying it in with what society would say, Greg, is is beautiful because let's just put it this way, we're in a fast paced fast food Mhmm.
Ray:Disposable Yes. One and done world. And it goes back to what we've said earlier. We don't retire, we just retread. We've got plenty to get plenty to give.
Ray:I got a lot to offer even still. Now you mentioned the word equipping and that's what I wanted to come back to. I told I said earlier I wanted to come back to something with you, Greg. Equipping is a great word and we want to equip. And you said evangelism, discipleship and focusing on senior adult ministry.
Ray:I want to bring this down to a practical level with the time we have left. We don't have a lot, but we have a little bit. And so I'm gonna throw it out there and Greg, I'm gonna throw it to you and Okay. Bill, you jump in here. I'm a pastor.
Ray:I'm a minister in a local church. I respect Bill Pierce and Greg McNeese. I love what they're talking about. It sounds good. I like the emphasis.
Ray:I like the slogan. What does that mean for me? If you if you had a chance to sit down with a pastor over a cup of coffee and you're going to tell them how you want to come alongside them and help them with senior adult ministry, what practical things would you say to me if I'm a pastor out there? This is what we want to do. Are you going to show up with truckload of money?
Ray:Are you gonna show up with a busload of volunteers? Are you gonna send me a bunch of material? Are you gonna give me more work to do? Are you gonna tell me I'm doing it all wrong? What are you gonna do to help equip me in the areas that you talked about from a practical standpoint?
Ray:Now that may not be a fair question because I know you've been doing these learning sessions, out and about and you're still putting this together. But what can you tell me that you know today? What do you foresee? What do you think that you will be offering in terms of this equipping?
Greg:Sure. So there would be when we think about equipping, my mind automatically goes to what kind of books, what kind of resources, what kind of training, can can I get in equipping. Those are all a part of those are the things that will come as a part of the institute. I think part of it is is how do we help equip and change that mentality of how do we do ministry together? For instance, let's take the normal business of a church and there's a mission trip, and you you know where certain experiences in the Christian life to be for certain groups, and we're gonna identify that by age group or even life stage.
Greg:What about changing that perception and that ideology that we're gonna go on a mission trip and we're gonna open it up and we're gonna say we want older adults to go and we want students to go. As opposed to, we're gonna have a little trip to Branson for senior adults and we're gonna send our student ministry to the inner cities to do whatever, why not do something where that older adult group and those student ministry kids are doing ministry together?
Ray:Mhmm.
Greg:I think I think you've got a story of a of an experience in your own church where this has happened. Share that quick story.
Bill:Yeah. I do. Our pastor was sharing that they had a wonderful mission trip, and they did exactly that, Greg. They opened it up to everybody in the church, not a part of the church. And a 19 year old went on her first mission trip ever, and a 77 year old also went on her first mission trip ever.
Bill:The incredible thing about the trip is that the results were the same in the 19 year old's life and the 77 year old's life. Happiness and joy and serving the lord was experienced equally by both, and that's a great example of how it's ageless. Serving the lord is absolutely ageless. And so if we start focusing in the church, if pastors and leaders of older adults in the church start focusing the ways we now do with youth a lot of times. We absolutely start focusing on evangelism in the older adult age group.
Bill:We we start focusing on missions, and we start focusing on discipleship. I think a lot of people will change their mind about what they expect of one another in serving in the church, and I think we'll see a great increase of people who are excited again, excited again, and we just we're about to have revival in this room, but excited again about serving the Lord.
Greg:And so it's equipping. I mean, it's equipping that it's equipping the older adults, but it's also equipping those younger And so when they then form life and experiences together, it changes the life of the church. All of a sudden, that older adult sees that younger adult on Sunday morning, guess what? They're not gonna kinda
Ray:Yeah. Right. Exactly. They're not gonna
Greg:pass each other as ships in the night in their church. They're gonna stop. They're gonna hug one another. Beautiful. It is an intergenerational ministry connection that happened on a missional discipleship effort.
Greg:And so equipping is more than just books. It's more than just training.
Ray:Thank you for that.
Greg:It it is equipping people to do the work that God's called us to do. And it doesn't have to be on that. Real quickly, I know our time is short, but in out of one of these listening sessions, we were over in a community on the eastern side of the state. This was in the springtime. Spring break had just happened.
Greg:And the pastor of this church said, okay. We're not gonna do church as usual on this Wednesday night. We're gonna cancel everything. We're gonna do a student ministry, and anybody who wants to go night at the movies. This was shortly after, the Jesus Revolution movie had come out to the big screen.
Greg:And so what happened was is you had older adults go to the movie, the student went to the movie and before long, the pastor said, Greg, they were throwing popcorn at one another. I mean, they were they were playing. They were having fun. But what happened was is after that movie was over, guess what? On Sunday, because it was a smaller church, those that those older adults and those students began to go, you know what, they're not just a stick in the mud or whatever.
Greg:They hugged on one another because they had a shared experience and a shared bond, that began to break down. So equipping looks different than just books or training. It's what I said a while ago, you take the normal life of the church and you figure out how do you infuse relationships, how do you help equip. It's the Titus 2 model. When we look at what Titus chapter 2 says, men are to do this, women are to do this, this is what it's all about.
Ray:Well, I gave you the challenge and you delivered. You gave 2 examples and a story. And I and I'm gonna sum it up this way. I'm going to say that really what I think this institute is about is about a mindset. Yes.
Ray:It's a shifting of a paradigm of how we're seeing the way that we do ministry, and it's then taking that mindset and realizing that we haven't discovered everything about how to do this and sharing ideas. So you're gonna facilitate ideas, you're gonna bring some of your own. You're gonna listen. You're gonna learn from each other, and then you're gonna put into practice some best practices that really are covered by this passage in Titus that you did that you talked about. That's really good, guys.
Ray:Hey. You know what? There's so much more that we could talk about. I love talking to you guys, but you know what? We're simply out of time today.
Ray:And so thank you guys for keeping us informed in all these important issues that will that we will all be facing, and they will have a lasting impact on our lives for for years to come. You know, if you'd like to learn more about today's topics, or you or a loved one wants to experience life at Baptist Village, come see what they have to offer. Give them a call. Their number is 866-887-2872. One more time on that, 866 872-872 or visit them online atbaptistvillage.org.
Ray:If you haven't heard, BBC also publishes a really nice publication called Thrive. Each issue includes many of the topics we discuss on the podcast and more, and if you'd like a copy, by all means, reach out and we'll get it to you. You can catch our podcast on all your favorite platforms. Simply search the Exploring Aging Podcast and you'll find us there. Until next time, stay active and stay informed as we explore the realities of aging on the Exploring Aging Podcast.