Rev. David Rosenau
Tuesday, Jan 24
3:15 – 4:30 pm
A Golden Opportunity!
When most of your members are over the age of 60, should you try to “grow young”—or should you lean into your strength by ministering to seniors with excellence? This session helps churches with an aging membership make a faithful, realistic decision about their mission. Participants will learn how to assess their community and membership, understanding when it makes sense to focus on reaching younger families and when it may be more faithful to embrace a ministry of care, encouragement, and discipleship for seniors.
We’ll explore how to build meaningful ministry for the elderly—fostering spiritual growth, creating social connections, and ensuring that seniors are active participants in the life of the church. We’ll also look at how to welcome younger members without feeling pressure to become a “young church.” Whether your goal is to reach the next generation or to shepherd your seniors with grace and purpose, this session provides a clear path forward.
Rev. David Rosenau has been a mortician, a deputy, a detective in narcotics and vice, and, finally, a detective sergeant working homicide and violent crime. All along the Lord was guiding and equipping him to be the person and the pastor God is using him to be today.
God has grown the congregation he is serving in Leesburg, Fla., an area that includes a predominantly older population, from 60 members when he arrived in 2009 to more than 500 today. Congregations all over the country, both inside and outside of WELS, have utilized the synod-produced Bible study based on his keynote at the 2020 leadership conference titled “One by One.” Salty Earth Pictures recently released the motion picture One by One in hopes of sharing the encouragement of lives touched for eternity by each one of us, one by one.
