Sandpoint, Idaho is becoming known for more than its stunning natural beauty and for being the headquarters of the Coldwater Creek clothing retailer. It’s also becoming a great place to age in community’ and provides a model for churches to expand intergenerational connections and ministries.You’ve heard the phrase ‘age in place.’ Pastor Dave Olson and the congregation of Luther Park of Sandpoint is looking at that phrase a bit more broadly. They just opened Luther Park of Sandpoint, a congregational senior housing community that is physically connected to First Lutheran Church. The new community was developed by Ecumen and is managed by Ecumen.It is designed as a ‘catered living’ community, so that a person can move in and simply add a la carte services as he or she needs them rather than having to relocate. It also has memory care and enhanced care services, so that the person can stay in the community when he or she needs more intensive care.Pastor Olson, in a recent interview with the Bonner County Daily Bee newspaper shared these thoughts:

‘One of my goals was that this would not be an elder ghetto,’ Olson said. ‘Too often, our elders are separated from the rest of society. We’re overlapping our seniors with the First Lutheran Church preschool program and we’ve designed this [Luther Park] so it can be used for public events, concerts and recitals as a way to bring the community inside.’At the same time, the church community is growing as new residents move in. An indoor causeway physically connects Luther Park and the First Lutheran Church. While churches around the world wring their hands over the impact of aging congregations, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, at least, appears to see the movement as the crest of a wave, not the end of an era.’There’s a lot of research showing that, given the chance, Baby Boomers would embrace the church again,’ Olson said. ‘What we’ve done here is unique. There are very few senior-housing facilities where the church is attached. Instead of a service that’s held Sunday afternoons in the dining room, our residents are able to walk next door with no ice to deal with and no coats, to participate in a ‘real’ church service. That’s very meaningful to them.’

Luther Park: where aging is all about living.