Written by Holly Terry<\/p>\n
Reaching all generations together in the world that we currently live in seems to be a challenge. In my 35 years of serving in ministry, I have heard these famous words time and time again from our senior generation, \u201cI have done my time and I am not sure what I have to offer to this next generation of \u2018electronic\u2019 kids.\u201d As for the younger generation, they have no idea of all the amazing things that they can glean from our senior generation. We need to see this amazing opportunity to bridge this gap.<\/p>\n
At our church, Bethel Life in Greenville, PA, we have such a great representation of all generations sharing their gifts and talents that God has given all of us. We are trying to bridge this gap in many areas of our church. One of the programs that I love most is on Wednesday night called, \u201cFeed My Sheep.\u201d It includes a mixed-age group who cook dinner for our teachers, helpers, and kids. This meal is actually part of our evening service. In our culture, eating at the dinner table feels as though it has become obsolete. We want to reintroduce this concept to our children. God stirred this idea in the heart of one of our seniors because of her love for cooking and the fact that families have little time to come around the table like she did as a child. During this time together, we teach the children to serve one another, pray for our meal and express thankfulness for those who prepared it, open conversations with each other and be patient to wait for others to finish eating, and learn to help clear the table before we are all dismissed to play. This is bridging the generational gap from ages 2 to 76 years old!<\/p>\n
We have some other great areas of ministry that intentionally includes all generations. One of them is Carr\u2019s Men.<\/strong> There are several men (of all ages \u2013 senior, young adult, and middle aged) who help people by working on their cars. We named this ministry after Bethel Life\u2019s previous pastor, Rev. David Carr, who passed away on December 18, 2017. Another area of service that is amazing is our ministry to nursing home residents. One of the volunteers is a grandfather, and he often brought his young grandson along to show how to share the Word of God, pray over, and sing songs to the residents. The grandson eventually went off to college, and now the grandfather is bringing his great-grandson who is six years old to the nursing homes with him. This is bridging the gap!<\/p>\n I truly believe that when we are loving God and loving others, all ages should be together whenever possible. There are so many incredible opportunities for the older generation to impart hard-earned lessons to the younger generations through serving together, mentoring, and just being a part of each other\u2019s lives. The beauty is that it works both ways; the older generation ends up learning and receiving just as much as they are giving to the younger generation.<\/p>\n My encouragement to all generations working and serving together is to remember what the Word of God says in 1 Samuel 16:7, \u201cGod sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.\u201d There is something special that happens when generations come together. It shows that despite their differences, they can form connections and benefit greatly from one another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[757,4],"tags":[749,704,216,425,16,188],"class_list":{"0":"post-4061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allgenerations","8":"category-discipleship-ministries","9":"tag-749","10":"tag-all-generations","11":"tag-children","12":"tag-core-value","13":"tag-discipleship","14":"tag-family","15":"entry"},"title_es":"Todas las generaciones","content_es":"Escrito por Holly Terry Llegar a todas las generaciones en el mundo en que vivimos actualmente parece ser un desaf\u00edo. En mis 35 a\u00f1os de servicio en el ministerio, he escuchado estas famosas palabras una y otra vez de nuestra generaci\u00f3n s\u00e9nior: "He cumplido con mi tiempo y no estoy seguro de lo que tengo para ofrecerle a esta pr\u00f3xima generaci\u00f3n de ni\u00f1os" electr\u00f3nicos ". "En cuanto a la generaci\u00f3n m\u00e1s joven, no tienen idea de todas las cosas sorprendentes que pueden extraer de nuestra generaci\u00f3n senior. Necesitamos ver esta incre\u00edble oportunidad para cerrar esta brecha. En nuestra iglesia, Bethel Life en Greenville, Pensilvania, tenemos una gran representaci\u00f3n de todas las generaciones que comparten sus dones y talentos que Dios nos ha dado a todos. Estamos tratando de cerrar esta brecha en muchas \u00e1reas de nuestra iglesia. Uno de los programas que m\u00e1s amo es el mi\u00e9rcoles por la noche llamado "Alimenta a mis ovejas". Incluye un grupo de edades mixtas que preparan la cena para nuestros maestros, ayudantes y ni\u00f1os. Esta comida es en realidad parte de nuestro servicio de la noche. En nuestra cultura, comer en la mesa parece haber quedado obsoleto. Queremos reintroducir este concepto a nuestros hijos. Dios impuls\u00f3 esta idea en el coraz\u00f3n de uno de nuestros adultos mayores debido a su amor por la cocina y al hecho de que las familias tienen poco tiempo para venir a la mesa, como lo hizo ella cuando era una ni\u00f1a. Durante este tiempo juntos, ense\u00f1amos a los ni\u00f1os a servirse los unos a los otros, oramos por nuestra comida y expresamos agradecimiento por los que lo prepararon, entablamos conversaciones entre ellos y somos pacientes para esperar a que otros terminen de comer, y aprendemos a ayudar a limpiar la mesa. Antes de que todos seamos despedidos de jugar. \u00a1Esto est\u00e1 acortando la brecha generacional de las edades de 2 a 76 a\u00f1os! Tenemos otras grandes \u00e1reas de ministerio que incluyen intencionalmente a todas las generaciones. Uno de ellos es Carr's Men.<\/strong> Hay varios hombres (de todas las edades: adultos mayores, adultos j\u00f3venes y de mediana edad) que ayudan a las personas trabajando en sus autom\u00f3viles. Nombramos este ministerio por el pastor anterior de Bethel Life, el Reverendo David Carr, quien falleci\u00f3 el 18 de diciembre de 2017. Otra \u00e1rea de servicio que es incre\u00edble es nuestro ministerio para los residentes de hogares de ancianos. Uno de los voluntarios es un abuelo, y con frecuencia llev\u00f3 a su nieto para mostrarle c\u00f3mo compartir la Palabra de Dios, orar y cantar canciones a los residentes. El nieto eventualmente se fue a la universidad, y ahora el abuelo trae consigo a su bisnieto, que tiene seis a\u00f1os, a los hogares de ancianos. \u00a1Esto est\u00e1 salvando la brecha! Realmente creo que cuando amamos a Dios y amamos a los dem\u00e1s, todas las edades deben estar juntas siempre que sea posible. Hay tantas oportunidades incre\u00edbles para que la generaci\u00f3n mayor imparta lecciones duramente ganadas a las generaciones m\u00e1s j\u00f3venes a trav\u00e9s del servicio conjunto, la tutor\u00eda y solo ser parte de las vidas de los dem\u00e1s. La belleza es que funciona en ambos sentidos; la generaci\u00f3n mayor termina aprendiendo y recibiendo tanto como lo que le est\u00e1n dando a la generaci\u00f3n m\u00e1s joven. Mi aliento a todas las generaciones que trabajan y sirven juntos es recordar lo que dice la Palabra de Dios en 1 Samuel 16: 7: "Dios no ve lo que el hombre ve, porque el hombre mira la apariencia externa, pero el Se\u00f1or mira el coraz\u00f3n". Hay algo especial que sucede cuando las generaciones se unen. Muestra que a pesar de sus diferencias, pueden formar conexiones y beneficiarse enormemente entre s\u00ed.","author_name":"","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/09\/All-Generations-Holly-Terry.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4T9u2-13v","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}