Equip and deploy your Encore community with purposeful direction

Encore for Churches

The Transition to Retirement Is a Discipleship Opportunity

Most churches are intentional about discipling people in every stage of life—
marriage, parenting, career, even seasons of hardship.

But one of the most significant transitions people experience often goes largely unaddressed.

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Retirement is one of the top ten most stressful events in life. Why?

Some people stay busy, but lack direction.
Others begin to feel a loss of purpose they didn’t expect. Defining identity without a business card. There is a new definition of work after career.
Many simply aren’t sure what faithful living looks like in this stage of life.

This is a key discipleship opportunity for your congregation.

It’s an opportunity to help people think clearly about their calling, their relationships, and how they want to continue investing their lives for the sake of the gospel. We’d love to come alongside you and help you do that.

A couple walking hand in hand on a city sidewalk, with other pedestrians in the background.

As people move into retirement, there are new questions to be answered:

What are they moving toward, not just stepping away from?
What does meaningful contribution look like now?
How do we help them stay engaged in purposeful ways?
What does spiritual growth look like in this season?
How can the church walk with them through it?

These are important questions—and many churches are still figuring out how to answer them well.

A presenter stands in front of a room full of seated audience members during a conference or seminar in a bright, spacious room with a large window and exposed wooden beams on the ceiling.

How Encore Comes Alongside Churches

Andrew partners with churches to lead conversations around the transition into retirement.

Each gathering includes teaching, guided reflection, and discussion, helping people think more clearly about how their time is changing, what matters most, and how they want to move forward in this season.

For leaders, it provides a structured way to engage this stage of life without having to build something from the ground up, while also creating a shared framework for ongoing discipleship.

What This Can Look Like in Your Church

People sitting at a wooden table engaged in a discussion, with notebooks and a pen visible, in a bright room with large windows.

Renewed Vision

Help leaders recognize retirement as one of life's most significant transitions-and one of the church's greatest discipleship opportunities. Introduce the core ideas of Encore through a seminar for congregants.

A notebook with lined pages and a black pen resting on it is on a table. A partially filled plastic water bottle is behind the notebook. The table appears to be in a well-lit room, with a dark background.

Equipped for Service

Provide practical next steps through curriculum, regular programming, marriage-in-retirement seminars, spiritual gifts and Working Genius assessments, and Encore coaching.

A woman with shoulder-length gray hair and a dark blue shirt engaging in conversation with a person whose back is facing the camera. They are sitting at a table in a modern room with large glass windows and natural light.

Deployed to Disciple

Mobilize adults to invest in mentoring, ministry, hospitality, service, and mission-inside and outside the church. Encore is not a season of disengagement, but of faithful deployment.

Get started

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Encouraged in Community

Provide intentional and relational care, support, and feedback to encourage ongoing engagement.

Celebrating Fruitfulness

Share stories of God's faithfulness and fruitfulness in the Encore years. Testimonies inspire others, reinforce a culture of purpose, and remind the church that God is still at work through every generation.

Hear more about how Encore can help impact those in your church who are entering or adjusting to retirement:

An elderly man with glasses and a white beard sitting on a beige armchair, wearing a striped shirt and a navy vest, in a room with artwork of black floral silhouettes on the wall behind him.

“If you're a church leader, I would just encourage you to ask yourself: am I really preparing people for retirement and am I challenging those that have retired to lead a legacy of not only faith, but of how they're going to serve God in the future?”

-Drew T.

Meet Andrew

Director of Life Planning & Retirement Coaching

Andrew spent more than 20 years serving on church staffs, including 17 years at First Evangelical Church of Memphis.

Much of that time was spent walking with people through meaningful transitions—helping them think clearly about their lives, their faith, and how God was at work in changing seasons.

That background continues to shape the way he approaches this work.

He understands the rhythms of church life, the responsibility of shepherding people well, and the desire to see every stage of life connected to growth, purpose, and the mission of the church.

Encore is simply an extension of that same calling—helping churches care for people as they step into a season that often raises new and important questions.

A smiling man with a bald head and a white beard, wearing a navy blue blazer and a blue checkered shirt, standing indoors with a blurred background.

Let’s begin the conversation

If this sounds like a good fit for your church, the best place to begin is a simple conversation.

You can share a little about your context, what you’re seeing in your congregation, and any questions you may have. Andrew will follow up personally to continue the conversation and help you think through what might be a good fit.

There’s no need to have a plan in place. This is simply a place to begin.