The Pentecostal Gathering Must Belong to Every Generation

A child enters one hall, a teenager another and the adults the main auditorium. Each space has suitable music, language, teaching and activities. The arrangement may be thoughtful, safe and educationally wise. Yet a question remains after the final service: did three age groups attend one event, or did one people of God learn to belong to one another?

Pentecostal churches are right to reject the idea that children should merely wait quietly while adults encounter God. Young people need room for honest questions, peer relationships and teaching that understands their world. Adults also need formation appropriate to their responsibilities. Developmental difference is real.

But permanent separation carries its own danger. Children may know energetic teachers but not the testimonies of elders. Teenagers may lead among their peers but never exercise a gift before the wider church. Adults may celebrate a youthful crowd without knowing the names, pressures or wisdom of the young people standing beside them.

The Pentecostal gathering must do more than provide something for every generation. It must become a community in which the generations receive the Spirit together, interpret Scripture together, protect one another, practise ministry and hand on a living faith.

Believers’ Convention 2026 opened in Lagos on 9 August. Its official site describes a seven-day interdenominational camp meeting for participants from varied churches, cultures, age groups and nations. The…