Congregations have inter-generational opportunities built in.
“When seven-year–old Kate asked her mom if the family could join a congregation, like all her friends, her mom knew it was time to find a spiritual home. She is glad she did, as the power of deep connections her kids found in the youth group, family camp, and intergenerational activities were life-changing for the whole family.”
Discussion:
This story is actually mine. We found a wonderful home in our small congregation of 180 families. It was great because everything anyone volunteered to do made a big difference and it was easy to contribute. Congregations are one of the best place for intergenerational activities. Some of the activities we did were:
- Secret Buddy: every kid who wanted to was paired up with an adult secret buddy for a month. They exchanged little gifts, cards over the month and then had a celebration where everyone found out who their secret buddy was.
- Everyone Birthday Party:we all divided up in groups by month of our birthday and sometimes even met other people born on our same day of the month. The group talked about what we liked about our birthday month and common interests. Then all the groups ate cake together. It was a blast!
- Intergenerational Dances: where the members were the band, and we rock-and-rolled with kids running around us. There was plenty of goodies and energy to last all night. We played music to appeal to all generations.
- Pancake breakfasts and Group Soup: every month we all had a couple meals together.
- Coming of Age program for a 13-14 year-olds, with a Wizard of Oz retreat to kick it off, values of our religious organization, and a Wilderness retreat. For the mentor program, an adult volunteer was matched with a mentee for the 6 month program and did service-learning, fun activities, and exploring insightful questions. This pair become very close.
- Family Camp at Seabeck: this was the very best, where my children got to experience freedom like I had in my childhood. Families with kids of all ages hang out together on 20 acres for a week. The kids run free together all day. This was the best for teens who all accepted for who they are.
This truly is a place where children can say “I feel cared for and valued by my congregational village.”
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If I knew then what I know now,
I would have spread the value of coming of age programs to everyone.
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What was your biggest take-away?
Let me know if you have any questions?
Hi! I’m Dr. Kathy. Welcome to my website! Although Family Empowerment Network is formally closed, we want to keep these resources available to you. Our belief is that parents are the most wise and intuitive about what is best for their children. However, parents sometimes need the support of effective, timeless, compassionate parenting information and strategies. On this website you will find our three parenting books on boys, girls, and kids’ social lives and ten years of monthly newsletter articles. In addition, a powerful, under-recognized resource is the support of other parents. Here you will find how to use our books as discussion guides for monthly self-led parenting groups. One last resource: I am still available to give talks and workshops.
