Planning should involve all generations
By Rev Sandy Brodine
I wonder how can we include younger generations in future church planning?
As we begin to focus on the Faithful Futures goal of growing all-age communities, I am wondering: how can we ensure that we’ve heard the voices of younger generations as we dream about growing thriving all-age communities?
What do I mean by Faithful Futures? These are the set of five goals for the next five years that were passed by the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania at our Synod meeting in August 2025.
The fourth Faithful Futures goal relates directly to growing intergenerational communities: “To have at least one all-age community of faith that is interactive, diverse, inclusive and transformative in 80% of Coordinated Ministries by 2030.”
The fifth goal, “to plant five new missional communities by 2030”, may also include intergenerational community.
When planning to either grow a new community that is intentionally intergenerational, or seeking to renew an already existing community, it is imperative to include people of all ages in the planning. Churches are good at seeking input from adults, but often forget to find out how children, youth and young adults might imagine their future church community.
The answer is deceptively simple. In order to include the voices of younger generations in our future church planning, we need to make the planning itself intergenerational. When planning a gathering or meeting to seek input and feedback from people, choose a method of gathering input that children and other young people feel safe to join in.
The key to choosing a good process is ensuring that ALL voices in the community are going to be heard, and that everyone understands that their input will be of value. Including children and young people means that we have to ensure that there are good intergenerational relationships in the community so that they feel confident to speak up and offer their ideas. Setting good guidelines and developing good culture in a community so that everyone, young, old and of whatever diversity feels welcome, included and valued is the ongoing intentional work of any thriving intergenerational community.
One good example of an inclusive group process is Mandala Meaning Making, which I have been pioneering in a range of settings around the Synod. This way of collecting input is simple and creative and encourages all voices to be heard. If you would like to know more about this, contact me at sandy.brodine@victas.uca.org.au. I would be delighted to help you design a younger generations-friendly gathering.
Other methods of group processes that can be adapted to include children and families in future church planning include open space technology and café-style conversations. Once again, I would be happy to help you to learn how to use either of these methods to develop a group process that would work for you.
Find out more about Faithful Futures here
Rev Sandy Brodine is Younger Generations Education and Strategy Coordinator