Intergenerational Faith Formation
Principles & Practices
The Benefits of Intergenerationality
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This article supports the basic premise that intergenerational faith experiences uniquely nurture spiritual growth and development in both adults and children. The authors propose that frequent and regular cross-generational opportunities for worship, learning, outreach, service and fellowship offer distinctive spiritual benefits and blessings.
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Becoming Intentionally Intergenerational
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Every church can become intentionally intergenerational! Congregations can make their intergenerational character a defining feature of their community life, ministries, and programming. These churches make it a priority to foster intergenerational relationships, faith sharing, and storytelling; to incorporate all generations in worship; to develop service projects that involve all ages, and to engage all generations in learning together. This article provides strategies, ideas, and congregational examples for becoming more intentionally intergenerational.
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Best Practices in Intergenerational Faith Formation
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This first part of this article presents the rationale, challenges, and process of intergenerational faith formation. The second part of the article explains four key practices, drawn from research and field experience, that congregations can use to develop intergenerational faith formation. Also included is a process for designing intergenerational learning experiences and examples of intergenerational learning programs.
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Bringing the Generations Together: Support from Learning Theory
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Is there any evidence to suggest that intergenerational religious experiences are especially beneficial for faith and spiritual development in children? And, if so, why might intergenerational religious experiences contribute significantly to children’s faith journeys Holly Catterton Allen addresses the role of learning theory in intergenerational experiences by examining: (a) definitions of intergenerational concepts, (b) an overview of existing research that examines the effects of intergenerational Christian experiences, and (c) scriptural support for intergenerational community.
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Can a Congregation Imagine "Something New
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This is the story of Grace Lutheran Church that decided to “cancel” the current Sunday School model for a year and try “Something Else”. They believed in the gift of community and the richness in telling and sharing stories, and understood the current program struggled with both sustainability and rooted faith formation. An organic team of leaders, most in their 30s and 40s, created weekly intergenerational experiences paired with the narrative lectionary stories from the worship texts, tying together conversations and experiences each week.
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The Caring Church
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John’s gospel reminds us that Christians are known by the ways in which they love each other. At this moment in history, Christians are often criticized as being too much like the general culture. It’s hard to see that their faith is making any difference in their daily lives. If churches can bring caring to the center of their missions as is mandated in the Scriptures and in the traditions of Christianity, then others will look upon our communities and wonder where this joy comes from. Maybe they’ll become curious enough to ask us about it, and we’ll have a story to share that will touch their deepest needs. We can discover that our distinction in any culture is not captured by what we know; rather it is capture by the intensity with which we care.
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Communion across Generations: The Challenge & Promise of Inter-generational Dialogue
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In this presentation, Patricia Wittberg describes the characteristics of Catholic Millennials (and younger Gen Xers) and the importance of and possibilities for engaging in cross-generational conversations aimed at increasing an understanding of generational cultures within the Catholic Church and eliminating the stereotypes generations have of each other. Her suggestions can apply to all denominations. (CatholicCommonGround.orG)
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An Ecumenical Study of Lifelong Faith Formation
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This project was designed to discover effective practices, new insights, and key challenges in lifelong faith formation across denominations; learn about what congregations are doing to provide faith formation in intergenerational, the age-specific setting, and family settings; and review effective models for lifelong faith formation, which are being implemented in congregations.
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Emerging Vision of Lifelong Faith Formation
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Bill Huebsch reflects on the emergence of lifelong faith formation in the Catholic Church. Slowly but intentionally over the past six or seven decades, the Catholic Church has been studying, discussing, praying about, and experimenting with catechesis. Leaders at every level have been reflecting on and creating new models for how we organize ourselves to pass on the faith from one generation to the next. He explores what lifelong faith formation mean for the local parish, leaders, and families and household.
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Equipping the Generations: Cross-Generational Fellowship and the Gospel of Jesus Christ
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Congregational members need to experience healthy cross-generational fellowship in their own lives so that they may walk in the fullness of the Spirit of Christ and feel the gravity of being grafted into a people comprised of multiple socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicities, and generations. This article proposes several ways to It is our goal to create a create cross generational fellowship.
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Expanding Horizons of
Intergenerational Learning
Mariette Martineau
Faith Formation across Generations
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Mariette Martineau writes that intergenerational learning is essential to the spiritual health of families, and that it makes a significant contribution to the overall health of the Christian community. Intergenerational learning nurtures important relationships between people of all ages, and it supports and guides members to better practice their faith at home, at work, and at school. Her articles describes the features, characteristics, and learning process of intergenerational learning.
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From Generation to Generation: A Case Study on Factors in the Family and Faith Community Impacting Faith Development
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Kathie Amidei presents a summary of a unique research study she did with a large Catholic church that has both a Catholic school and an intergenerational-family faith formation program. Her research explores the perceptions of parents about the factors that impact their own and their families’ faith formation. The results are sometimes affirming of what we already know and other times quite surprising.
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Guidelines for Intergenerational Programs
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This simple 2-page flyer has suggestions for planning intergenerational events, adding intergenerational activities to meetings, and having intergenerational conversations.
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The Importance of Intergenerational Community for Lifelong Faith Formation
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This article presents a variety of approaches and strategies for strengthening the intergenerational character of a faith community and building intergenerational relationships.
