Intergenerational Christian Formation: Bringing the Whole Church Together in Ministry, Community and Worship

by Holly Catterton Allen, Christine Lawton

"One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts." ―Psalm 145:4 Most churches and faith communities segment their ministries by age and generation. The kids go to children’s church, the teens go to youth group. Worship services are geared toward different generational preferences, and small groups gather people at the same life stage, whether singles, young marrieds, parents, or empty nesters. In some congregations, people may never interact with those of other ages. But it was not always so. Throughout biblical tradition and the majority of history, communities of faith included people of all ages together in corporate worship, education, and ministry. The church was not just multigenerational; it was intergenerational, with the whole church together as one family and people of all ages learning from one another in common life. In this comprehensive text, Holly Allen and Christine Lawton offer a complete framework for intentional intergenerational Christian formation. They provide the theoretical foundations for intergenerationality, showing how learning and spiritual formation are better accomplished through intergenerational contexts. It is not just elders teaching youth; learning also takes place when adults discover fresh insights from children. Then the authors give concrete guidance for intergenerational praxis on how worship, learning, community, and service can all be achieved intergenerationally. Case studies of intergenerational congregations provide models for how a culture of intergenerationality can be created in local churches. This volume serves as an essential guide for all preparing for and involved in congregational ministry and formation. Discover the riches of intergenerational ministry, and let all generations commend the works of God to one another.

Genres: Discipleship, Christian, Leadership, Nonfiction, Christian Living, Church

330 pages, Paperback

First published October 4, 2012

Reviews

[Paige Chase · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book about intergenerational ministry. I found this motivating and practical.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

The churches I grew up in weren’t particularly intergenerational. As a kid I was sent off to children’s church during the worship service and Sunday school after church. In high school and in college, I went to youth and young adult groups and was involved with para-church ministries like Youth For Christ and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. As an adult, in my thirties, I am one of the few of my generation that is still in church (Generation X is the most absent generation from church). Why am I here? Am I more holy than my peers? On a good day, perhaps. But the real reason is that unlike many of my friends I was able to forge meaningful relationships with older people at my church. While my friends and I had each other, I also had older sisters and brothers in the faith and spiritual parents and grand parents which nurtured me and mentored me. When my doubts threatened to swallow me whole, I was held by a web of relationships until my faith was more fully formed.


Holly Catterton Allen (professor of Christian ministry at John Brown University) and Christine Lawton Ross (professor of Christian education at Concordia) have teamed up to write Intergenerational Christian Ministry: Bringing the Whole Church Together in Ministry, Community and Worship. They observe that in many congregations, generations are stratified. Churches that describe themselves as ‘multi-generational’ or ‘trans-generational’ often fail to look for ways to intentionally integrate the generations (17-8). In contrast, Allen and Ross look for ways to engage multiple generations in Christian spiritual formation. It is is their contention that ‘cross-generational experiences are essential to Christian formation and the development of a mature faith (25).’

Allen and Ross divide their book into four parts. Part one examines the late twentieth century practice of separating the generations and the benefits of an intergenerational approach. They discuss how hyper individualism, societal shifts and ‘the homogenus unit principle (HUP) caused many congregations to separate generations from one another to more ‘effectively’ reach them. However, this approach segmented the church and prevented us from experiencing the mutual benefits of Christian unity (generationally).

Part two presents the biblical, theoretical and theological foundations for intergenerationl formation. They show the biblical precedent for cross-generational ministry by demonstrating that worship and formation were intergenerational concepts in both testaments. The insights of developmental psychology and educational theory further demonstrate the wisdom of their approach. Finally Allen and Ross also demonstrate the theological underpinnings for intergenerational Christian formation by basing their approach by exploring the significance of the Triune community and the implications for ecclesiology.

Part three further demonstrates support for intergenerational formation from the social sciences. Allen and Ross discuss religious socialization, gerontology, generational theory and their qualitative research into the value of cross-generational experiences for Christian formation.

