About ReFocus
Over the past two decades, a movement has been sweeping the churches in America and changing the way churches minister to children, youth and families. Termed “family ministry” by most ministers, this change has at it’s heart a desire to equip and support the home as the place of primary spiritual growth and faith formation by partnering with parents/caregivers. Instead of church being the place where most kids and parents hear and talk about God, the home becomes the place where discipleship and training take place and the church offers support, resources and community to add to the process.
As more and more churches adopted this approach, it became clear that while the home was a place of primary faith formation, the community of the church to nurture, support, and equip the home was absolutely essential. As it turns out, we all need one another!
The idea of passing the faith from one generation to another through generational discipleship is not a new one; we find it all through Christian Scripture and tradition. What is new is a society that is more and more segregated along lines of age and life experience. That makes it difficult for multiple generations to find space and time to grow together in meaningful relationships that lead to discipleship and mentorship.
The mission of ReFocus Ministry is to connect generations at church and at home. We provide information, resources and support necessary to facilitate that connection in your faith community. Through individualized coaching, group cohorts, seminars, workshops, and our Connecting Generations Ministry Assessment, ReFocus seeks to help you identify the bridges and barriers to intergenerational ministry in your church and give you the tools you need to create a culture of generational discipleship and faith formation.
The idea of passing the faith from one generation to another through generational discipleship is not a new one; we find it all through Christian Scripture and tradition. What is new is a society that is more and more segregated along lines of age and life experience. That makes it difficult for multiple generations to find space and time to grow together in meaningful relationships that lead to discipleship and mentorship.
The mission of ReFocus Ministry is to connect generations at church and at home. We provide information, resources and support necessary to facilitate that connection in your faith community. Through individualized coaching, group cohorts, seminars, workshops, and our Connecting Generations Ministry Assessment, ReFocus seeks to help you identify the bridges and barriers to intergenerational ministry in your church and give you the tools you need to create a culture of generational discipleship and faith formation.
About Christina
Christina Embree is the founder and director of ReFocus Ministry. She holds a masters in ministry focused on Children, Youth, and Family Ministry and is completing her doctoral degree in spiritual formation with a focus on age segregation and intergenerational ministry. In addition to coaching churches of multiple denominations and traditions all around the globe, Christina serves as the Minister of Generational Discipleship for the Great Lakes Conference of the Brethren in Christ and as a pastor at Plowshares Brethren in Christ in Lexington, Kentucky. She is widely recognized as a speaker and author in the areas of generational discipleship, intergenerational ministry, and family ministry. As the mother of three children, she is familiar with the challenges of faith at home and pastoral ministry. She along with her husband Luke share a love for the church, their community, and the global work of peace and restoration through Jesus.
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Our church used a midweek service that was a Bible study open to anyone. All people come together in a large group and then go to smaller community groups throughout the building. The original plan to was to group people by age but since we completed the survey, we have moved to a more intergenerational model
Overall, I really liked this assessment. Very comprehensive. The descriptions taken from societal norms was helpful. It’s a good tool to think about spaces for generations to connect.
The survey was well-packaged which made it feel like more work that it actually was. Once I got into the process, it was really simple. It was comprehensive in looking at the whole church. We discovered that overall, we are heavily targeted towards adults and age segregation in our programming.