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Intergenerational Faith Formation Today: It’s Impact and Sustainability
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This article reports on a very recent survey completed by experienced intergenerational practitioners in churches around the country. The survey reveals the most important practices that churches do in order to sustain intergenerational faith formation over time. The survey also identified the significant challenges for the future of intergenerational ministries.
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An Intergenerational Mission for God's Church
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Some church leaders doubt a multigenerational, diverse congregation can grow and adapt to a constantly changing culture. The goal of this article is toencourage pastors and leaders to do the necessary work to build an intergenerational church.
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Intergenerational Worship
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This outline provides a variety of practices and ideas to help churches understand and prepare intentionally, intergenerational worship.
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Lifelong Faith Formation for all Generations
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John Roberto presents the vision and four practices that form the basis of the Generations of Faith approach to lifelong, intergenerational faith formation: 1) a church events-centered curriculum for all generations, 2) intergenerational learning, 3) household faith, and 4) collaborative, empowering, team-based leadership.
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Living the Abbey Way: An Experiment in Spiritual Formation and the New Monasticism
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A three-year-old church plant in Minneapolis, MN, associated with the Evangelical Covenant Church, Abbey Way attempts to be purposely intergenerational and to center in shared spiritual practices and corporate rhythms versus programs or events. The community has adopted a number of practices and values that have characterized Benedictine monastic life. The key principles of commitment, stability, transformation, and obedience as lived out in this community are described.
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Nine Tips for Designing Intergenerational Worship
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This brief article offers nine tips with ideas for designing intergenerational worship without totally overhauling everything about your current worship services.
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Planning for Intergenerality: Moving Beyond the Program
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This article provides a roadmap for building a culture of intergenerationality in a church that currently offers sporadic intergenerational programming. This represents the next key step for churches that want to forge ahead into creating churches that unleash the full power of the Body of Christ.
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Spiritual Formation in Community
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Christian spiritual formation must include as primary elements the context of community, the bracing truth and hope of the gospel, and an apprenticeship to Christ. These elements are at play in four aspects of formation essential for the growing believer and community: receiving, remembering, responding, and relating. These orientations are illustrated through the practices of brokenness, worship, inclusion, and hospitality.
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Tried and True: A Guide to Successful Intergenerational Activities at Shared Site Programs
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This guide was developed at one type of intergenerational setting - a co-located adult day services program and child development center. The activities in the Guide are targeted to young children and frail adults but many can be easily adapted or modified for use with other populations.
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Total Community Catechesis for Lifelong Faith Formation
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Tom Groome presents the key concepts of total community catechesis. Instead of catechesis as one slice among others of community life, he presents a 360-degree approach, which echoes the totalizing demands of Christian faith. He understands total community catechesis as an intentional coalition of parish, family, and programs/school that engages every member and all aspects of each unit, by and for people of all ages, teaching and learning together for total Christian faith toward God’s reign in the world.
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We’re More Than Friends, We’re Family: The Importance of Building Caring Relationships in the Congregation
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What would it look like if we envisioned our primary function in the faith community to produce and reproduce spiritually? Sounds like making disciples. This could surely occur through the sharing of food, conversation, and prayer. The end result would be the giving and receiving of care and nurture. What better way to build caring relationships? Until we take the time to initiate conversations with one another and begin to care for the “familia” we have in our own congregations, the likelihood of us serving others beyond our walls is less. Explore 10 suggestions for growing caring relationships in the congregation.
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The What and How of Intergenerational Worship
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Worshiping as an intergenerational community pushes and challenges us to be aware of how all in worship experience God’s presence; opens us up to the spontaneity of the Holy Spirit; give us permission to not claim to know it all; and exercise grace, forgiveness, and unconditional love to those that we deem different than ourselves. So, how does one go about worshiping as an intergenerational community? Depending onthe current makeup of your congregation and your worship style, Theresa Cho propose three tiers.
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Why Churches Tend to Separate Generations
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When believers today gather for worship, service, ministry or simply for fellowship, they tend to gather in age- or stage-segregated silos. The question this article addresses is, “Why?” “Why has the body of Christ (at least in North America) embraced an age-segregated approach to community in the last several decades?”
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Worship as a Model for Faith Formation
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Anne E. Streaty Wimberly observes that all of worship gathers, forms, and feeds the people of God; and worship is a vital educational ministry event, nourishing resource, and significant means by which we come to know God, ourselves, and the nature of the Christian journey more fully. In her article she presents meanings of worship as Christian education, worship as God-referenced and life-directed education, and key pathways and events through which Christian education takes place in worship, including the role of the pastor. In her view worship as Christian education may be seen as edification, formation, and nurture.
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Worship Includes 'All Ages and All Stages'
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At First Presbyterian Church San Mateo, worship is like Thanksgiving dinner, with everyone at the table. You might not like everything that's served, but everybody experiences the meal together. The church has boosted the participation of all ages at the Sunday service, launched a weeklong children’s camp on worship, started a church-band mentoring program, published a pew booklet on worship, and held a churchwide worship workshop. Together, these and other measures are creating not just a culture of intergenerational worship, but an intergenerational church.
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Worship That Is Friendly to Children
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Though there are many voices and influences that would lead us in the direction of separating the various age groups in worship, we consider the worshiping congregation to be an inter-generational group of worshipers. As a matter of fact, the Christian church can be considered the last place in our society where intergenerational activity takes place. While the needs, experiences, and expectations of each age group can be quite different, these differences are not insurmountable.
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