In part four Allen and Ross turn their attention to practical matters. They give practical advice on fostering an intergenerational community, creating intergenerational worship and learning experiences, telling stories, planning Intergenerational missions and serving projects and intergenerational small groups. For their final two chapters, they focus on two contexts where intergenerational ministry is particularly challenging. The first of these is Asian American churches and the peculiar challenges faced by First and Second generation churches. They also discuss the challenges of trying to be intergenerational in a mega-church context. While there are no easy answers Allen and Ross give guidelines for developing greater intergenerational unity in those contexts based on some concrete success stories from churches which are dedicated to this sort of approach.

The appendices prove to be a practical resource. Appendix A presents forty intergenerational ideas, Appendix B lists various resources for intergenrational ministry and Appendix C lists intergenerational scripture passages.

Because Allen and Ross discuss at lengths the value of intergenerational ministry from a number of angles, this is a particularly good book for those who may be skeptical about intergenerational approaches. They admit throughout this book, that intergenerational ministry is not easy, but requires commitment and intentionality. However in the end, the rewards far outweigh the difficulties. Any one involved in church ministry (regardless of their position) will find this to be a beneficial book. I recommend this book to pastors and lay leaders who are seeking creative ways to bring old and young together in their church.

Thank you to IVP Academic for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for this review.

[Allen Church · Rating 4 out of 5]

