This article is part of a series on Intergenerational Formation Insights written after a literature review by the Roots & Wings: Intergenerational Formation Collective grant team in the spring of 2025.

What Is the Age-and-Stage Ministry Model? 

The age-and-stage model refers to a ministry that groups members of the church community into separate formation, worship, or fellowship experiences based on age and life stage. Examples of age-and-stage ministry include age-segregated Sunday school, youth pilgrimages, and preschool worship.

The age-and-stage model has its roots in the Sunday School movement, which began in the eighteenth century as an educational opportunity for working class children who were unable to attend weekday school. As access to public education expanded, Sunday School shifted its focus to religious education. At the turn of the twentieth century, public schools began to integrate learnings from developmental psychology, and religious educators took note. Churches began to teach children, youth, and adults “according to the methods of modern pedagogy,” as John Westerhoff, III says in “Will Our Children Have Faith?” (3). Church members were grouped together by age or life stage similarity (preschoolers, retirees, etc.) and the teaching was tailored to meet the perceived needs of that specific group. [1]

What Are the Limits of the Age-and-Stage Model? 

The age-and-stage model of ministry can be effective. Many of us have positive examples from our own lives and ministries, such as leading a small group for other youth during a diocesan event while in high school and serving as a Godly Play mentor while working as a children’s minister. The gifts of this model include:

• community building among peers
• supporting meaning-making around specific topics such as parenting
• accommodating developmentally appropriate modes of learning
• lessening age-based power dynamics

However, research of the last several decades documents that the age-and-stage model of ministry is insufficient as a primary mode of faith formation. In “Intergenerational Ministry–A Forty-year Perspective: 1980–2020” Holly Catterton Allen and Jason Brian Santos explore the shift from the age-and-stage model toward intergenerational ministry from the 1960s through 2020. Drawing on books written by Christian formation experts, research from the National Study of Youth and Religion, the College Transition Project from Fuller Youth Institute, and a five-year study on the spiritual lives of 18–29-year-olds from the Barna Group, they conclude, “As the Millennial generation came of age, it became clear that age-segregated efforts had failed to pass on the faith in the way that had been expected” (515).

When the age-and-stage model of ministry is primary, people of all ages forego opportunities to:

• form deep cross-generational relationships with a wide range of other Christians
• experience polydirectional learning – learning across generations that is mutual and reciprocal
• mentor others
• build a sense of connection to the church community and the body of Christ beyond their small group

What Is the Alternative?

Incorporating robust opportunities for intergenerational ministry can offer an alternative to faith communities where most ministry is age segregated. Intergenerational ministry intentionally brings two or more generations together in worship, service, learning, or sharing “in order to live out being the body of Christ to each other and the greater community” (“All Ages Becoming: Intergenerational Practice and the Formation of God’s People,” 58). To be truly intergenerational, the ministry must be characterized by reciprocity, mutuality, and the empowerment of all participants. Intergenerational ministry is less a new way of being church than it is an old way, perhaps the oldest way, modeled by the ancient Israelite people and the early Christians. It is not a program as much as it is a culture.

Additionally, multiple benefits to intergenerational ministry across age groups are enumerated by practitioners and in the current research. As chapters 3 and 9 in “Intergenerational Christian Formation” make clear, these benefits include:

• cultivating a sense of belonging
• navigating difficulty and loss
• supporting transitions between life stages
• providing unique opportunities for character growth
• strengthening spiritual practices and connections
• offering a better use of resources within the congregation

What Balance Should We Seek between Age-and-Stage Ministry and Intergenerational Ministry?

In their foundational book, “Intergenerational Christian Formation: Bringing the Whole Church Together in Ministry, Community, and Worship,” Holly Catterton Allen and Christine Lawton Ross recommend that 50–80 percent of congregational activities be intentionally intergenerational (38). This leaves ample room for churches to continue to provide meaningful formation, fellowship, and worship experiences for specific age or affinity groups while finding new and creative opportunities for intergenerational ministry throughout the liturgical year and in a variety of contexts. After all, we learn to be disciples not from a book or a program, but in community, in relationship, by following Jesus, all ages together.

Note

1. A critique of the schooling-instructional paradigm used in churches is warranted. For example, an educational model of ministry may effectively teach about God, but does it help us know God or live more fully into who God created us to be? This critique, however, is beyond the scope of this article. For exploring this question further, we highly recommend “Will Our Children Have Faith?” by Westerhoff.

References

Allen, Holly Catterton, et al. “Intergenerational Christian Formation: Bringing the Whole Church Together in Ministry, Community, and Worship.” IVP Academic, 2023. 

Allen, Holly Catterton, and Jason Brian Santos. “Intergenerational Ministry–a Forty-Year Perspective: 1980-2020.” Christian Education Journal 17, no. 3 (2020): 506–29.

Grissom, Valerie, ed. “All Ages Becoming: Intergenerational Practices in the Formation of God’s People.” Abilene Christian University Press, 2023.

Westerhoff, John H., III. “Will Our Children Have Faith?” LifeLong Learning Lab Collection. Morehouse, 2012.

Featured image is by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash