One of the goals Authentic LA has had over the years is to intentionally create a variety of venues where people can come together and learn from each other. One of the most effective ways we have done this is through monthly gatherings in homes. In this context, people representing different generations will be present to socialize and participate in an interactive event.
One year during the winter season, we hosted Christmas Karaoke. It was a themed party where those in our ministry came together to celebrate the incarnation and partake in some traditional Mexican drinks & desserts. As the evening progressed, an XBox 360 transformed the living room into a virtual Karaoke club. After the order by which everyone would sing was set, it was fun to see students choosing to sing contemporary songs, while others chose to bring back some old school jams. This brought up some great interaction between everyone, and a true bonding experience took place in just a few short an hours.
In the end, events such as this serve to provide informal opportunities for people to connect and learn from each other. Seemingly random conversations are sparked as the night passes by. Relationships are then strengthened over time. It is not unusual to see a student take the initiative to add a retiree as a friend on Facebook that night. In the coming weeks friendships will begin to take shape as we continue to provide opportunities to spend time together in community.
Building off my previous Slant 33 post, I view myself as a facilitator, whether that is through the formal mentoring program we run, the small groups we offer, or the community building events we host. I am trying to be someone who is known for connecting those people who need to know each other.
Even though intergenerational approaches to ministry are not new, many churches are now (re)entering this conversation and wondering how they might draw everyone together toward shared vision and spiritual growth. Though slow moving for most congregations, the pendulum is swinging away from highly segmented, top-down approaches to faith formation and toward equipping families and smaller groups to be hubs of spiritual growth.
I think a small step in the direction of intergenerational ministry has been the movement toward integrated teaching and curriculum. Many churches are moving toward presenting the same teaching content across all of their segmented ministries. Churches introduce a teaching series or curriculum that presents the same topic or Bible text to be studied across all ages in Sunday school, small groups, and taught in worship gatherings. While I do think this is a beneficial approach in creating shared vision and experience, I wonder if it really helps foster much conversation or connection across multiple ages.
On the more extreme end of intergenerational ministry are family-centered or family-integrated churches with a focus on the role of parents discipling their children. This growing movement denounces any age-segmented gatherings or classes and spurred a documentary called Divided the Movie, which attempts to build a case about how age-separated ministries, especially youth ministries, are unbiblical. Though thought provoking, the negativity of this film seemed unhelpful and divisive. I think peer groups for learning and community still (and may always) have a valid place in the church. Moreover, most churches will not be able to see a bridge between their current structures and a completely family-centered intergenerational approach.
Intergenerational ministry must flow out of the fabric of the values of a congregation. It must be a culture. It cannot just be a program to help retain and indoctrinate younger attenders.
In my congregation, intergenerational ministry’s strongest showing is through the unstructured support provided by adults–especially non-parents–toward the children and youth. When I attend a play or a recital for one of the youth from my church, I always see other adults who are there to show support. These are not youth leaders or teachers–they are friends and mentors who want to show their support and care. Intergenerational life is natural to us. Time after time I have heard graduating seniors remark that they feel overwhelmingly supported and accepted by their church family.
This unstructured support and relationships flows into structured involvement. New teenagers are given the opportunity to choose a mentor from the congregation. Structure is provided for the ongoing relationship, but it almost always flows out of a connection with an adult that has been growing for years prior. Many of the leadership groups of the church, including our recent pastoral search committee, have teenagers as equal members serving on them. Every Sunday, children and youth are involved in the service lighting candles, reading Scripture, sharing joys and concerns, and ushering. It is a blessing to see a congregation that has worked to develop an environment where people of every age feel they are an equal part of something bigger than themselves.
For many of us in North America, these ideas seem strange or idealistic. If you are like me, many of your experiences with intergenerational church ministry has felt awkward or forced. Youth’s involvement in church services and ministry often comes across as a token showcase of talents, accomplishments, or piety to sooth parental angst. The importance of intergenerational ministry is more than just reaching youth or creating another category of programs. It is vital to helping people grow and thrive in their faith for the long haul.
Wouldn’t it be great to find the youth ministry silver bullet?
As we were planning our College Transition Project six years ago1, our Fuller Youth Institute research team hoped to find the youth ministry silver bullet—the one thing youth workers could do that would virtually guarantee sticky faith, meaning the one thing that would develop long-term faith in students. We hoped to find one element of youth ministry programming that would be significantly related to higher faith maturity in students.
We haven’t found that silver bullet. While small groups, mentoring, justice work, leadership, and a host of other youth ministry programs are important, the reality is that kids, ministry programs, and spiritual development are far more complicated than just one silver bullet.
But here’s one thing that stands out in our sticky faith research as critically important to students’ faith development: intergenerational relationships. As we have empirically studied students as well as networked with churches across the country, we think the future of youth ministry is intergenerational.
We need to make an important distinction. There is a difference between multigenerational ministry and intergenerational ministry. Multigenerational is when folks of different ages are in the same meeting space. But just being in the same space doesn’t mean relationships are being built. Intergenerational ministry happens when folks start sharing verbally with each other and ultimately share life together.
Some churches are taking baby steps toward intergenerational ministry, like pairing high school seniors with senior adults in senior-to-senior mentoring programs, or creating annual intergenerational traditions.
Other churches are taking medium steps, like planning intergenerational mission trips, empowering parents to help their kids connect with other adults, or changing their job titles to reflect a renewed commitment to connecting teenagers with the overall church (i.e., replacing the term high school pastor with the term minister of student integration).
Still other churches are taking large leaps and cancelling youth Sunday school (especially if they also have a youth midweek meeting) and integrating teenagers into the overall life of the church. They are championing what my good friend and colleague Dr. Chap Clark calls 5:1 ministry. In 5:1 ministry, every teenager is surrounded by five adults who pray for them, support them in tangible ways, and communicate that they are on that teenager’s team.
As meaningful as these steps are for the teenagers involved, what’s been as encouraging is to hear how churches are transformed as adults rub shoulders with children and teenagers. As one youth leader told me, “We knew moving toward intergenerational ministry would be good for our students. What’s surprised us is how valuable it’s been for our church.”
1The College Transition Project is a culmination of six years of study of 500 youth group kids as they transition to college, including two three-year longitudinal studies and two interview studies. The goals of this research are to offer help to parents, leaders and churches in building a faith that lasts, or sticky faith. See StickyFaith.org for more details.
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