All tagged generations
Who is God? I return to this question often, especially in this season of Christmas. The advent of Jesus to the world offers an answer—God is a God who lovingly comes close to creation. The incarnational insight is that God desires to be near to all of humanity. God chooses to come and dwell among us.
While this is only a short list of ideas, my hope is that these suggestions offer a point of reference for what intentional intergenerationality could look like in your church as you think through your own context. Regardless of how your church seeks to include children more intentionally within its worship practices, the most important point is to start somewhere so that you can embody being a church where all God’s people gather.
As the created world hosts humanity, we have much to learn from the soil, from the seeds. Stretching toward the light, cultivated hearts propagate God’s mission.
Let me suggest three specific ways to express value and worth to our older members.
Where are our sheep? They are scattered. It is time to invite them back into the care and life of the Christian story!
The fact is the church sits in the middle of a world needing restoration, and our next generation sits in the middle of the church.
The important move is to encourage church leaders to more directly involve younger adults in the discernment processes of leadership.
What contributes to the growing divide between older and younger generations' views of the church?
What are emerging adults like, and what are their biggest concerns, questions, and the issues they care about most?
Ministry leaders in all types of Christian communities are deep in conversation about bringing the generations back together.
Is there a generation who doesn’t need more patience or persistence? I don’t think so.
With young people, church can feel like a boat full of small holes and slow leaks. When bailing isn’t working, and you are taking on water, it’s tempting to give up.
Those actively involved in church leadership at any level need to be familiar with how to reach different people within their churches.
We need the vision, energy, and passion of our children and young adults, particularly because the church of the future is the church they are destined to be a part of and to lead … or not.
Perhaps we are warding off an unspoken fear that our traditions and cultures in the church might be outmoded, passé, and irrelevant.
More and more is being said about the rise of the "nones"--these persons who claim no religious connection.
