One of the common themes and challenges that has surfaced in our two Encore Generation Leadership Communities is how to make the church more intergenerational. So many of our churches have become siloed in their approaches to ministry. Each age group or department tends has its own leadership and operates as a separate entity. Consequently, the church in America has lost its sense of family and community. Many feel that this is a huge detriment to the church. I happen to think that this is a huge, unmet yet paradoxically unfelt need of the church in this day. I also think that the leaders of the Older Adult Ministries are the ones with the greatest potential to lead the church into a necessary change.
One of the observations I have made since I began working in this area of ministry nearly 3 years ago is that many of you have experimented with a number of programs and events designed to connect older adults with younger age groups. Most of these have happened at the initiative of the Older Adult Leaders. I have probably heard of over 20 efforts, ranging from an annual miniature golf competition involving older adults and high schoolers (Cedar Mill Bible Church, Beaverton, Oregon) to the Senior Prom for high school graduates of the classes of 1935 to 2005. This event was sponsored and led by John Coulombe and Bambi Encarnacion (First Evangelical Free Church, Fullerton, CA). Ralph Carmichael’s swing band provided live music, and couples in their 20’s were on the dance floor with couples in their 80’s. Over 700 people of all ages attended and had a ball.
I mentioned above that the need to intergenerate is largely unfelt, but when somebody takes the initiative to do something intergenerational, everybody, loves it and most even ask, “Why don’t we do more of this at the church?” Usually innovative people are familiar with both great successes and great failures as they attempt new things. Of all the intergenerational efforts I have heard about I am not aware of a single one that bombed. Though in the current church culture there aren’t an abundance of folks crying out to do intergenerational ministry, these same people will love you for making it happen and for involving them in the experience.
Amy Hanson, who has written two wonderful papers out of our Encore Generation Leadership Community experience, is working on a third paper that will be focused on this theme. It should be available in the next month or so for you to download free from our website (www.leadnet.org).
Don Wilcox is the Leadership Community Director for the Encore Generation Leadership Communities. For more information about this leadership community click on this link:
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