The First Steps for Intergenerational Small Groups: Preach the Biblical Basis

Make sure you take time for repentance as you explore these biblical values:

• We are all responsible for the next generation (Psalm 145:4). Intergenerational (IG) small groups give everyone the opportunity to relate to, and minister with children, without it being seen as a “specialized ministry.”
• Children need community. Jesus was in community (Luke 2:44). IG small groups place children where God placed them: in community with their families. Jesus traveled to Jerusalem in community. That is why His parents were not concerned about his welfare for three days!
• Parents are responsible for their children (Deuteronomy 29:29). IG groups empower parents and keep families together.
• Older women with younger women, older men with younger men (Titus 2). IG groups empower older men and women to be “fathers and mothers” to young adults who desperately need support.
• He puts the lonely/single in families (Psalm 68:6). IG small groups bring single parents/single adults out of isolation and into the context of community and family.
• Unity is generational, not just peer (John 17:21; Psalm 133). Unity is generally seen in a peer context. But when Jesus prayed, He included generational unity. IG small groups allow that to be lived and worked out.
• The elderly have a great contribution for the next generation (Psalm 71:17-18). IG small groups facilitate the older generation passing on their heritage and wisdom to the next.

It is TIME for the Spirit of Elijah. Remember what is says in Malachi 4:5-6: “Before the great and terrible day of the Lord I will send the Spirit of Elijah and He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers or I will strike the land with a curse.”

This Scripture is a dissertation in itself but here are a few thoughts:

• What is the time we are living in? Is it time for this to be fulfilled?
• The Spirit of Elijah: Elijah came against the prophets of Baal who were sacrificing children. It is time for us to stand against the way children are “sacrificed” in so many ways for the convenience of adults.
• ”The hearts of the fathers to the children”: adults are to take the initiative in reaching out to a generation of children with the promise that they will respond.
• “..or I will strike the land with a curse.” Where one generation has turned its backs on the next a generation, the next generation grows up fatherless and the fruit of this is seen in the homes and streets of our nations.

Remember that IG small groups can be an instrument for this Scripture to be fulfilled. Intergenerational small groups are bringing the generations together “that they may be one” (John 17).