Supporting caregivers. Honoring seniors. Empowering churches.
The church already knows how to care. We help it reach the people it's missing.
Seniors who stop coming on Sunday, the husbands and wives caring for each other at home, and the sons and daughters quietly carrying a parent are often the least visible people in a congregation. bēkn works alongside pastors to build ministries that see them.
We invite you
Five things you can do here.
Whether you lead a church, care for someone, or want to help, there's a next step for you.
The problem we see
Caregiving pulls families out of church right when they need it most.
A wife becomes her husband's nurse. An aging parent moves in, or moves into memory care. Sunday becomes the hardest morning of the week. The family drifts, and nobody notices because nobody is looking for them.
Unpaid family members and friends in the United States provide care to an older adult.
Figure as published on bekn.org. Source to be cited.Share of care for older adults that comes from unpaid family and friends, not paid providers.
Figure as published on bekn.org. Source to be cited.The typical caregiver is a working mother in her mid-forties, caring for a widowed mother in her late sixties while raising her own children.
Caregiver profile as described on bekn.org.What bēkn does
Three ways we work with a congregation.
Each church chooses the mix that fits its people. Nothing is one-size-fits-all.
Hands-on ministry launch
We sit down with pastoral leadership, assess what the congregation already has, and help launch or expand a seniors ministry that includes caregiving families.
Decision-making & caregiving workshops
Practical sessions on the conversations families avoid: wishes for later life, illness, accident, and end-of-life planning, grounded in Scripture.
Ministry to the ministers
Care and renewal for the pastors and volunteers who carry everyone else.
In development
Why a beacon
A beacon warns, guides, and celebrates.
That is the whole mission in three words. We warn churches about the growing needs of seniors and family caregivers in their pews. We guide and equip church families to care for one another. And we celebrate the years of our aging loved ones, because gray hair is a crown of glory.
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.”
James 1:27From the resource library
Start here.
Get involved
Pray. Help. Give.
bēkn is small and local, and it runs on volunteers, prayer, and gifts of any size. Donations go through The Generosity Trust and are tax deductible.
