This season of the year is a time for families to gather and share intergenerational traditions. This gives us an opportunity to think about and find more intentional ways to make connections across generations within our immediate families and the larger families of our church congregations.

A clergy member in our conference told me: “My greatest concern about my congregation is that it is divided. We have older people and we have young families. They worship together, but they are not connected in any meaningful ways.”

I suspect that this is not the only congregation in the conference facing this dilemma because we live in a society where children/youths and older adults are often segregated from one another. Stereotypes one group may hold about the other such as: Youths are irresponsible, hedonistic and rude or older adults are frail, boring and impaired have only deepened this separation.

It is only in the past 100 years that this intergenerational divide has existed. The Lakota Indian Tribe believes that if the old don’t stay connected to the young, the culture will disintegrate. History and research have proven that: “Elders and children have needed each other for thousands of years. In fact, the powerful and special bond between young and old has shaped human culture and history,” according to Dr. William Thomas, founder of The Eden Alternative.

This season is the perfect time to turn our attention to ways to deepen the faith of all our congregation members from old to young by connecting generations. As Randy Kuss observed about building faith in Youthworker Magazine (Nov/Dec 2004): “At its most basic level, spirituality is about moments where we get a glimpse of God. In this process, relationship makes the critical difference. While we may connect with God in other ways — through Bible study, the natural world, worship settings ... our relationships forge the most powerful kinds of spirituality.”

How can you explore the gifts of each generation for building faith and community? Here are just a few ideas:

Train youths to interview older members of the congregation and to document or record the interviews. Have the youths ask the older persons to tell stories from their childhood of lessons learned and choices made. Ask them to tell about their parents, schools, early church memories. Ask about their biggest joys, proudest achievements and funniest moments. Ask them to pull out some old photos and share some of the significant events of their lives.

Add youths to visitation teams for sick and elderly.

Structure small groups from at least three generations at potlucks, fellowship events and retreats, have them share faith and build relationships by playing games together and talk in small groups about topics and questions that everyone old or young can discuss.

Contact the Media Resource Center for lots of ideas, activity kits and new resources on how to plan and implement intergenerational programming.