I recently had a wonderful visit to Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. I had the privilege of teaching some classes on campus, mostly with young adults in the room. That’s a little different from the normal women’s leadership training audiences, who are mostly middle aged to little older leaders, with a few young women sprinkled in.
I taught one class entitled Connecting the Generations. This time I mostly slanted it toward helping them understand the older generations. Normally I spend more time on the learning the characteristics of the younger women. It was such a joy to feel the connection with these young women and to challenge them to reach out to older women and engage them in relationships.
We discussed several practical ideas for connecting the different generations of women:
1. Panel of older women-younger women honor the older by serving them tea or other refreshments. Then they get to submit questions to the panel and the older women respond. Two things happen: the older women realize how important their experiences are to the younger women and the younger women learn that they really do have lots in common with the older generation.
2. Link of Love-event held at First Baptist Church Spartanburg that included all ages of girls to women, fashion show from the decades accompanied by music from that decade, and recorded testimonies from women in each decade. Lots of tear and laughter incurred, and they discovered how much they had in common no matter what the age!
3. Girls’ ministry birthday party-this was to honor widows in the church. Each birthday month sat at different tables hosted by one of the teenage girls who served their table. It was a special time for widows who were missing celebrating with their spouses.
Watch for more ideas upcoming! Share your ideas for connecting the generations in a practical way!
For more ideas also check out the categories on this blog “Leading Young Women” and “Top Ten for the Generations. “
Resources:
Women Reaching Women, Revised and Expanded version, Chris Adams
Lost and Found, Stetzer, Stanley & Hayes
Context, Threads by LifeWay
The Millenials, Thom Rainer & Jess Rainer
Respect: Meaningful Ministry with Baby Boomers in your Church and Community, Craig & Gandy
Essential Church, Rainer & Rainer
Simple Church, Rainer & Geiger
www.threadsmedia.com
www.lifeway.com/women
www.lifeway.com/womenreachingwomen
The Barna Group on-line, http://barna.org
Gen Trends, http://www.gentrends.com/
Scouting the Divine, Margaret Feinberg
No Other Gods, Kelly Minter
Interrupted, Jen Hatmaker
Sacred Roads, Heather Zempel
The Tough Sayings of Jesus, Michael Kelley
What Do You Do With Your Wait?, Mike Harder
Connect the Dots, Mike Hurt
unChristian, David Kinnaman & Gabe Lyons