Meaningful Intergenerational Ministry: A Model to Explore in Your Setting

Unity in Christ United Methodist Church, New Jersey

Leaders concerned with faith formation that meets the needs of today’s church recommend various approaches to intergenerational ministries; Messy Church, GenOn, and several other organizations offer helpful models and resources. Here’s another model that is the result of the creative response in recognizing mutual needs in a Korean-American congregation in New Jersey.

Rev. Minho Cho started the YES (Youth Engaging Seniors) Ministry as a response to the needs to bridge the tensions of growing up and growing older in two cultures. Both youth and older adults needed support and could benefit from giving and receiving gifts of interaction.

You can read an article about this ministry here: “Youth Engage Seniors at Unity in Christ UMC.”

Have you wondered how youth and older adults in your church and community could connect meaningfully? Rev. Cho offers some suggestions that guided their process:

• Before starting the YES project, our church conducted environmental analyses and research to determine whom to serve and through what ministry. We used resources like MissionInsite, census data, Barna Group statistics, news articles, and interviews with professional church members to understand the local demographics, identify those outside social care, and determine what the church could do for them.
• Second, we analyzed our church's resources: We are a congregation of members who chose to remain with the United Methodist Church after the disaffiliation decision. We don't have our own building; we use the facilities of our sister church, St. Andrew's United Methodist Church. Our ministry needed to reach out to people rather than invite them to our church. (We visited senior centers in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and nearby areas to explain our ministry.) We had a few passionate members who shared the ministry plan and divided roles, but we didn't have enough students to run the YES project. So, we became a certifying organization for the President's Volunteer Service Award to motivate students, including those outside our church, to participate in the YES project. Some children and their parents have joined after hearing about it.
• As with many small churches, finances are a significant obstacle. However, we discovered various funding routes within the United Methodist Church. We were able to start this ministry with the Racial Ethnic Local Church Concern Grant (RELCC) from the UMC's Discipleship Ministries, and we plan to request ongoing support through our Greater New Jersey Annual Conference.