The issue of generational segmentation and segregation in churches throughout the United States (and the world) is one of the most pressing issues that churches nationwide are needing to address. Churches throughout the history of the Christian church have always been diverse in age, simply because often times their closest church was their only option. With the cultural rise of individuality and the accessibility of churches, as well as the seeker-sensitive movement, church attendees are no longer tied to specific local churches, and are often given appealing reasons to leave and join other congregations. Many churches can try to appeal to certain demographics, especially in age groups. This, and many other factors, have led to the pervasive issues of separation in churches of solitary age groups.
Holly Allen and Christine Ross set out in their book Intergenerational Christian Formation to bridge the gap of generational boundaries by explaining the value to intergenerational experiences in the church to the Christian life. They do this with biblical, theological, empirical, sociological, theoretical, developmental, and practical support. The central claim of this work is that “frequent cross-generational experiences are essential to Christian formation and the development of mature faith” (25). The book systematically supports this claim through many different sections.
Summary
Part One of this book begins by exploring the problem in churches of separating the generations, and offers reasoning of why the problem should even be addressed. The first chapter lays out the problem for the reader: “Faith communities are perhaps the only places where families, singles, couples, children , teens, grandparents—all generations—come together on a regular interacting basis. Yet the societal trend toward generational fragmentation has moved into churches also” (30). Chapter two details how the current evangelical Christian culture got to where it is now with its generational fragmentation. Allen and Ross bring up good points in this chapter, attributing the centrality of the problem to the rise of individuality in the current American culture and the seeming rise in churches of needing to attract families with children into church.
The following chapter lists out the many benefits and reasons to pursue cross-generational activities in churches. Among the most compelling reasons was the reason of better use of resources: “Intergenerational faith communities bring together the young, fresh thinkers with the older, wiser veterans, creating an integrated profusion of resources” (51). These communities with multiple generations represented provide invaluable resources to each other in the church, to be able to grow as men and women of God.
Part two is the heart of the book, detailing the biblical, theological, and theoretical support for intergenerational Christian formation. Chapter five gave numerous biblical examples of intergenerational endeavors, both in the Old and New Testaments. Most notably was the example of King Jehoshaphat, who called for a fast for all of Judah in response to an invading threat. 2 Chronicles 20 specifically details how “all the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the Lord” (2 Chron 20:13). Judah gave an incredible example of humble dependence on the Lord from every walk of life, and the Lord honored their request because of it and gave them victory over their enemies. A notable New Testament example was when Jesus went out of His way to welcome the little children around Him, and said that the Kingdom of Heaven belonged to them (Matt 19:13-14). Jesus was not bothered by younger generations, but rather welcomed them. These and countless other examples show that the Bible is inherently cross-generational, because the gospel reaches everyone from a dependent child to the elderly person in a nursing home, and thus the church should likewise be composed.
One more key biblical element at the heart of intergenerational formation and Christian fellowship in general lies in the Trinitarian Godhead. Allen and Ross assert that “the basic theological support for the importance of community can be built around the concept of God’s corporate, relational nature, and that God created his people in his image…” (111). Since God is fundamentally relational in His nature, the church is called to be fundamentally relational in its activities and pursuit of unity, even across generational boundaries.
The final part of this book illustrates the practical nature of how intergenerational Christian formation really works its way into the church, and practical steps in every area of church life that leaders can begin tomorrow working through in their churches. Allen and Ross begin by suggesting that change primarily starts with the church’s leaders. The leaders, they argue, first need to get at the heart of their church in order to begin the process of change. Allen and Ross write, “The heart is key…only when the heart is captured will real change be possible” (182). In each of the successive suggestions the authors give for leaders, bulleted suggestions are detailed to give practical ideas and examples of what this change looks like at a ground level.
Allen and Ross end their book explaining the many areas of life that could be affected by intergenerational changes in practice, including worship, learning experiences, missions, multicultural churches, and others. The most notable of these chapters was intergenerational worship because of its focus on formative practices that happen Sunday to Sunday, that are vital to every generation. Speaking of the importance of children being involved in this worship, Allen and Ross postulate, “In intergenerational worship settings children will see their parents and others worship, they will make sense of their experiences with God, and they will come to know God better” (194). They go on to argue that “spiritual development is not fundamentally cognitive development,” but that as children observe these other generations, they will continually be formed in a way that is not done solely through teaching or exposition, but in example (195).
The book concludes by reinforcing the claim that intergenerational activities in a local body are essential to one’s Christian walk. On the centrality of intergenerational Christian formation, Allen and Ross claim, “…for intergenerational Christian formation to happen, the generations must be together; they must know each other; and they must experience life in the body of Christ together” (271). The importance of contexts in which these generations are not only able to cross paths but able to do life together cannot be overstated for the Christian walk.
Critique
Overall, this book was a very helpful treatise on the importance of cross-generational worship and activity in the body-life of a local church. It was a fresh reminder of how the Body of Christ was designed to be, made up of its many parts jointly working together for the benefit of the whole. The greatest praise of this book was its depth in research and thought into this subject; it was very clear from the outset of this book that this subject was thoroughly researched and studied by the authors. The authors pulled from an impressive amount of sources to support their argument, from both biblical passages with biblical scholars, and also sociological/scientific support from the wider scientific community of research done on this subject.
Along with this praise also comes my greatest critique of the book. For a book with the entire premise of being able to reach every community and generation of believers, it is incredibly academic and often times dry to read. With countless footnotes in every chapter and appeals to an endless number of scientific research and surveys, often times it was difficult discerning what was the authors’ claims and what was just being quoted by the next expert. So much of the content of the book was spent on finding support from the greater community of sources, that very little time was spent on actually making claims and delving into the authors’ thoughts. Often times, it felt to me more of a conglomeration of research studies than a personal book on the value of cross-generational worship in churches. If a book like this one is meant to serve a host of generations at different stages of life, I would suggest a greater awareness of the audience of this book would lead to less esoteric academia and more down to earth, insightful claims and deductions drawn from the evidence.
There were also a number of chapters and subjects that the authors spent a significant amount of time on that felt redundant to me. This goes back again to my previous claim of high academic writing: if a greater awareness of the target audience was taken into account, a chapter, for example, on defining the history of definitions and names of this issue would likely not be needed for church leaders seeking to cross the generational gaps in their congregation. Along with this, extensive appeal to sociological research in the area of cross-generational benefits do not benefit the target audience well. Rather, a summary of a number of findings in these studies would’ve held beneficial, but not to the great extent the authors detailed all of these findings. I also felt like a lot of the research did not directly pertain to the main claim of the book, at least to the extent which it was detailed (including much scientific jargon).
The authors by the end of the book, though, got very practical, which I honestly thought was the most helpful section of the book. Not only was the claim of intergenerational Christian formation applied to a number of areas surrounding the church and Christian life, but a number of appendices were provided to further supplement the practicality of this book to each context of the readers’ churches. Providing three appendices entailing forty intergenerational ideas (Appendix A), intergenerational ministry resources (Appendix B), and biblical passages that reflect an intergenerational outlook (Appendix C) are all extremely helpful and practical to the reader. My only desire was that this section could have been reached sooner, and that much of the esoteric findings of sociological studies could have been summarized in order to reach these practical steps.
Overall, I think this book is a helpful resource to any church leader who wishes to see more contexts in which their church can reach across generational lines for the purpose of Christian formation. The numerous practical ideas will be beneficial to any ministry I may serve in in the future that may struggle with these boundaries. As a worship leader, being able to develop a music ministry that not only involves different generations in the same context, but also allows for moments of Christian fellowship and formation to occur together is essential for any hopeful worship ministry today. Paul’s admonition still rings true, that every part of the body is needed for growth in becoming more like Christ, Sunday by Sunday and day by day (1 Cor 12).

