Prayerfully considering an overall church vision, and how all the ministry areas of the church are working together towards a common goal, can be an incredibly helpful tool in uniting an intergenerational church to reach their community.
Mark Herring is the Under-20s Pastor at Rosedale Bible Chapel in Invercargill, and for the past year he and the other elders have been seeking God’s direction for their church: “Our aim is to prayerfully consider who we are reaching and why, we feel that knowing our purpose, our core values, and what God has called us to will help us to intentionally shape our ministries—and help us to work together as an intergenerational church family.”
They’re in a season of change as they work out what this looks like practically: “We’re trying to work at putting relationships at the heart of what we do. Part of this is encouraging different generations to connect; for example, we’ve had some older adults come to Rally or Youth Group to do talks, maybe to share about a special area of interest. Not only does this reinforce that we’re part of a body that works together to love the other parts, but it helps build relationship—when the young people turn up on a Sunday morning, they’ve already got a connection with an older adult.”
Even simple steps such as sharing more about the content of what actually happens in the children’s ministry can help reinforce the vision and encourage unity:
“We’ve made a point of praying for our kids before they go out to the kids’ program on a Sunday morning. We talk about what they’re learning, and we pray for it together.”
On December 15, the church is holding a community celebration service where evangelist Graham Ashby is coming to preach, “...it’s a chance for Rally, Junior and Senior Youth Group, and playgroup families to come along. Some of these families don’t attend our church regularly. We’re putting on a sausage sizzle, a bouncy castle and hoping that this will be a point of connection between our wider community and our church family as we celebrate God’s goodness together.”
Story by Sophia Sinclair.
