Dear Rose Park,
As I mentioned in last week’s letter, a small group from Rose Park was able to attend a Generation Spark conference last Friday in Grand Rapids (for a more detailed look at Generation Spark, click here). I can safely speak on behalf of the entire group, it was a wonderful time of worship, play, discernment, discussion, and imagination. God’s Holy Spirit is clearly alive and well in the life of the Church as faith is being sparked and fanned from one generation to another.
As I drove back to Holland, I kept thinking of the Psalm that was offered over us at the beginning of the conference. It’s a psalm of praise inviting us to imagine and proclaim the greatness and goodness of God.
Psalm 145: 1-4
1 I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
2 Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.
3 Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom.
4 One generation commends your works to another;
they tell of your mighty acts.
It is the call of the Church and each individual Christian to tell of God’s mighty acts and pass them down from one generation to another. This is intentional work and cannot be passed to someone else’s plate. This work is also not for only parents or grandparents. This is the responsibility of everyone, and it is the heart of intergenerational ministry.
There is value for age and gender specific ministry, but there is also value in intergenerational ministry where young and old are learning from each other. In order for this to occur though, we need to start with the basics. I don’t mean the basics of worship, the basics of prayer, or even the basics of Christian Theology, but instead the basics of knowing each other’s names and listening to each other’s voices.
I’d encourage you, the next time you come to Sunday worship or gather at a Wednesday night meal would you be intentional about learning each other’s names? Take a risk and ask one of our young people their names and then what their interested in. Sit next to someone you don’t regularly sit next to, introduce yourself, and see where the conversation goes. If we’re going to take seriously the call and invitation of Psalm 145 to proclaim the mighty of acts of God from one generation to the another, then let us start with the basics of knowing each other’s names.
Grace & Peace,
