Two Key Insights to Help You Create Space for Intergenerational Ministry

What is the purpose of a church’s physical space? According to recent Barna data, the answer to that question might depend on your age.

Making Space from Generation to Generation, a Barna briefing created in partnership with Aspen Group (available exclusively on Barna Access Plus), offers seven key findings on how the generations vary in their experience of and engagement with church. This article specifically highlights two of these findings, exploring how a church’s physical building impacts spiritual growth and discipleship.

U.S. Adults, Regardless of Age, Highly Value Meeting in Person
Even in an era with a virtual option for everything from doctor’s appointments to church services, people still hold an innate desire for communion and proximity. While younger generations do tell Barna they more heavily rely on texting and social media than older generations, in-person connection is the top way most people of all ages continue to connect with those who matter to them most.

How, then, does this preference of meeting in-person translate to faith community? There’s room to help older generations in this area. We already know from Aging Well data that most of today’s older adults (62%) are dechurched—that is, they have never attended church or have been to church before but haven’t attended in at least six months. Additionally, few older adults are growing spiritually in more intimate settings like small groups or Bible study. Less than one in 10 Boomers (8%) and less than one in six Elders (15%) tell Barna they have attended such a group in the past week (vs. 25% of Gen Z, 35% of Millennials and 23% of Gen X).

All generations agree that one of the top three purposes of a church’s physical space is to “provide a place for spiritual growth.” Beyond the sanctuary or Sunday mornings, how does your church do this?

Across every generation, U.S. adults also agree the church’s physical space should provide a place for prayer, meditation or reflection. Gen X (42%), Boomers (49%) and Elders (56%) place greater emphasis on this purpose than Millennials (30%) or Gen Z (34%).

Further, there is agreement across generations “churches should reflect the beauty of God.” Millennials and Gen X are most likely to strongly agree with this statement.

What would it look like for today’s churches to be places of spirituality and transcendence, while also being places that encourage multigenerational involvement and intergenerational ministry? How can spaces be designed in such a way that the needs of each unique generation can find support in the presence of others as they together pursue the spiritual growth teens and adults want church spaces to provide? Spiritual growth, prayer, safety, beauty and fellowship are common themes of what each generation expects in a church. Designing with these in mind is a great place to start.

All Generations See the Church as the Place to Discuss Spiritual Growth Matters
While Making Space research reveals that most U.S. adults don’t naturally think of the church as a place for having meaningful conversation about topics like loneliness, anxiety and life goals, they do look to the church when it comes to discussing spiritual faith.

For all U.S. adults, Christian or not, a church is the top place they’d feel comfortable discussing the topic of spiritual faith (44% of U.S. adults say this). Here, leaders have an opportunity to use church spaces to create safe environments to discuss the basic tenets of the Christian faith on Sunday and beyond. Is there ample lighting and seating to comfortably explore scripture? How might building elements and architecture—beams, flags, woodwork, paintings, windows—reflect the beauty of God or prompt deeper thought and introspection?

Also think about ways your building aids in discipleship. Over 40 percent of Christian adults would feel comfortable having meaningful conversations on the topic of discipleship at church. Though Gen Z is the least emphatic about these types of conversations (just 29% of Gen Z say they’d feel comfortable having a meaningful conversation about discipleship at church), a plurality of Christians across all generations say they have a desire to keep growing spiritually.

In addition, over half of all U.S. teenagers (52%) tell Barna they are “very motivated” to continue learning more about Jesus Christ throughout their life, with another 25 percent being at least “somewhat motivated” to do this.

Churches pursuing intergenerational ministry have a special opportunity to encourage the older to pour themselves into the younger, as spiritual formation and growth happens most directly in discipleship relationships. The beauty of these types of relationships is that they allow for organic relationships to form over time.

At the same time, church leaders cannot forget about the very real discipleship needs of older generations as well, especially as less than one in three Christian Boomers tell Barna they are currently being discipled.

While it may be hard for today’s older generations to be discipled by those older than them, creating unique spaces and opportunities for Boomers and Elders to gather to encourage one another continues to be an important role for any church that wants to pursue intergenerational ministry.

Further reading and resources:

• Making Space from Generation to Generation, along with other exclusive content from the Making Space series, is available to read in full on Barna Access Plus. Learn more about Barna Access Plus here.
• Some of the data shared in this article—and also shared in the full briefing—pulls from data published in Aging Well. Purchase a copy of the report here or read the report in Barna Access Plus here.
• Interested in reading more about the state of discipleship today? Check out these other articles, “Two in Five Christians Are Not Engaged in Discipleship” and “56% of Christians Feel Their Spiritual Life Is Entirely Private.”