Building an Intergenerational Church
God’s faithfulness continues through all generations, and the church thrives when older and younger believers stay connected. This article highlights shared faith, shared mission, and shared challenges—and calls churches to be intentional about inter-generational relationships.
- A generation that fails to pass along God’s truth and love leads to spiritual and cultural decay.
- Believers of every age share the same Lord, the same mission, and many of the same temptations.
- Churches can take small, practical steps to mix age groups through worship, service, prayer, and community.
by Dave Faust
Do you mainly spend time with people your own age? It’s natural for teenagers to hang around with other teens and for middle-aged and older adults to associate with friends in their same age brackets. Most of us view the world through the eyes of our own generation.
The eternal God, however, sees time whole. He cares about the old, the young, and everyone in between.
The word generation appears so frequently in the Bible, it almost escapes our notice. For example, Psalm 100:5 assures us that God’s “faithfulness continues through all generations” (New International Version). God told the Israelites to pass along his commands “so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children” (Psalm 78:5-6). God deserves “glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations” (Ephesians 3:21).
It leads to disastrous results when a generation breaks the chain and fails to pass along God’s truth and love. The Israelites served the Lord during the lifetime of Joshua. “But after that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel,” and the culture descended into chaos as “everyone did as they saw fit” (Judges 2:10, 21:25). Families, churches, and nations decay when faith in God wanes, shared values crumble, and civility gives way to distrust and disrespect.
What We Have in Common
If the Holy Spirit can unite Jews and Gentiles as one body in Christ, he can also unify older and younger generations.
We follow the same Lord. Every tongue should confess Christ as Lord, whether that tongue is in the mouth of a 9-year-old or a 90-year-old.
We have the same mission. Transmission of the gospel from generation to generation is a practical necessity for the church. Moses commanded the Israelites to love God wholeheartedly and pass God’s commandments along to their children (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). Jesus’ Great Commission includes discipling and baptizing the next generation, bringing them up “in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).
We face a lot of the same problems. Familiar temptations are “common to mankind” in every generation (1 Corinthians 10:13). Kids today are trying to navigate their way through a high-tech culture filled with financial scams, sexual confusion, political division, and emotional landmines. In their own way, older adults wrestle with these same challenges.
Values That Transcend Generations
Paul told Timothy not to let anyone look down on him because he was young, but “set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12). Don’t those same instructions apply to older Christians as well? Regardless of age, we all should adhere to biblical values and set a positive example for others. Paul used similar words when he told Titus to teach “the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance,” and “teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good” (Titus 2:2-3).
First John 2:12-14 outlines three different stages of spiritual growth: “dear children” whose sins have been forgiven, “fathers” who have known the Lord for many years, and strong “young men” who use God’s Word to overcome the devil. That same chapter goes on to challenge believers in every stage of life, “Do not love the world or anything in the world . . . . For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:15-17). God calls all of us—kids, young adults, and the elderly—to reject the world’s value system and put his kingdom first.
It’s time to be intentional about being inter-generational. Small steps mean a lot. Churches can create shared opportunities like meals, mission trips, worship services, prayer gatherings, and service projects that deliberately mix people from different age groups.
We all can learn from and serve alongside others regardless of age. It will help if we older adults remember to pray, “Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come” (Psalm 71:18).
David Faust serves as contributing editor of Christian Standard and senior associate minister with East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is the author of 1 & 2 Thessalonians: Unquenchable Faith.
Author: David Faust
David Faust serves as the Associate Minister at East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana.
