Steps

Has talk of an Intergen Camp started you thinking intergenerationally about your church? What this could look like for you can be as varied as we have churches.

Late last year a group of children’s ministry enthusiasts gathered in Mathesons Bay to develop new intergenerational resources to offer the church of Aotearoa New Zealand. The result was Intergenerational Steps. (There is also a podcast to come. Watch this space).

This guide is for those who are already exploring the benefits of an intergenerational journey within their faith communities and are wanting to be more intentional.

This document assumes that, as a church community, you have already done research and thinking around intergenerational ministry. Please contact Liz Eichler, liz.e@sunz.org.nz, for a digital copy.

* People are connecting and building relationships across generations.

* The Body of Christ is serving, sharing and learning together.

* Everyone has the opportunity to give and receive, and we honour the knowledge in the room.

* We use language that is inclusive and easy to understand.

* We welcome all. We are generous in how we include everyone, especially newcomers.

* We respect the traditions of our church as we explore practical ways to include the whole community in the faith practices of our church, i.e. How will we share communion as a community?

* Remember that there will be something for everyone, but not everything will be for everyone.

“Every age has gifts we need and every age has needs we gift.”

Rich Melheim

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When E3 began in 2012 it was a collection of youth who we either convinced or “voluntold” that they were going away on a fun adventure to explore, equip and empower them using our cornerstones of faith formation, creation/conservation care and leadership development as the drivers of growth. We took them into remote and wilderness areas of Aotearoa New Zealand.

They loved it!

So, now, after 10 years of annual E3 expeditions, we have planned more wild adventures for intrepid young people to grow their faith in the great outdoors. There are four 11-day E3’s all starting early December in Canterbury, Otago, Central North Island and—new for 2023— Bay of Islands. We have also planned an inaugural E3 Young Adults expedition (for ages 19-25) in early February.

E3 is a partnership between Adventure Specialties Trust, A Rocha Aotearoa

NZ and SUNZ. Each organization holds Christian faith at its core and contributes their expertise and ministry to each expedition. Faithful financial support has come primarily from The Longview Trust—to whom we are humbled and grateful for funding E3 from the beginning. Each E3 costs on average $22K and we have managed to keep the cost at $500 per participant for the entire 11 days— about one and a half weeks.

Several years ago, we seized on an opportunity to take E3 to another level by committing intentional time to shaping the content used in the field. This is a combination of our cornerstones and taking current and potential future instructors on a training retreat. This happens annually and is very fruitful in sharing stories and up-skilling our instructor teams. We have embraced StrengthsFinder assessments as tools to help our instructors model effective leadership and empower the participants as they face the expedition challenges.

This December, we are excited to embrace the Advent season on our E3 expeditions. We will challenge our youth to reflect on hope, peace, joy, and love and apply these themes to their leadership, conservation care and faith formation.

Does this challenge you? Will you consider going on an E3 expedition? Will you consider sponsoring an E3 participant or encouraging someone to give it a go?

E3 is challenging and life changing. You can find out more on our SUNZ website https://www.sunz.org.nz/youth/e3/. Registrations will open on 9th August.