Here's our favorite little FINK Ethan from 1st in Northridge, CA (Epicenter Lutheran) and Pastor Mike Anderson to say hello this morning, and an intergenerational thought for the day.
What does the toddler have to give that you can't get in a workbook?
Energy. Joy. Discovery. An honest and transparent need to be cared for. (I need a change!) Unconditional love.
What does the elder have to give that you can't get in a workbook?
Wisdom. Perspective. Experience. Stories. Unconditional love.
What is the church without these gifts? What is the faith without these gifts?
Yet Sunday after Sunday, the generations arrive to the last truely intergenerational community in America and what do we do? We herd (segregate) them into separate rooms.
Stupid.
If the church is the last place where most of America's children could get a weekly fix of wisdom, perspective, experience, stories and the unconditional love of the elder, why would we do this?
If the church is the only place where most of America's elderly could get a weekly fix of energy, joy, discovery, someone who honestly needs them and unconditional love, why would we deny them of this?
It's time to fix a broken system.
What if, three years from now, there was not a child in your church without adopted grandparents? What if, because of your determination to kill Sunday School and give a GIFT to every elder, there was not a single grandparent in your church without multiple little hands to hold and multiple children scrambling onto their laps? What if there was not a single single mother without aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins for her children? What if there was not a single teenager without a second opinion? And a third? And a fourth?
It may be time to resurrect the concept of the extended family. Your church could be that place. You could create surrogate, adoptive, intergenerational, extended faith families for all God's people.
It could be the one GIFT the world is waiting for the church to give.
Rich
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