Heart to Heart: One Church’s Inter-generational Journey

Posted by jonathan on Monday, August 14, 2023 · Leave a Comment

L-R: Ms Charissa, Rev Dr Henry Wong, Ms Ting Siew Lee

What does it take for the generations to walk together in unity?

Covenant Presbyterian Church (CPC) has been on a journey to foster inter-generational connections. Pastor Rev Dr Henry Wong and Ms Charissa, a next-generation lay leader, shared their journey and learning insights in a fireside chat facilitated by Ms Ting Siew Lee of Capelle’s Church Equip on 8 August 2023 at East Asia School of Theology. This was followed by breakouts into three smaller groups for guided discussions.

Church leaders and pastors from some 28 denominational and independent churches were in attendance for the event. During the breakouts, Pastor Henry, Charissa, and a church Elder, Joan, were the resource persons in each of the groups. The group members answered questions like “What are the mindset changes needed to build stronger intergenerational connections?” “What has worked well in your church that you can share to help others?” “Who needs to be involved for the church to better engage the generations?” etc.

In many ways this event is an extension of the first inter-generational seminar conducted in March 2022 by EAST and Capelle. Pastor Henry, who also attended the inaugural seminar, subsequently engaged Capelle to collaborate together for the benefit of CPC in November 2022. A video giving highlights of that first seminar was then shown (which featured a panel of speakers who are church leaders covering the ages of 30’s to the 60’s).

Both Pastor Henry and Charissa shared about the process initiated by the former to connect the generations together, build trust, overcome biases, and leverage on the strengths of various generations. An example of how the church empowered younger leaders was in asking Charissa to run the church camp as the camp commandant (the first time they ever had a young person to do so!).

Discussions at the breakouts elicited much banter and soul searching amongst the members. One group, for instance, noted three aspects of preparing younger leaders for church leadership viz 1) intentional discipleship with a focus on preparing a “ready heart” toward leadership succession; 2) intentional pathway of developing leaders through internship, mentorship, or as associates; 3) a willingness to release missionaries for the harvest across the generations, especially the younger ones.

Some 36 attended the event and the profile of these attendees included church members and staff, ministry leaders, board members, pastors and elders. Participants came from at least 28 churches of 7 denominations and other independent or non-denominational streams. The event was co-organised by East Asia School of Theology and Capelle’s Church Equip as a partnership.

Stage backdrop design by Lut Go, assisted by Wong Ee Yuing. Reception team by Rina Lee and Esther Tan. Welcome team by Boon Aitee and Wong Ee Yuing.

Christianity Today has published an article adapted from the book, The Generations Project: Bridging Generational Divides in the Singapore Church, authored by Wei-Hao Ho and Soo-Inn Tan (2023).

Below is a video highlights (1.5 min.) of the previous seminar on inter-generational dialogue held at EAST on March 2022. The full seminar video (1 hr. 40 min.) may be found here.