Introduction
“It takes a village to raise a child” states the well-known African proverb. And just who is in this village? People of all ages with varied gifts and interests … and each one of them is important, directly or indirectly, in the development of each child.
It’s no different in the Christian congregation. Intergenerational Ministry is all about getting people mixing across the generations in our prime vocation of passing on the faith and making disciples. Sure, it’s great and appropriate to organise times for youth to hang out together, children to enjoy creative crafts and elderly people to share with each other how life is going for them. But blessings also flow when the generations get all mixed up and interact together – this needs to be encouraged and supported in our congregations.
We already have one fantastic, regular Intergenerational Event – Worship! Children, babies, youth, elderly, grandparents, parents, singles – we all gain from each other as we worship together every Sunday. There’s enough in Intergenerational worship for another whole article!
Our congregations also have a great, untapped resource: people with “snow on the roof”. Studies of American demographics (Martinson 2006) show that congregations generally have a much higher percentage of people in the last third of life (aged over 60) than what occurs in general society.
Our current culture, with its focus on the new and the modern and the latest fad, devalues our seniors and their accumulated wisdom. Many other cultures think differently. Elders are respected and their wisdom is sought after. In our congregations we have a wealth of this wisdom on hand – specifically at Knox 53% and at Ringwood 43% of our members are over 60 (in 2008). The Christian church is no stranger to being counter-cultural, so let’s tap in!
What does the research say?
A key study by the Search Institute on “Effective Christian Education” (Benson & Eklin 1990) created a questionnaire to indicate maturity of faith, which they defined as: “The degree to which persons exhibit a vibrant, life-transforming faith marked by both a deep, personal relationship to a loving God and a consistent devotion to serving others.” (p9)
Sadly, amongst the 18 major conclusions of the study, the authors noted that “Only a minority of Protestant adults evidence the kind of integrated, vibrant, and life-encompassing faith congregations seek to develop. For most adults, faith is under-developed, lacking some of the key elements necessary for faith maturity.” (p3)
Later in the study it is pointed out that “For more than two-thirds of adults, faith lacks a strong vertical component [having a deep, personal relationship with a loving God], a strong horizontal component [translating this personal affirmation into acts of love, mercy, and justice], or both. This finding presents congregations with an enormous challenge. And the challenge is even greater in their ministry to men, for whom a fully integrated faith maturity is relatively uncommon.” (p16)
But there is good news too: “Maturity of faith is strongly linked to age, increasing with each successive decade, and is most likely to be found among those over 70.” (p3)
Consider some of the principles of intergenerational ministry along with this research:
- Faith is formed by the power of the Holy Spirit through personal, trusted relationships.
- Faith is caught more than it is taught.
- If we want Christian children and youth, we need Christian adults and parents.
We certainly need our people with the greatest faith maturity involved in the work of passing on the faith! We need the generations to mingle and let their faith ‘rub off’ onto each other.
Intergenerational Mixing
Intergenerational Ministry seeks to get generations mixing and encouraging each other in the faith. In the summary of this study’s report, a rich picture is painted of what authentic, intergenerational sharing could look like:
Those with the greatest faith maturity--ages 70 and older--are an underutilized resource who should be connected in a meaningful, relational way to children, adolescents, and younger adults. Given the power of family religiousness on the faith development of youth, priority should be given to the faith formation of parents and the teaching of faith development skills. Given the importance of faith maturity for teachers, a major challenge is to pay significant attention to the faith formation of those who teach and lead. And Christian educators can--both through their own work and their interaction with other congregational leaders--support, nurture, and promote a congregational climate marked by warmth and "thinking."
The experience of serving others, through acts of mercy, compassion, or the promotion of social justice, is an important influence on the deepening of faith. The research evidence suggests that many youth and adults are uninvolved in such actions. Some of the best religious education occurs in these moments of giving, of connection, of bonding to others. Service needs to be a cornerstone of educational programming, partly because it is educationally-rich, and ultimately because, as people of faith, we are called to serve. (pp 65,66)
Can you picture what such a congregation, full of adults mature in the faith and seeking to share their faith with others, looks like? Little time is wasted on complaints about how ‘nothing suits me’ and ‘no one looks after me’. Instead, everyone is deeply engaged in the journey of building relationships and nurturing faith. Over-70’s are sharing their faith maturity with children and youth, everyone is involved in quality Christian education for children and adults – as provider or receiver or hopefully both, faith discussions in families are common, the church has an atmosphere of welcome and acceptance of other’s tastes as well as warmth and thinking, children are learning by being involved in service to others. And, if the research is to be believed, many more of the children in this congregation grow into a mature adult faith than the number that turn away from their faith.
