I’ll never forget looking across the plastic purple tablecloths to my then-five-year-old, Lydia, sitting next to one of the saints of our church. Bob, who was about 80 at the time, was helping Lydia string together the beads of an Advent bracelet: two purple beads, one pink, one purple, and finally a gold star bead for Christmas Eve.
As they placed the beads on the bracelet, I heard him saying, “This one means hope, this one means peace, the pink one is joy. That’s for Mary; the last purple means love, and finally, the gold star means…”
“Jesus is here with us!” Lydia shouted. Bob smiled, and they kept making their bracelets together, Lydia helping him when the beads were difficult to string.
Our congregation, Ravensworth Baptist in Annandale, Virginia, was hosting an all-age Advent event just before the season began. Bob later told me how much it meant to him to see Advent through Lydia’s eyes. He was moved by her growing faith and the understanding of Advent she shared with him.
On one Advent Sunday, Bob and Lydia were part of an all-age group that lit the Advent candle together. They stood hand in hand as they led the congregation in the call to worship. Later, they’d often greet each other by saying, “Jesus is here with us!”
At our church, we held this pre-Advent gathering because of the intention around intergenerational ministry. But we also did it because of the practicalities.
We are a smaller church with few children and youth. We were wading through feelings of anxiety about change and reduced numbers, so this event was a test of the waters.
We stumbled into this practice, but now it is typical for our congregation. We regularly host all-age fellowships, plan and lead in worship and choir, hold pancake races on Shrove Tuesday, participate in the Imposition of Ashes on Ash Wednesday, and light Advent candles in worship, to name a few.
Traci Smith and Dave Csinos write about the beauty of all-age ministry in their new book, Church Together: An Essential Guide to All-Age Ministry. Through theological reflection, practical suggestions, and embodied experience, they share what it means to live into all-age ministry in the local congregation.
Smith and Csinos write, “All-age ministry is about nothing less than the missio Dei, God’s mission of love and hope for all of creation. The good news is we don’t do this work alone. We are partners with the communion of saints living among us and who have gone before us.”
Following their introduction, they offer theories and principles for all-age ministry. They then give practical suggestions for navigating the important moments of life together, such as how to prepare communion together, pray for one another, plant a native garden, and even how to fill the stable for Christmas Eve.
Church Together is an essential, accessible discussion and learning guide for anyone interested in all-age approaches to ministry. Gather your group and see what you might dream up together! Some of us will gather with the Alliance of Baptists in a cohort this fall to discuss the book.
The snapshot I have of Lydia and Bob carefully making the Advent bracelets is so powerful to me. This is the possibility of all-age ministry!
Bob died in 2023. I knew I would be away on sabbatical when his memorial service came a month later.
My family and I were walking through Westminster Abbey in London at the exact time of his memorial service in Virginia. I lit a candle in his memory, pausing for a prayer near Poets’ Corner, a place that held special meaning to him.
I looked over at Lydia, and she lifted up her wrist; she had packed and worn the Advent bracelet they made together all those years ago. This time she whispered, instead of shouting, “Jesus is here with us. And so is Mr. Bob.”
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Rev. Dr. Leah Davis is the pastor of Ravensworth Baptist Church in Annandale, Virginia.