During the L4 Listening Process, the need for generations’ integration and investment in younger generations was constantly highlighted during the calls with each of the 12 Lausanne regions and the issue networks. As a result, the Generations department was invited to organize the Lausanne Generations Conversation (LGC23). The LGC23 aimed to provide insight, models, and best practices for intentional intergenerational connecting, convening, communities, and collaboration for global missions throughout the Movement in the coming decades.
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God’s Purpose in Intergenerational Leadership
Intergenerational friendship goes beyond mentorship. While mentorship generally takes a top-down approach with the goal of building up the younger partner, true intergenerational leadership emphasizes missional friendships, which are side-by-side, facing outwards by engaging common interests towards a common goal.
As a result, there was a need to continue to invest in Younger Leaders, and at the same time, work on generations integration. For this reason, YLGen is an ongoing commitment that will continue to be carried out and developed but is now part of a broader Generations Department. The Generations Department will be led by Nana Yaw Offei Awuku, the Lausanne Global Director for Generations. The department is currently restructuring to ensure that it effectively achieves the Lausanne Movement’s common goal.
With this objective in mind, our department has adopted three strategic objectives for the years 2024-2026. These strategic objectives will help the department to expand and enhance its investment in young leaders while promoting generational integration.
Integrate
Generations Integration will be the primary driver and a core value in each of the existing YLGen Commitment areas and as a Movement-wide integrating strategy for intergenerational leadership development towards 2050.
Evaluate
Evaluate what has been most fruitful and satisfactory to review the initiatives to model the best practices of the YLGen 1 generation that we want to pass on to the YLGen 2 generation.
Align
Align YLGen strategy with L4 collaborative actions to engage YL to fulfill 2050. Plan towards YLGen 2026 as an intentional strategic follow-up for 2024, and an intergenerational transition from YLGen 1 and YLGen 2.
LGC 2023 Takeaways
As part of the Lausanne 4 journey, LGC23 was a unique on-site gathering of 106 Christian leaders from across generations (ages 18—81), geographies (41 countries), and missional interests. Conversations at LGC23 explored insights, models, and best practices for intentional intergenerational connecting, convening, communities, and collaboration for global mission throughout the Movement in the coming decades.
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