At the church where I pastor, we deeply value our experience of generations who not only co-exist, but actually mingle and enjoy one another.  It takes more work because we need to listen more carefully to people outside our generation.  We have a running dialogue about what to call the foyer of the auditorium where we meet for church.  An older generation wants to refer to it as the “narthex.”  A younger generation says, “huh?  We want to call it the lobby.”  A staff member said in gest, “maybe we should call it ‘the narby.’”

Pete Menconi writes in his book, The Intergenerational Church*, that the Bible has two distinct meanings to the word “generation.”.  First, it may refer to a group of people who live or lived during the same period of history.  And second, the meaning refers to a group of individuals who share a common ancestry.

God has connected the revelation of Himself and His Word to “generations” from the beginning.  God tells Abram, “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you” (Gen 17:7).  God seems intent on His message being carried from one generation to the next, crossing age boundaries, physical locations, and even language and cultural changes.

It seems that our society is becoming ever more “niched.”  I was at the mall the other day and there was the grand opening of the American Girl Doll store.  The mall seemed loaded with little girls excited to see the new store.  They carried their favorite dolls in their arms.  The mall was not just packed with girls roughly in the same age-range, there was even a Disney radio station that was broadcasting live just for them!  And this stratification is repeated  a thousand times for many consumer products and experiences in America.

For me, the church remains a place where we embrace “all generations, not just my own.”  It is easiest to like and value what is most known.  But the intergenerational church forces us outside our “safe spots.”  It is a place where I experience the new music sung by an upcoming generation, but also the hymns from the past that anchored a previous generation.  For me, I am often in the middle ready to sing another Keith Green song that is between both!

At church we also have an open time of corporate prayer.  It is interesting to hear one generation pray for ailments of friends and family and kid concerns, while another generation prays for new jobs, going off to college, and missions experiences.  Don’t both groups really need each other?  Don’t we have something to give to one another?  I think so.

In a stratified society, it is important to remember our common roots.  An intergenerational church does this and reminds all of us that there is the God who is the same over “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Exodus 6:8).

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*Menconi, Pete.  The Intergenerational Church, 2010.