Everyone matters in the truly integrated congregation. Directly or indirectly, we are all part of passing the faith on to the next generation. Families need help in taking back this important vocation, as well as support from other adults. Historically, the influence of parents was complemented by adult mentors from the extended family and Godparents. These days, geographical distance makes that less likely, so families need the mature adults in our congregations to be those mentors.
A big part of passing on the faith happens when children learn about faith from adults, but it’s not all one way – there are many things that children can teach adults about faith and trust and joy! As Jesus said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3 NIV)
We certainly see the delight many adults take in the comments from the children in the children’s address Sunday by Sunday. In fact, studies in America have shown that when an aged care facility shares a location with a children's day care centre the use of anti-depressants amongst the elderly drops dramatically. Children represent hope for the future. An intergenerational congregation knows that children are people of faith who bring blessings to the kingdom, too!
Growing to maturity in faith is not just about being formally involved in Sunday School or Bible studies or learning from sermons either:
Although we find that the quality of formal Christian education is powerful, a case can also be made for the power of informal education. In congregational life, people learn the faith in a variety of ways. Often it comes through informal patterns of interaction. Thus we note that warmth, caring, and service, in combination, contribute to growth and loyalty. (p42)
Faith is caught more than it is taught! We cannot help but share our faith as we mix with others … all the more reason to seek opportunities to mature our faith.
“I got grandkids!”
Rollie Martinson, during the Faith that Sticks conference in January 2006 (Martinson 2006), said that people often ask him: “Aren’t you going to retire soon? What are you doing fussing with kids at age 63? You ought to be getting ready to go lay on a beach somewhere.” His reply to them was: “My belly is so full of this, because I’m a guy in Christ and I got grandkids!”
Picture: Benjamin Earwicker
In Deuteronomy 6:1-9, God gives clear instructions for this task of passing on faith ‘so that you and your children and your children’s children’ remain in God’s love. Rollie pointed out that we’re not ‘all done’ when our children are grown up! God commands us to still be involved in passing on the faith to the generation after – our children’s children. “Snow on the roof” grandparents can still be an incredible influence in the lives of their grandchildren. Don’t be fooled by the culture that says that ‘oldies’ and children don’t mix. This is a lie promoted by advertising stereotypes and, sadly, has been accepted by many people in the church. You can build caring relationships with your grandchildren, and with other children and young people.
“Make disciples of all nations,” Jesus commands us. Sometimes we forget that all nations means our own as well; in fact we’re called to make disciples within our very own congregations and even our own families!
What about those with limited access to grandchildren? There are no easy answers for grandparents who wish to be involved but who are turned away. Dealing with this will take a lot of patience, love and wisdom. Always remember that prayer is one avenue of involvement in your grandchild’s life that can never be taken away from you. It is a mighty thing through which God acts according to his promises, to break through the barriers and structures that keep people from him. So when active involvement with your grandkids is limited, prayer is your first and most powerful ally.
What about my congregation?
Can my congregation become one that grows the majority of its members to maturity of faith? The research says that there’s nothing holding you back!
Note that denomination, size, and region matter less for faith and loyalty than the dynamics of congregational life. This is important news because denomination, size, and region cannot be altered. All of the congregational factors that do matter are alterable. Hence, any congregation — regardless of demographics — has the potential to increase its impact on faith and loyalty. (p38)
Research shows that being a particular size or denomination matter far less than the quality of Christian education and a climate of warmth and thinking.
During the Faith that Sticks conference, Rollie Martinson took us on another research journey into a recent study on what sets apart congregations with “Exemplary Youth Ministry”. Their criteria for deeming a youth ministry “exemplary” was not size – the smallest church studied had only 27 members at worship – but do these churches consistently produce young people with a mature faith? In the congregations studied, a staggering 75 to 85% of baptised members remain engaged in the life of the church – an amazing contrast to common experience of up to 75% of baptised members drifting away.
