Leadership Journal

The hippie movement was at its height in 1971, and Stuart Briscoe had just become pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brook-field, Wisconsin. Stuart persuaded a group of 100 counter-culture youth to attend worship one Sunday, and one of the church's leaders was not pleased.

"I want to make one thing perfectly clear," the leader said. "These young people you brought into our church have to be kept separate. We have worked hard to keep our children away from these kinds of people."

Stuart had recently traveled to South Africa, where he had witnessed a similar form of prejudicial separation. Stuart mumbled something about apartheid. Today, he quips, "You must remember, I was a new pastor then, and not versed in diplomacy."

When a "full and frank exchange of positions" concluded (Stuart's more experienced, diplomatic description), the leader offered a solution Stuart could agree to. "I'm tired of hearing about the generation gap—let's build a generation bridge."

Soon afterward Elmbrook started a new Sunday morning class. It ran for three months, and participants were hand-picked from diverse age groups.

The class wasn't given a teacher (or a referee); the studies were led by the participants themselves, with an older person and a younger person sharing the task each week. Their curriculum, the Book of James.

Though reluctant at first, the participants began to address the walls of prejudice and misunderstanding between them. They were honest enough to ask, "Why do you grow your hair to look like a mophead? And don't say it's the same reason I grow mine to resemble a tooth brush."

In time, friendships and mentoring relationships were built that last to this day. The class shared its experience with the church, and a waiting list was created for the next Generation Bridge class.

Now the children of the hippie era seek to connect with their children and successors, Generation X. Bridging generations, building community, and bringing families together are new priorities in many churches. In some, the attempt to support the unity of the church and unity in families has given birth to a new a ministry paradigm: intergenerational ministry.

This paradigm integrates whole households—mothers, fathers, widows, singles, and children of all ages—into the same activities. An intergenerational ministry (also called inter-gen, multi-gen, or age-integrated) brings diverse ages together in the same place, with the same materials, for the same purpose. The goal: to build cross-generational relationships that strengthen faith formation in the community and at home.

Stephen Ong, pastor and founder of Victory Baptist Church in Greeley, Colorado, chose to build the church on an intergenerational model. "Too many families were living Christianity only at church," Ong says. "It wasn't being applied at home. I figured if we could bring families together in their walk of faith on Sundays, it would create a mutual accountability that would stay with them throughout the week."

Advocates of this ministry ...