Intergenerational Christian Formation

enculturation.

“religious socialization” (see chapter nine for a fuller discussion of this construct). Westerhoff and Neville define religious socialization as “a process consisting of lifelong, formal and informal mechanisms through which persons sustain and transmit their faith (worldview, value system) and lifestyle, and this is accomplished through participat

Intentional intergenerational ministry.

intergenerational Christian formation—the

If ten fourteen-year-olds are grouped together, they will form a Lord of the Flies culture with its competitiveness and meanness. But if ten people ages 2 to 80 are grouped together, they will fall into a natural age hierarchy that nurtures and teaches them all. For our own mental and societal health, we need to reconnect the age groups.”[8]

community of believers

“intentional intergenerational ministry.”[3]

Among those factors are modern and postmodern tendencies toward individualism and dependence on psychological, therapeutic or secular educational models rather than theological models.

Faith communities are perhaps the only places where families, singles, couples, children, teens, grandparents—all generations—come together on a regular interacting basis. Yet the societal trend toward generational fragmentation has moved into churches also.