The researchers thought that an amazingly resourced youth program would be behind the ‘success’ of these congregations in nurturing mature young Christians. Instead, they uncovered the importance of ministry to young people being integrated into the full life of the congregation:
Public church, the congregation itself, is more critical to youth ministry, to children’s ministry, to nurturing faith in the first third of life, than any specialised peer ministry. Because faith is caught more than it’s taught, it’s passed on in relationships, and it’s in this culture (and we’ll see more broadly what that looks like) that that faith is caught and passed on in relationships. (Martinson 2006)
The study resulted in a list of 44 Faith Assets™ that are “Contributors to Mature Faith in Youth” (Martinson, 2005). The first 22 of these assets are to do with the culture of the congregation itself before even looking at providing a specialised youth ministry. Rollie pointed out that no one congregation will have all of these assets present but that:
… when a certain concentration of these assets comes to what we’re calling the tipping point, a culture is created in a congregation that becomes exceedingly influential in shaping the life and faith of a young person. (Martinson 2006)
What does this culture look like? Among the assets prevalent in these congregations are the faith maturity of the members, affirmation for youth and children from the Pastor, the tone of the congregation itself in the way it demonstrates hospitality, strives for excellence, promotes worship, encourages thinking and genuinely values its young people. The specific aspects of faith maturity highlighted are the sense of God’s living presence and the centrality of faith, prayer, discipleship, scripture and mission (witness and service). There is nothing startlingly new or different here to what God has been calling his people to for centuries and, yet, it is so influential in forming faith in the next generation:
One of the prime characteristics of those congregations that are so effective in passing faith on to the next generation is the faith maturity of the congregation. (Martinson 2006)
Rollie highlighted the importance of being an integrated, maturing congregation:
What we’re making an argument for, … from the research, is that this public church is truly an inclusive, intergenerational body of Christ, called-out people of God, from the very earliest time in the life of Christians, and that, rather than these ministries [youth, Sunday School] be off on the side, young people – whether 3 years of age, or 13, or 18, or whatever – become an integrated part of the church itself.
And that secondly, there might be some specialised age level ministries, but those age level ministries – like a mission trip, or a Bible study, or a children’s choir – be integrated into the very heart of the life of the congregation itself.
Thirdly, that what goes on here [church body] particularly focus on developing the faith maturity of adults so that the life of the congregation, with young people integrated, becomes a place where faith, as it’s maturing, is modelled for children, and these adults go back out to be leaders in their homes, such that these homes become places where mature faith lifestyle is regularly modelled for the children and a partnership develops between home and congregation and the congregation itself works to enhance the capacity, equip a mum, a dad, a grandpa or grandma, to be able to pass on and nurture the faith here [at home]. (Martinson 2006)
This is no quick fix solution. Rollie estimated that the journey towards a truly integrated congregation, that deeply impacts the nurturing of faith in our children and young people, takes 5 to 7 years of development work.
How can I help?
Marva Dawn, a modern Christian writer, comments that these days people are not formed by the faith, they are formed by the culture around them because that’s the stronger influence. With it’s materialism, consumerism and general “ME”-ism, our current culture is not a pretty sight! It’s timely for us to look at how we can reverse this trend and be formed by our faith instead.
Our whole life of faith is a continual journey of growing in our relationship with God and growing in our love for others. A lifetime of regular worship, receiving Jesus’ body and blood in Holy Communion, listening to sermons, receiving God’s forgiveness Sunday by Sunday, participating in Bible study alone and with others, daily prayer, will all allow the Holy Spirit to do the work of maturing our faith and influencing what we pass onto others.
For the average Australian Lutheran, putting aside time to study God’s word is something many of us find hard to do. Finding a way to spend time with God in our busy lifestyles is a challenge but a worthwhile one – time you spend with God is never wasted and he is always ready and waiting for us!
"I stand at the door and knock," says the Lord.
What a wonderful privilege that the Lord of all creation
desires to come to me.
I welcome God's presence. —Sacred Space (viewed April 2008)
Overall, for the practicing Christian, moving towards an intergenerational approach doesn’t mean great sweeping changes – perhaps just growing in awareness that your faith maturity matters! It’s an important, vital part of building up the body of Christ. As you mature, even as you head into the last third of life with ‘snow on the roof’ – and especially as you do so – your influence on the faith of others in your congregation and your family is crucial. It’s a key part in our God-given vocation of passing on the faith to the next generation.
See also:
- Introduction to Intergenerational Ministry: A brief history
- Intergenerational Worship: Why it matters
- Resources for studying God’s Word listed on our Devotions and Bible pages
References:
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Benson, Peter L., & Eklin, Carolyn H. (1990), Effective Christian education: A national study of Protestant congregations - A summary report on faith, loyalty, and congregational life. Minneapolis: Search Institute. (View online at http://www.search-institute.org/congregations/ece_summary_report.pdf [PDF file 3.61MB])
Martinson, Roland (2006), Faith that Sticks Conference: Growing disciples through home and church. Set of audio CDs.
Martinson, Roland et al (2005), Exemplary Youth Ministry in Congregations: Faith Assets™—Contributors to Mature Faith in Youth, Exemplary Youth Ministry, St. Paul, Minnesota. (View online at http://www.exemplarym.com/docs/worddoc/spiritdoc/3faithoutcomes.doc [Word document 281KB])
Further reading:
Exemplary Youth Ministry Research documents: http://www.exemplarym.com/docs.htm
Family Bible study ideas: http://archive.elca.org/christianeducation/faith/tips.html