For anyone who has been in the church for any period of time, there are certain fads or buzzwords that come along where everyone gets excited and decides to try it out because it will revolutionize your ministry or give you confidence into the new year. They remain popular for a small period of time until the next “new thing” comes along to market.
There is a word making its move in Christian circles that I think has the potential to be a fad or buzzword, but I hope will not be the “next great thing for the church,” but take us back to what it means to be the Body of Christ; intergenerational.
It’s important if you are reading this that you understand the difference between multi-generational and intergenerational. Several communities often think they have an intergenerational community because people of all different ages are in the same area together. When you walk into these places what you often see is yes, in fact there are people of all ages, but none of them are talking or interacting with one another. That makes it multi-generational.
While there are several ways to begin understanding what an intergenerational community looks like, one of the biggest things you will often find is that people of all ages are sharing life in different ways and in different spaces together. It may be in a mission trip geared for all ages, youth and children’s events where families are participating together, and small groups or Sunday school classes with families or people of all ages studying the Word together just to name a few.
I would move that intergenerational approaches to ministry encompass partnership with families to help motivate and encourage parents or guardians to see themselves as the primary models of spiritual formation. Yet that also includes inviting the children to speak into the lives of parents or guardians as well.
This even takes on life when investments are made in older generations in our congregations to see themselves as vital contributors as well. An intergenerational church does it part when they are inviting older generations into unique roles with families, kids, babies, college students, and youth that it extends beyond just asking them for prayer and money.
If there is one thing that I believe that can help keep intergenerational from just being the next fad or buzzword in Christian circles, it’s a deep commitment to the time it will take to communicate, educate, and walk alongside people to whom this involves. That’d be all of us. Something I recently read said you can’t think of this in terms of days or months, but several years. When we think about it in those ways, it’s possible we’ll live through 2-3 new Christian fads that “every church needs to try now.”
God help us to be reflections of this and be reminded that it’s by your Spirit and in you alone where transformation is made possible. We’re merely vessels in that journey.
You’re loved.
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