[Craig Prather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was good in its explanation of intergeneration church and the value if it, but many chapters were redundant.

[Rob Markley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a useful, conventional academic foray into the role inter generational relationships play in church. It follows carefully the academic methodology of defining things carefully, of reviewing the literature, then both the psychological and theological theory; and moves onto research, albeit typical superficial small sample case studies posing as research data. All this is done well, is quite readable and it moves on well through examples and suggestions of strategies.

Certainly the case is made that intergenerational interaction, focus and experience is very important within a healthy church environment; and that it has been a mistake for contemporary church to have moved into separation silos. However it less clear exactly how far this correction needs to go. By no means does the book convince that an 'all out' Intergenerational Formation strategy is any magic bullet. If fact the book touches of three possible objections without adequately addressing them. Firstly, is this really only for small churches (that will remain small) - in the sense that it is all about being family or a village? Secondly p205 mentions cultural mores, and it is very possible that these ideas simply reflect cultural/ethnic/historical experiences of a society that has truly moved on, thus intergenerational church is simply a vain attempt to turn back the clock (albeit that some form of international interaction is certainly still valid).

However the greatest issue is that all this is really about building community. Church certainly should produce community and fellowship, but it is important not to put the cart before the horse. We can be a nice community without God thank you, but the first purpose of church is God Himself. In an era when Western church is struggling to find where God is moving, all of this tempts us to try and do church on our own and to find our own relevance. In the end I'm not convinced on the 'Christian formation' aspect.

[Noel Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holly Allen and Christine Ross present the reader with a very practical and compelling case for making your ministry more aware of inter-generational opportunities for spiritual formation. Ironically, among small churches you hear people say "I wish we had enough kids to do a kids program, teen class, young adult ministry, etc." but what Allen and Ross demonstrate is that educational and sociological research shows that inter-generation ministry initiatives are far more spiritually formative than the siloed approaches that bigger churches tend to take.
Studying God's Word together, serving together, eating together is a tremendously effective way to disciple new followers of Jesus.

The last part of the book is filled with practical examples, resources, and guides for adapting what you are already doing in your church to include other generations (including young adults in your teen mission trips, including kids in your small group Bible studies). It's full of great ideas, and inspires many new ideas. Highly recommend.

[Adam Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Separating the generations may sometimes be helpful for specific purposes, but to experience authentic Christian community and reap the unique blessings of intergenerationality, the generations must be together regularly and often." This is the conviction of Holly Allen and Christine Ross, and in this book they use biblical passages, social sciences and personal experience to make their case, with ideas for practical application. There's some really valuable stuff in here, but also a lot of discussion of social science research, which I wasn't expecting.

