Date of Award

3-14-2025

Document Type

Project Portfolio

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

Department

Seminary

First Advisor

Jason Wellman, DMin

Second Advisor

Linda Sommerville, DMin

Third Advisor

Leonard I. Sweet, PhD

Abstract

Aging has changed significantly in recent decades due to medical, economic, and social factors. The increasing length of American lives is both a blessing and a challenge for families and elders themselves, but our cultural and theological foundations are not sufficient to address this situation.

My NPO emerged from pastoral experience caring for elders: Aging Christians often struggle to know the presence and love of God finding their faith practices to be inadequate for the distinctive challenges of aging.

Key insights from my research include:

  1. The most significant challenge of aging is surrender to childlikeness before God. In late life Christians are asked to accept helplessness in imitation of Jesus.
  2. Several important movements of the soul accompany this surrender.
  3. Life Review as the means of reflecting on one’s life can foster the peace and forgiveness that is preparatory to a peaceful death.
  4. Three aspects of traditional approaches to mortality, a general awareness of mortality, the understanding that the soul is on journey and the involvement of the community are conspicuously absent from both secular and evangelical American culture.

My research was conducted in the context of pastoral work in a large Presbyterian church in suburban South Florida in which roughly a quarter of members are 80 or older. The congregation is mostly white and financially secure.

Beloved Elder: The Spiritual Journey of Aging addresses the spiritual needs of older adults with a cohort style course designed to introduce spiritual leaders to the challenges of aging in the United States in the 21st century, especially as they are experienced by evangelical protestants. It aims to introduce a framework of meaning to these experiences. The ultimate goal of this project is to equip spiritual leaders to care more effectively for their aging congregations.

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