I came across this article at Leadership Journal titled, “Is the Era of Age Segmentation Over?”  So much of it echoes the thoughts of our hearts when it comes to intergenerational discipleship.  It is our desire to fight against deeply established (yet relatively novel) practices in the church of separating people in the church by age and interest; which fly in the face of Paul’s exhortations in Titus 2 for older men and women to teach and mentor younger ones.

For that matter, these are also some of the key principles that have led us to:

• choose homeschooling as a vehicle for both academics and discipleship, so our children can learn from our following of Jesus.
• invite young adults from our church to our home not just for conversation with us, but interaction with our children
• strive to build meaningful relationships with others in the church who aren’t in the same stage of life (parents of young children)
• share our lives, and not just “regular meeting times,” with those who are younger than we are and might benefit from what God has taught us about family life, marriage, etc.
• pursue, where possible, longstanding meaningful friendship with believers who are older than we are.

Here are some key excerpts from the article that resonate with me:

We’re also finding a relationship between teenagers serving younger kids and their faith maturity when they graduate from high school. Teens should not only be the objects of ministry; they need to be the subjects of ministry as well. It’s the 16 year old that has relationships with 66 year olds and 6 year olds who is more likely to stay involved in a faith community after she graduates.

… There’s a standard ratio in youth ministry: one adult for every five kids. My colleague here at Fuller, Chap Clark, says we need to reverse the ratio and strive for having five adults build into one kid.

When I say that to youth workers or pastors, they tense up. I’m not talking about five Bible study leaders or five small group leaders per teenager. I’m talking about five adults who care enough about a kid that they learn her name, ask her on Sunday how they can be praying for her, and then the following Sunday ask her, “How did it go with that science test?” Our study shows that even these baby step connections can make a real difference.

… Tenth graders study Shakespeare. What are we offering them at church? Nothing comparable to Shakespeare.

… If adults in a church caught a vision that every kid needs to have their name known by five adults in the church, then an adult who’s interested in computers can connect with a teen who is interested in computers. And it’s through things like service that we get to know each other and can follow up later to deepen the relationship.

… one of our more interesting findings is that it’s also very important for parents to share about their own spiritual journeys with kids. Teenagers don’t know how their parents came to know Jesus.

Read the whole article.  Lots of good encouragements and ideas.