We Must Change Our Strategery (apologies to President Bush)

The graying of America provides an enormous opportunity for the church to find effective ways to respond to the challenge of its aging population. But without a major retooling of strategies and tactics, the church will be left behind. What can be done?

Realize that all seniors aren’t seniors. A new generational grouping has emerged in our society during the past generation. Their members are called Boomers and Pioneers and include those people between ages 50 and 70. They are, according to U.S. News & World Report, “a new generation, different not only in size but in vitality and outlook.”

Boomers and Pioneers are living healthier, more active, productive, longer lives. In reality, people of 50 or 65 can expect to live 15, 20, or 30 more years. It is, indeed, their middle years. In their own minds they are certainly not senior adults. We must realize that age makes a difference.

Post-Moderns (30 years old) are different from Boomers (60 years old)—not only in the hair on their heads but the mind inside. Most Boomers and Pioneers think differently from younger adults.

David Wolfe, a knowledgeable researcher and marketer, draws some fascinating contrasts between the Boomer/Pioneer groups and the Post-Moderns: 1

Boomers/Pioneers
• Declining influence by peers
• Declining materialistic values
• More subjective
• More introspective
• High sensitivity to context
• Perceptions in shades of gray
• More flexible
• More individualistic
• More discretionary behavior
• Less price sensitive
• Complex ways of determining values
• Whole-picture oriented

Post-Moderns (Young Adults)
• Heavily influenced by peers
• Highly materialistic values
• More objective
• More extro-spection
• Low sensitivity to context
• Perceptions in black and white
• More rigid
• More subordinated to others
• More predictable behavior
• More price sensitive
• Simple ways of determining values
• Detail oriented
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1. Ageless Marketing: Strategies for Reaching the Hearts & Minds of the New Customer Majority, David B. Wolfe, Robert E. Snyder, Dearborn Trade Publishing, a Kaplan Professional Company


The Boomer Blogger