A Strategy for Intentional Intergenerational Ministry
Dr Chuck Stecker
President/Founder
A Chosen Generation

When it comes to reaching the next generation of young men and women, few churches can state with clarity and conviction when a child becomes an adult and what real Godly adulthood looks like lived out in the life of a young man or woman.

Perhaps this lack of clarity is one reason why the church loses over 70% of their sons and daughters before they graduate from high school. We then continue to lose over 90% of our remaining sons and daughters in the five years following high school graduation. The harsh reality of the situation is that we are only keeping 3-4% of our own children in the church after they enter their 20’s.

If you’re like me, these highly alarming statistics launch a passion and urgency to come alongside churches and leaders to help them realize this reality and develop a successful strategy for intergenerational ministry.

Strategy vs. Programs. If you attend any church in America, you will find most of them full of programs. Within the local church, a program can and often does stand on its own. Programs can be good ministries within the church, such as the youth program, the Sunday morning program, the missions program.

Programs in and of themselves are not the problem. The problem we face in most churches today is the lack of a clear and intentional strategy for these programs to cross generational lines and create an environment of spiritual continuity from infants in the nursery to seniors in retirement.

Intergenerational Strategy is predicated on the vision, purpose, mission and core values of the church or ministry. For too many organizations, the prevailing thought is that if we have a program for every stated or felt need, the result will be a strategy. In contrast, a clear strategy helps us understand why we do the things that we do.

The purpose of an intergenerational strategy is to 1) define success and 2) create the environment to see success realized. It helps organizations focus on the things that they state are important rather than doing the things that merely respond to issues that are exerting the greatest pressure on them on any given day or season.

When a strategy is firmly entrenched and the leadership is in place that makes decisions consistent with the stated strategy and filtered through the core values, many things that would be agonized over are answered by the agreement on what really matters.

Key Strategy Elements. There are four specific identifiable elements that must be included in the framework of a strategy for intergenerational ministry. They are:
• Spiritual Identity
• Spiritual Formation
• Spiritual Application
• Spiritual Reproduction

Spiritual Identity brings a person into the realization of “who” and “whose” they are. It is critical for each person to realize and accept themselves as the son or daughter of Father God. For adults and youth, identity is the issue of “sonship” and “daughterhood” which is realized by the Father’s Blessing as a part of a Rite of Passage.

Spiritual Formation is the teaching that must follow identity to help the new person know “what” they believe and “why” they believe it. This training which focuses on the foundations of a person’s faith is discipleship. Discipleship without “sonship” or “daughterhood” is a boat with many holes and will sink eventually.

Spiritual Application is guiding each person to apply their faith where they live, work and play. This is accomplished by mentoring and coaching relationships. Most training in churches for adults and youth target their behavior and try to get them to change.

Finally, the strategy must include opportunities for the man or woman to be a reproducer of his faith.
Spiritual Reproduction is a primary indicator of “Spiritual Maturity.”

A church that is working on the premise of an intentional intergenerational strategy will select programs that connect a person at their point of need and take them from that place to the next. The key word is “intentional”. Again, a program directed at someone that is not part of a clear strategy is a short-term fix at best. It is a “Band-Aid” on a huge wound.

We must reach our sons and daughters before its too late! The mass exodus from the church that has taken place over the past several years must be shored up. Thank you for your commitment to work with us to work with the Church today to provide transformation to men and women of all ages.