Meeting the needs of an ageing population
Most of us are no doubt well aware by now of the phenomena of the ageing of the population. As the Australian Bureau of Statistics puts it:
Australia's population, like that of most developed countries, is ageing as a result of sustained low fertility and increasing life expectancy. This is resulting in proportionally fewer children (under 15 years of age) in the population. The median age (the age at which half the population is older and half is younger) of the Australian population has increased by 5.8 years over the last two decades, from 31.1 years at 30 June 1986 to 36.9 years at 30 June 2006. Between 30 June 2005 and 2006 the median age increased by 0.2 years. Over the next several decades, population ageing is expected to have significant implications for Australia including health, labour force participation, housing and demand for skilled labour (Productivity Commission 2005, Economic Implications of an Ageing Australia, Research Report, Canberra).
The ageing of the population also has wide-ranging implications for Christian ministry. One of those implications is that we are increasingly going to need evangelistic resources designed to reach that expanding group of ‘seniors’ in our society.
Two new resources from Matthias Media are addressing this need.
Firstly, a great new evangelistic book specifically aimed at people in, or about to enter, their retirement years: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life. And who better to write the evangelistic book for an ageing population than Australia's best-loved ageing evangelist, John Chapman?
Secondly, we have just released a new edition of the Two Ways to Live gospel presentation. The Choice We All Face: Two Ways to Live Booklet Edition is an attractively presented booklet containing the very popular Two Ways to Live gospel outline and explanation. Due to the larger A5 format, we have been able to significantly increase the type size. This makes it an ideal version of the presentation for those for whom small type makes reading difficult.