Go For Multigenerational Gold

As a 39-year-old husband and father, a pastor for the last 15 years, I have heard many different responses after promoting the necessity and privilege of being a part of a multigenerational church; a message ringing awfully loud within the framework of a church culture where communications pastors are assigned the task of flooding Instagram with pictures of their worship services, aimed at appealing to specifically “younger generations.” The reels of “Kaboom Church’s” dynamic welcome team rarely contain seasoned saints intermingling with the less seasoned, but rather focus more on young adult “friend groups” dawning Urban Outfitters as if the Kendrick Brothers christened Degrassi for TBN. If any given family, new in town or away from home, checks the socials looking for a likeminded, local church to attend, they will most likely find posts exemplifying the cool kids table in a local high school cafeteria rather than imagery of unified, faithful generations mentoring one another and developing strong relationships built on lessons of endurance and perseverance for what inevitably lies ahead. 

Some of the more scoffing responses to this promotion include: it’s not relevant anymore or this isn’t your grandparents’ church. I am here to ask: what is wrong with younger families finding a faithful, biblical church FLOODED with faithful grandparents? Why aren’t we seeing more cultural tides shift AWAY FROM finding and sustaining a congregation of clones from the same peer groups who like the same music and live in the same seasons of life? Why are we no longer viewing multigenerational church as not only a necessity but a gift for godly discipleship and spiritual growth? The answer is two-fold and aimed in two directions: 

1) Older generations must desire younger generations in their churches more than they desire to keep every preference in their church from changing. 

2) Younger generations, pragmatically inspired to be a part of a trend over a church family, a brand name-based movement over generational discipleship and mission, must change their way of thinking and see those farther along in their faith as blessings rather than burdens.

Here are just a few important reasons why both older and younger generations should find one another in local churches and work to avoid worshipping in isolated peer groups:

The Bible Tells Us So: Assuming your church is under the authority of Scripture with Christ as its headship, the Word of God clearly proclaims ALL GENERATIONS worshipping together. A perfect passage for this is Psalm 145:4-7: “One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts. They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty—and I will meditate on your wonderful works. They tell of the power of your awesome works—and I will proclaim your great deeds, they celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.” We often look at “our testimony” as something only reserved for evangelism or a helpful illustration helping an unbeliever witness the effects of the Gospel. In multigenerational churches, you are living out your testimony intergenerationally in the way you worship, the hymns you sing, how you study, personally sharing in multigenerational Sunday school classes/small groups, and outside the walls of the church as fellowshipping friends and family.

Eternity Practice: In Heaven, the true authority on how we should conduct our worship services, the generations will be worshipping side by side with one another. By committing to a multigenerational church, we are getting glimpses into the worship we will experience for all eternity. There is nowhere in the Bible where a church is built nor held to a single peer group for any long period of time or under some manmade construct in order to more quickly “grow” the body. Many churches have become so focused on personal preferences as an attractional feature, individuals have programmatically become segregated through types of worship or classes, creating multiple churches within one building. When seasoned saints welcome the energy and ideas new blood can bring to format and ministerial execution, I have seen time and time again, younger generations REJUVENATE and BREATHE new life into church bodies without compromising theologically or shifting every preference or design modernistically. It is a beautiful, possible thing.

Personal Story: Several years back, I invited two friends in their late 30s, who were looking for a church, to our multigenerational church of a couple hundred people (at the time). At lunch, my friend asked “I could tell your church was an older church based on the flower dedications ya’ll put in your bulletins every week.” 1) Yes, we still print a bulletin. 2) We are getting QR codes on the back of chairs. While he made the joke, I asked him “Did you happen to read what the flower dedications were honoring?” He shook his head no. “Today’s flowers in the sanctuary were from a husband celebrating he and his wife’s 60th anniversary.” If I’m a married twenty or thirty something with or without kids, why would I want to be in a church where everyone is my age, looks like me, and not one Christian has been married longer than I have been married! The smoke machine is optional, give me a church filled to the brim with 60+ year marriages!

Warning: Pastors and church leaders, reconsider marketing your churches towards a specific generation and aim all resources at faithfully incorporating followers of Christ from all walks of life. Many in the younger generations have been inculcated into narcissism with the endless discussions of “looks like me” or “looks like something I would like.” Thinking that way also happens to be the basis of all race obsession and “representation’ arguments. Those who focus on “looks like me, acts like me, walks like me, talks like me” may have placed their identity in their flesh rather than in their Christ; missing out on several real opportunities for healthy, challenging, godly relationships.

In Summation: To all the Oldies but Goodies, there is a possibility your church is dying because you have chosen extrabiblical traditions and commands over a generation onto whom you could pass on your godly wisdom and assist sacrificially in growing the future church. 

To all the Young Bucks, your singleness or the families you carry in tow are not burdens to the older generations in your local church, THEY are blessings. Trust the Spirit to let them see that truth. One of the greatest things I have ever witnessed in my time behind the pulpit, is how the Spirit goes before us and after us uniting adoptive grandparents with adoptive grandkids, looking out and witnessing all three generations, bonded not by blood but by Spirit, grow together in such a way only the God could get the glory. We as the church must incorporate both practices, speaking to both sides, and see the value of Multigenerational worship shaping the eternal perspective for generations to come.