If I asked you what comes to mind when you hear the word “intergenerational”, what would you say?
What experiences come to mind?
And do those experiences give you good feelings or make you cringe?
The youth band play a song twenty decibels louder than anyone’s used to, the organist plays a 19th century hymn, there’s an exuberant kids song involving actions, and then twenty-five minutes of solid exegesis for the adults… Or perhaps it's an interactive gathering with kids activities, a lot of playdough and too much glitter?
But how we can best support and grow intergenerational faith communities? How can we provide opportunities for connection and relationship building across the generations, where every generation is valued, discipled, and equipped to live out the gospel in their own life stage?
Over the years, I have had the privilege of being a part of a number of different church communities. I grew up in a very traditional church in an village in England, went to London for university and discovered a world of student churches and young adult congregations. After a few years of being surrounded by my peers, I then found myself in a church in south London, with a mix of ages, cultures and stories.
It was a church that was nearly closed down, when the congregation numbers dwindled to a handful of people. But with the faithful prayers of four Caribbean grannies, it was brought back to life. Those women were remarkable prayer warriors, praying for generations to find a home in that church - and they did. They prayed so passionately that they broke through floorboards!
The church is one of the few places in the community where you get so many different generations in one place.
How often have we gone to church and sat next to a retired grandfather, a civil servant, a student, a preschooler, a young mum, or an empty nester? The gift of being a part of churches here in Aotearoa New Zealand is that we often encounter many generations of the same family in one church. It's not uncommon for grandparents, parents and children to worship in the same faith community.
Have a think about your church. Do you have a spread of ages, or only a few generations?
You might be thinking, well we’ve got lots of ages in our church - so we must be intergenerational, right?
This is where only one generation is present. Imagine a midweek service where there mainly tend to be senior citizens attending - that might be a monogenerational group. Or a midweek student bible study. Often it's a group with peers, friends who are the same age and stage.
This can be a great group to be a part of, and a much needed place for mutual support and friendship - but it's not intergenerational.
These groups are where there are two generations present.
So perhaps this is a youth group, where you have teenagers gathering together and young adults serving as leaders. Or perhaps a preschool music group where you have toddlers and adults present.
Multigenerational congregations are groups where there are multiple generations present in one space, but there is little interaction or engagement between them.
Many of our Sunday church services will be multigenerational.
There might be people of different ages in the same service, but often we don’t really interact much with each other, or the service doesn’t offer any opportunities for connection or discussion.
Holly Catterton Allen and Christine Ross, two well known authors and academics, describe how intergenerational ministry occurs when a congregation intentionally brings the generations together in mutual serving, sharing or learning within the core activities of the church, in order to live out being the body of Christ to each other and the whole community.
Beth Waldron Anstice, an Australian speaker says it's about “facilitating, hosting and celebrating the shared life and connections of all and any generations together – in ways that disempower generational divisions, and more wholly embodying the call to live as God’s reconciled people in the Kingdom of God.”
Notice how these definitions don’t say: “Its about the kids”. Or “make everything kid friendly”. Or “Just put everyone in the same room and see what happens”.
Intergenerational ministry says we are better together than when we are apart.
If you’ve been in the children and families space for a while, you’ll have seen that there are books, conferences and workshops about intergenerational ministry. I’m often asked if it’s just the latest fad in children’s ministry – maybe it's just the hot topic of the moment.
The renewed interest in intergenerational ministry globally is underpinned by a growing body of research that affirms intergenerational connections as key to sustainable, long-term faith formation and discipleship.
It’s not just something we care about here in the Anglican Church. It’s been something all our New Zealand churches are engaging with.
If this has whet your appetite to find out more about intergenerational ministry, then there are some key texts I’d recommend you should get your hands on.
Intergenerational Christian Formation (2012) by Holly Catterton Allen and Christine Ross, has become the most influential pieces of writing on this subject, as well as books like Intergenerate (2018) edited by Catterton Allen, and A Gospel for All Ages (2022) by David Csinos. I’ve also made a free class in partnership with Discipleship Pathway called Intergenerational Communities, where this content is coming from!
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
We have invited these writers to share their experiences, ideas and opinions in the hope that these will provoke thought, challenge you to go deeper and inspire you to put your faith into action. These articles should not be taken as the official view of the Nelson Diocese on any particular matter.
