Intergenerational is not something churches do—it’s something they become.
—Brad M. Griffin, Intergenerational Ministry: Beyond the Rhetoric
Look around. Are there two or more generations in your congregation? Congratulations—you’re an intergenerational family! (If you are a one-generation church, look around again—this time around your community. With whom might you partner locally to connect with another generation?)
Look in. Just as it’s possible for a family or roommates to share a dwelling but never actually interact in meaningful ways with one another, it’s possible for a multigenerational church family to learn, serve, and worship together without developing meaningful relationships with one another. Becoming an intergenerational church requires intentionality. It involves cultivating a church culture in which faith is nurtured and relationships are fostered as all ages learn and grow, serve, and worship together.
Holly Catterton Allen and Christine Lawton Ross describe an intentionally intergenerational community this way: Truly intergenerational communities welcome children, emerging adults, recovering addicts, single adults, widows, single parents, teens whose parents are not around, the elderly, those in crisis, empty nesters and struggling parents of young children into a safe but challenging place to be formed into the image of Christ.
—The Benefits of Intergenerationality, p. 22
Micah, a child from First CRC in Denver, Colorado, describes it like this: “[It’s] when I teach the old people and the old people teach me.”
The following resources have been selected to support you in doing all of the above.
