Recently the Gospel Coalition published an article on "Why the Church Needs Intergenerational Friendships." I'm a big proponent of gathering generations of believers together in the church. It makes a statement about the breadth of the body of Christ, and it is also how the Apostle Paul prescribes Titus to preserve sound doctrine within the church (with older women teaching younger women, and older men teaching younger men - Titus 2). I agree that you have to push through discomfort to make these intergenerational connections work. We do not naturally gravitate towards those of different generations, and I still have to get over my own intimidation issues in my mid-30's (with younger women being way cooler than me, and older women being way too busy to bother). I find too that younger women often have an idealistic picture of what an "older" woman should look like (never flawed, abounding in wisdom, the perfect wife and mother) and older women convince themselves that they are too broken for younger women to want anything to do with them.

Yet when we get over ourselves, there is something all together redemptive and beautiful when men and women of different generations gather. It reminds us that we are all in need of Christ, in every generation. And it encourages us to live "self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." (Titus 2:12b-13) The coming kingdom inaugurated by the return of Christ will have a fullness that we only now have in part. Generations worshipping together gives us but a glimpse!