[Isaac Sevlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a dense read with a lot of very unique information. I haven’t heard this topic discussed in depth before and I found many of the thoughts and scriptural references excellent and very intriguing. There are also multiple appendixes as the end with practical ways and ideas to implement intergenerational ministry.

[Ike Unger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. So much information but also lots of practical ways to apply it. I especially appreciate the chapter on mega churches.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much has been written about the racial segregation in the church. This book addresses what might be considered another form of hidden segregation that occurs in many of our churches--segregation by age.

Allen and Ross contend that the most robust Christian formation occurs in multigenerational settings--where younger and older learn from each other. And the learning goes two ways--at one point older members spoke of all the lessons they learned from children in their church--things like love, simplicity of trust, a willingness to learn.

The book begins with an exploration of how age-segregated ministry developed in an attempt to provide contextually relevant formation based on developmental changes and generational characteristics. Allen and Ross do not categorically oppose this but argue that this is best when complemented by multigenerational approaches. They then focus on the biblical, sociological, and theological reasons why this approach should be practiced and then look at various generational characteristics and intergenerational dynamics. Finally, they look at implementing intergenerational formation in a number of church settings ranging from small groups to worship to service to multicultural settings and in megachurches.

One possible weakness is that much of the research and examples seem drawn from the mainline church context. It is interesting that these churches seem "thicker" in some respects in opportunities for intergenerational worship and have been less prone to age-segregate than non-denominational, low-church evangelicals. It seems that this might be an important area for further research, practice and writing.

I have to admit that I strongly resonate with the thesis of this book. As a youth, I was influenced greatly not only by family but by grandparents and those of their age and a number of other older and younger adults. Even when I thought the expression of their faith stodgy at times, I saw the integrity of their lives and how important their faith was when they faced suffering and hardship. Because of this, faith in Christ was not something I would grow out of but rather grow more deeply into as I grew older. And now that I am on the other side of this and work with many younger colleagues and students, I am so grateful for these brothers and sisters who keep me vital and fresh (I hope!) and prevent "hardening of the attitudes"!

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, I appreciate the premise of "bringing the whole church together in ministry, community, and worship." Few would argue with that. However, after clearly identifying the problem of separatism among generations, the authors fail to convince me of their process for change. Is another program really the answer? I'm skeptical. The authors offer what they call biblical, theological, and theoretical support for their claims. However, there are times they "stretch" a text to make it say something they desire. Instead of concluding the book after the proposed evidence, an entire section is offered from the social sciences. Granted, I have my own hang-ups, but I found the section to be somewhat forced, tedious, and annoying. Perhaps a second book would have worked better. After identifying an issue in the Church, better exegesis and an entire section removed would have made the work much better. The premise is valid. The method to structure change is flawed.

[Kent Kessler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Theoretical and practical just like the things we know to be true deep down. Sound research focusing on 'religious socialization', a concept very near ever spiritual leader. Up-to-date and in touch with developing studies this book offers not a new program but deeper allowing you the development of your own outlets. The book does give 40 ideas for starters and for your own modification as most good books do.

[Larry Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not light reading, but it confirms and expands something I have been thinking about for some time. Howe can we fulfill the Biblical instruction that the older should teach the younger if we never allow them to interact? I would recommend this to anyone involved in church leadership. We need to come back together and operate more like the family that we are supposed to be.

[Bill Buckingham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good discussion of intergenerational church involvement. Very good treatment of characterization of each current generation and their impact on the church. I would recommend this book for church leaders who want to better engage all generations in the body of Christ.

[Pat Roseman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent resource for any church wanting to be more intergenerational.

[D]

Does a good job of explaining the benefits of intergenerational Christian fellowship and contains some very practical field advice for applying it. I'll be using this as a reference for sure!