If I asked you what comes to mind when you hear the word “intergenerational”, what would you say?
What experiences come to mind?
And do those experiences give you good feelings or make you cringe?
The youth band play a song twenty decibels louder than anyone’s used to, the organist plays a 19th century hymn, there’s an exuberant kids song involving actions, and then twenty-five minutes of solid exegesis for the adults… Or perhaps it's an interactive gathering with kids activities, a lot of playdough and too much glitter?
But how we can best support and grow intergenerational faith communities? How can we provide opportunities for connection and relationship building across the generations, where every generation is valued, discipled, and equipped to live out the gospel in their own life stage?
Over the years, I have had the privilege of being a part of a number of different church communities. I grew up in a very traditional church in an village in England, went to London for university and discovered a world of student churches and young adult congregations. After a few years of being surrounded by my peers, I then found myself in a church in south London, with a mix of ages, cultures and stories.
It was a church that was nearly closed down, when the congregation numbers dwindled to a handful of people. But with the faithful prayers of four Caribbean grannies, it was brought back to life. Those women were remarkable prayer warriors, praying for generations to find a home in that church - and they did. They prayed so passionately that they broke through floorboards!
The church is one of the few places in the community where you get so many different generations in one place.
How often have we gone to church and sat next to a retired grandfather, a civil servant, a student, a preschooler, a young mum, or an empty nester? The gift of being a part of churches here in Aotearoa New Zealand is that we often encounter many generations of the same family in one church. It's not uncommon for grandparents, parents and children to worship in the same faith community.
Have a think about your church. Do you have a spread of ages, or only a few generations?
You might be thinking, well we’ve got lots of ages in our church - so we must be intergenerational, right?
This is where only one generation is present. Imagine a midweek service where there mainly tend to be senior citizens attending - that might be a monogenerational group. Or a midweek student bible study. Often it's a group with peers, friends who are the same age and stage.
This can be a great group to be a part of, and a much needed place for mutual support and friendship - but it's not intergenerational.
These groups are where there are two generations present.
So perhaps this is a youth group, where you have teenagers gathering together and young adults serving as leaders. Or perhaps a preschool music group where you have toddlers and adults present.
Multigenerational congregations are groups where there are multiple generations present in one space, but there is little interaction or engagement between them.
Many of our Sunday church services will be multigenerational.
There might be people of different ages in the same service, but often we don’t really interact much with each other, or the service doesn’t offer any opportunities for connection or discussion.
Holly Catterton Allen and Christine Ross, two well known authors and academics, describe how intergenerational ministry occurs when a congregation intentionally brings the generations together in mutual serving, sharing or learning within the core activities of the church, in order to live out being the body of Christ to each other and the whole community.
Beth Waldron Anstice, an Australian speaker says it's about “facilitating, hosting and celebrating the shared life and connections of all and any generations together – in ways that disempower generational divisions, and more wholly embodying the call to live as God’s reconciled people in the Kingdom of God.”
Notice how these definitions don’t say: “Its about the kids”. Or “make everything kid friendly”. Or “Just put everyone in the same room and see what happens”.
Intergenerational ministry says we are better together than when we are apart.
If you’ve been in the children and families space for a while, you’ll have seen that there are books, conferences and workshops about intergenerational ministry. I’m often asked if it’s just the latest fad in children’s ministry – maybe it's just the hot topic of the moment.
The renewed interest in intergenerational ministry globally is underpinned by a growing body of research that affirms intergenerational connections as key to sustainable, long-term faith formation and discipleship.
It’s not just something we care about here in the Anglican Church. It’s been something all our New Zealand churches are engaging with.
If this has whet your appetite to find out more about intergenerational ministry, then there are some key texts I’d recommend you should get your hands on.
Intergenerational Christian Formation (2012) by Holly Catterton Allen and Christine Ross, has become the most influential pieces of writing on this subject, as well as books like Intergenerate (2018) edited by Catterton Allen, and A Gospel for All Ages (2022) by David Csinos. I’ve also made a free class in partnership with Discipleship Pathway called Intergenerational Communities, where this content is coming from!
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
