A church for all ages

In the first of a new six-part series, Suzi Farrant and Darren Phillip consider the meaning and practice of intergenerational church.

AS Christians, we believe in a God of abundance, joy, hope and life, yet over the last few years conversations about the future of the Church of Scotland have often revolved around scarcity, decline, despair and death. Something is not matching up. Either our view of God is wrong or we are missing something in our view of what the church is and should be. Assuming it is the latter, can we dare believe that God is calling us, the church, into a new story; a story filled with faith, hope and love?

From our research and experience across the Kirk, we believe that God is calling us to be an intergenerational church. Far more than just another buzzword, being intergenerational is at the heart of what it is to be church: it is in the DNA of the church, see for example Romans 12: 5 and 1 Cor 12: 12. Being an intergenerational church requires us to be a church led by the Spirit, a church in unity, a church of disciples, relational, experiential, prophetic and missional. We shouldn’t need to add the word ‘intergenerational’ to our description of church; church should, by very definition, be just that.

Before we consider what being intergenerational means, let us explore some other models of church that show us what it is not. In our experience, in trying to engage all generations more fully, many churches move between these different models as if climbing the steps of a ladder:

Being ‘monogenerational’ is where broadly only one age-category is present or catered for. For example, a church which only offers a word-oriented service geared towards an adult congregation, most of whom are of a similar age-bracket.

Being ‘age-segregated’ is where there are separate activities in separate spaces or times targeted at different age groups. For example, children may attend a Sunday school or teenagers a Bible class in a church hall or other space while adults are in the sanctuary worshipping.

Being ‘multigenerational’ is where multiple generations are present in the same space and all are catered for, but there is no interaction between them or different activities are deemed suitable for different generations. For example, there may be a children’s address within an adult service or a play corner within the worship space which ‘enables’ children to remain present throughout the service.

Being ‘cross-generational’ is where there is some cross-over between generations, but there is no intentionality behind this. For example, there may be opportunity for all ages to mix together over coffee after church, but there is minimal sharing of faith or opportunity for personal or collective transformation.

So what then is intergenerational? An intergenerational church is one that “intentionally brings the generations together in mutual serving, sharing or learning within the core activities of the church in order to live out being the body of Christ to each other and the greater community”. Notice the four parts we have highlighted:

• Intergenerational church is intentional. It is more than different generations simply happening to share a space and time. It requires a deliberate bringing together of the generations and the opportunity for interaction and relationship between them.

• Intergenerational church is mutual. There is meaningful relationship between generations which recognises that each has something to give and to receive from the other.

• Intergenerational church is within the core activities of the church. It’s not an extra programme, event or activity. It’s an ethos that pervades being church together. True intergenerationality will affect everything we do: our worship, learning, decisionmaking, mission, and service.

• Intergenerational church is lived out. What we are addressing is not conceptual. It’s not something that makes for a nice policy statement or noble ambition. It is real and happens through interaction and relationship whilst doing the ordinary and extraordinary things of church life. Take a moment to consider your own congregation. Where does it sit on the ladder? Different areas of your congregation’s life may sit on different rungs, for example, your worship may be intergenerational whilst your decisionmaking is monogenerational.

The first step on the journey towards intergenerationality is to ask the right questions. Our theology has often begun with a ‘how?’ question. “How is Jesus both divine and human? How does God atone for the world’s sin in Jesus? How do I have faith in Jesus?” This approach leads to us seeing faith as an intellectual pursuit – following Jesus becomes a matter of understanding and assenting to the answers to a series of

‘how’ questions. Beginning from the place of the ‘how’ question may in part explain why we have adopted an educational model of church, particularly with children and young people. We send them to Sunday school so they can learn ‘how’ to be a Christian, so we can teach them ‘how’ God is at work in the world.

The trouble with ‘how’ questions is that they are often not faith forming. It would be possible to have answers to every conceivable ‘how’ question yet not believe; it would be possible to know ‘how’ to have faith in Jesus yet never enter into a living relationship. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was alert to the dangers posed by ‘how’ questions, arguing that they are the incorrect starting place for any theology, for they lead us in a way of thinking that ceases to be about God’s word and becomes instead a human system of thought. The same is true of other starting questions such as ‘what’ or ‘why’. The church often jumps to questions of “What shall we do?”, “What is God like?” or “Why did Jesus say this?” – all important questions, but when they mark our starting point, we fall into the same trap as with the ‘how’ question. They seek knowledge rather than relationship; they are conceptual rather than tangible. A living faith requires a starting question which is concrete, not theoretical.

For Bonhoeffer, that concrete question is ‘who’, as in “Who is Jesus Christ?” Answering a ‘who’ question reminds us that we are dealing with a living reality, not an abstract concept and points us towards relationship rather than knowledge. Bonhoeffer also points out that the ‘who’ question acknowledges Christ’s presence – it is a question that is asked (and can only be asked) in the presence of the living Christ among us.

Reframing the starting question from ‘how’ (or ‘what’ or ‘why’) to ‘who’ makes clear that Jesus Christ is not a detached concept to be studied through the acquisition of knowledge, but a living, present reality to be experienced in relationship.

This, then, becomes our starting place for exploring intergenerational church: if Christ is to be known as a living reality, then for all ages the church should primarily be experiential rather than educational, that is a place where the living, present Jesus Christ is encountered. Over the rest of this series we will delve in more depth into the four parts of the intergenerational church definition, exploring how we can transform our congregations into communities of belonging for all.

Being Intergenerational Church will be published in the autumn by Saint Andrew Press.