New material for Intergenerational Events

The CRCNA has prepared a new raft of material simply called 'WE' designed to help churches create faith shaping, genuinely intergenerational events (see below why these are important.)

These are not services where children are given activities while adults are addressed, nor are they simply beefed-up Sunday school lessons. Rather around a meal, people of all ages gather, talk, learn, sing and participate in activities that are designed to help the generations mix and share faith. Each event goes for about 1.5 - 2 hours and all the resources needed are included in the outlines.

The event has three parts (with a meal or snack).


Step 1: Welcome, gathering, and building community

Step 2: Learning experiences for all ages

Enter the story through things like dramatic readings or a photo montage combined with a reading. Then live into the story as you do a fun activity.

Step 3: Reflect and praise
Share what you’ve learned, praise God in song, and learn how to “take it further” with ideas for living out what you’ve learned.

You can get a sample here.



Behind the 'WE' curriculum is the belief that intergenerational interaction is vital for healthy faith development. It was certainly the pattern God established for Israel (see Deut 6.) While our traditional  approach of separating children, youth and adults into separate groups has some benefits, it also has had some unintended consequences:

• Children and youth don’t feel like they are an integral part of the church’s life and ministry. They’re a part of “children’s church” or the “youth group.” They feel a sense of belonging to their particular silo rather than to the church as a whole.


• They don’t have an opportunity to see their parents and other adults talk about and live out their faith close-up. They miss out on hearing the “faith stories” that abound in the church—the struggles and triumphs, the doubts and deep faith—that make faith real and ground it in practice.


• Adults lose the opportunity to learn from young people’s faith. Anyone who has spent time around children and teens knows that they can be excellent teachers if adults are listening.

For these reasons WE is a welcome addition to the stable of Reformed material that can be used to build up the people of God.

Why not download the sample and let me know what you think.

Has anyone tried this or another kind of intergenerational event? How did it go?