Intergenerational relations

James Alvin Jamison D.Min.

Declining church attendance is a problem, locally and nationally, for many pastors and congregations. This decline is causing many pastors and churches to have concerns about the future survival of their ministries. There are many reasons given by church statisticians and church growth gurus for this decline. One of the problems can be traced to the generational divide that exists in many congregations between the seniors and those of younger age groups. This thesis offers strategies to use prophetic preaching as a tool to bridge the generation gap. The preacher has to be willing to be intentionally intergenerational in their approach to ministry and in the preparation and delivery of sermons. To do so, the preacher must craft sermons that include all generations so that the listening community becomes a church for all generations.

Willie Robert Cobb Jr. D.Min.

This thesis-project set out to explore the current faith formation programs offered in the Archdiocese of Chicago and the experience of fathers within this context, to support the spiritual growth of fathers and to explore how the church is called to support that growth through faith formation. The meta-method employed for this thesis-project involves the four “movements” of the “pastoral circle” developed by Joe Holland and Peter Henriot, with two additional steps—engagement with theory and correlation. The process included both a broad approach and a personal outreach to those working in the African American and queer communities. Direct outreach to various parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Chicago entailed making phone calls, sending emails, or stopping by a total of 32 parishes. In the end, three focus groups were conducted. The moderator completed all the necessary IRB paperwork and permissions prior to the session meetings. The moderator encouraged participation from each participant in order to elicit information from every single person in the group. To facilitate the discussion, questions were presented to allow the participants to reflect on and share their experiences. Genograms were used to help the participants consider the impact of their personal family history on themselves and their children for several generations back. The project presented and answered the following questions: Does the Archdiocese of Chicago play a role in helping fathers understand how to raise their children, how to fight stereotypes they face about their fatherhood, and how to share their spirituality with their children in a way that interrupts patterns of violence and confronts the social issues they encounter? A two-tiered program was developed to address the concerns that were presented through the course of the project to provide agency for fathers in developing their own spirituality.

Lillian Robinson

Why African-American Generation X'ers Do Not Attend African-American Churches
This dissertation responds to the question, what are the reasons that African-American Gen X'ers do not attend the African-American Church? Surveys were completed by twenty community volunteers. They survey consisted of twenty Likert-Scale questions, one open - ended statement, and three survey evaluation questions.
The results revealed 60% of the participants felt the church service time did not meet their schedules. The reasons included busy lifestyles, finances, and a desire to preserve personal time. Hypocrisy in the church was selected by 45% of the participants. Ninety-four percent of the participants felt the survey allowed them to express their honest options.

Don Laing D.Min.

The challenge of the Chinese immigrant church (CIC) in America is the ongoing departure of its second-generation, American-born Chinese (ABC), now commonly called the “silent exodus.” The Overseas Born Chinese (OBC) leaders of these CICs need to champion a clear and compelling vision of reaching these ABCs that rises above retention. In addition, these OBC leaders will need to incorporate two more practices to reach their second-generation: (1) embrace a biblical culture above either culture of origin and (2) create processes that empowers the second-generation in leadership. This research project evaluated these three practices within three churches that were determined to be reaching their second-generation.
This dissertation was divided into three parts. It opened with a literature review that examined each of the three practices relating to vision, culture and leadership. The dissertation then continued with the construction of the research procedure, utilizing the case study approach. Three Chinese immigrant churches were chosen for this study: Houston Chinese Church, Mandarin Baptist Church of Los Angeles and West Houston Chinese Church. The qualitative research method was applied to handle the field research portion of this study including but not limited to site visits, interviews, and the follow-up questionnaire. The findings of this project were discussed and evaluated regarding the significance of them and the recommendations for future study. The case studies affirmed the significance of each of the three hypotheses.

Reggie R Ogea

The purpose of this project in ministry is to equip selected families of the Valley Creek Baptist Church in faith transmission skills. By equipping parents in personal spiritula formation skills, contextualized in cultural realities and development stages of children, the project director enables primary spiritula influencers to effectively transmit Christian faith to present and emerging generations. In this project in ministry, the project director researched fields of spiritual formation and family ministry, synthesizing his research into a listing of five personal and faith building essential skills, and created an experiential curriculum. The project director equipped parents and spiritual influencers using the research and development curriculum in faith transmission skills during six weekly sessions, each followed by five days of targeted personal and family faith transmission practices.

Kendra R Grams

The author researched how a congregation could partner with a social service agency to empower families experiencing intergenerational poverty toward economic self-sufficiency using a two-generation approach. The author led a three-year pilot partnership, evaluating program effectiveness using both quantitative and qualitative metrics, and incorporating lessons learned throughout program implementation. Client families built skills and achieved numerous goals while engaged with the program. Program evaluation suggests the following elements advance program effectiveness: clear expectations of client families from the outset, focus on support practices that empower client families, and robust coordination of support provided to client families by all partners.

Joshua R Kingcade

The thesis of this project is that intergenerational learning can be meaningful for its participants in five particular ways: increasing biblical knowledge, forming meaningful relationships, growing closer to God, encouraging daily discipleship, and loving others better. The author used basic qualitative research tools to plan and execute a four-week class with participants ranging from fourth grade to senior adulthood. Each class addressed one or more of the desired outcomes listed above. Participants answered surveys and interviews before and after the class, and based on this data, the author found that intergenerational leaning can essentially achieve the same outcomes as age-segregated education.

Kelvin A Aikens

This project demonstrates that integrating young adults into leadership positions within the church will rfacilitate the need of a systematic succession planning tool for the church. this project underscores the premise that people are more emotionally involved in an organization when intergenerational relationships are forged. Therefore, the focus of this project is to establish mentoring relationships to help get young people involved, especially in leadership roles where they can contribute to the church. This project was successful in providing directional information for young adults to understand their ministry fit and it revealed the mentoring process is not to be rushed.

Noe Juarez

Given the significant changes in our world, churches, and culture today, church leaders are called to understand Millennials as a great generation in order to partner with them and embrace the future with hope, energy, and excitement. This report contains biblical and theological references about young people and how God has woven their lives throughout our history. It also describes the current literature about Millennials from a sociological perspective. There is also a conversation about mission and missional church as it relates to the Millennials. The work shares stories of current mission and missional efforts of Highland Presbyterian Church and interviews with Millennials who are involved in the missional movement. The report concludes with some thoughts on where the Millennials may be leading the missional church as we embrace the future with hope.

Dawn A Schaffer

The purpose of this project was to equip a selected group of grandparents at Macland Baptist Church, Powder Springs, Georgia, in prayer skills to promote faith transmission to grandchildren. The project director selected the equipping model as her template. The components of this project include the following: (1) the research of faith transmission between grandparents and grandchildren with prayer as a tool for faith transmission; (2) the designing of a curriculum to equip selected grandparents in prayer skills to promote faith transmission to their grandchildren; and (3) the conducting of a series of lessons to equip selected grandparents in prayer skills to promote faith transmission. The project resulted in a select group of grandparents demonstrating evidence of prayer skills to promote faith transmission to grandchildren.