BIC are generous today, but what about tomorrow?

As millions of baby boomers in Canada and the United States reach retirement age, the church faces a generational shift with financial implications, or so warns the staff of Mennonite Mutual Aid. With today’s longer life spans, a perfect storm is brewing for North Americans because of relatively low retirement savings (an average of $53,734 per household), healthcare costs rising at double the rate of inflation on both sides of the border, and the pressure of caring for aging parents even as boomers face age-related challenges of their own.  

These factors, combined with a lifetime exposure to the forces of materialism, suggest that baby boomer BICs and Mennonites “will contribute fewer dollars to the church during their retirement years and from their estates after death than the generation before them is giving,” MMA officials note.

Fortunately, conversations across the two denominations suggest that “while boomers have fears about encountering poor health and the adequacy of their savings for their retirement years, they anticipate serving the church, especially at the congregational level. For many boomers, faith is part of the air they breathe,” Steve Martin, MMA’s senior vice president for marketing, states.

The baby boom generation is notable for its size. The 76 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 account for 29 percent of the U.S. population today. Baby boomers represent one third of Canada’s population and control almost half of the country’s wealth. The age cohort also accounts for a significant portion of the membership in BIC congregations in Canada and the U.S.

What are you doing in your setting to prepare baby boomers to think faithfully about their money, their faith, and their future with the church?  We are eager for your good ideas.

Adapted from “MC USA examines generational shift’s impact on finance,” Mennonite Weekly Review, May 21, 2007.

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