The proposed project will investigate how the church can meaningfully address the spiritual and practical care needs of families affected by Alzheimer’s disease. In some ways, pastors and church communities are well situated to help meet these unique needs, but in other ways the church is inadequately prepared to understand and address these needs. This project takes an important first step toward bridging the gap between families affected by Alzheimer’s disease and the churches who seek to minister to them. Interviews and focus groups will be conducted with pastors and families affected by Alzheimer’s disease to (1) better understand the spiritual needs associated with the experience of Alzheimer’s disease and (2) to identify knowledge gaps and training needs among pastors and other ministry leaders. The results of this study will be disseminated through a book entitled The Second Forgetting (to be published by Zondervan) which will describe an approach to understanding and caring for the spiritual needs of older adults with Alzheimer’s disease and their families by integrating the results of the interviews and focus groups with recent research on Alzheimer’s disease and a Biblical perspective on life, death, and personhood.