McIntosh’s five transition models include the multiple-track: run old and new forms of church in parallel, each designed for different segments.
The old track serves established members who need continuity. The new track serves seekers, younger adults, and the disaffected — built around their needs rather than inherited forms.
Kawamura’s Unificationist example (2003–4): peer-led retreats for Gen X members who’d become disengaged — “for us, by us.” These weren’t replacements for the existing community; they were a new track designed around what that segment actually needed: experiential, sensory, testimony-driven faith. Not doctrine-led, but witness-led.
The advantage of multiple-track: you don’t have to blow up what’s working for one segment to build what’s needed for another. The disadvantage: running two tracks requires more leadership, more resources, and genuine conviction that the new track matters enough to sustain.
The risk: the new track becomes a permanent satellite rather than a genuine community. For it to work, the new track needs its own identity and ownership, not just borrowed resources from the main congregation.
Gen X/Z generally need: real testimony over polished presentation, small enough to know and be known, experiential over passive reception, answers to actual lived questions not inherited doctrine.