Equipping Grandparents for Spiritual Leadership

By Chris Shirley

Equipping grandparents is an important component in any family ministry strategy. Church leaders who ignore this valuable human resource miss the opportunity to harness tremendous potential. With a large and growing population of grandparents in society, the local church and its families can benefit greatly from the wisdom, life experiences, skills, ministry gifts, spiritual depth, and available time of grandparents in the Body of Christ. The following suggestions are just a few of the many ways church leaders can minister to, with, and through grandparents and older adults.

Being Disciple Makers

Equip grandparents for their unique role and responsibilities as disciple makers in the family. While most attention is appropriately directed at parents in this process, church leaders should also challenge and train grandparents to establish a Christ-centered legacy in the lives of their children and grandchildren. Small groups, classes, workshops, retreats, special events, and sermon series are all effective methods for teaching a biblical and practical approach to faith-focused grandparenting. Although resources for training grandparents are scarce, organizations like The Legacy Coalition sponsor national and regional conferences as well as provide materials for equipping grandparents.

Surrogate Grandparenting

Create a ministry partnership between long-distance grandparents—or older adults without grandchildren—and families with young children who do not have local grandparents. The purpose of a ministry like this would not be to replace the actual grandparents, but to supplement their efforts. Adopt-a-grandparent or surrogate grandparent ministries benefit the child, the parent, and the older adults. The surrogate grandparent becomes a part of the family's home-based disciple-making team, which strengthens the efforts of parents and provides children with the added value of having an older person close at hand to love and guide them as their own grandparents would.

The Christian Grandparenting Network advocates surrogate grandparent programs and provides helpful information on creating ministries for volunteers.

Grandparents as Mentors

Being a mentor is one of the roles grandparents play in the lives of their grandchildren. The dictionary definition of mentor is “trusted guide, provider of wise counsel, and confidant.” This sounds like a grandparent! Training grandparents and older adults as mentors increases the potential for improving the spiritual and intergenerational health of the church. The sheer size of the Baby Boomer generation represents an army of mentors who could guide younger generations of parents and children with guidance, wise counsel, and personal example.

Although mentoring may seem like an inherent grandparenting trait, older adults admit to feeling unequipped for the task. Basic mentor training through small groups and workshops provides them with the initial motivation for initiating and maintaining these relationships.

Grandparents as Ministry Leaders

Visit older adult small groups, Sunday School classes, and senior adult activities to find and recruit leaders for preschool, children, youth, and college ministries. Grandparents who spend time investing in younger generations can transfer their experience into the lives of their own grandchildren. These leadership opportunities are also a means for creating natural surrogate grandparent relationships. Once again, training and organization are the keys to success for this initiative. Provide adequate training for older adults to learn how to communicate and minster within the appropriate age group. In addition, consider unique leadership roles suitable for their particular gifts and capabilities.

Providing Community and Support

Train leaders in older adult small groups, Sunday School classes, and senior adult organizations with the necessary care skills to minister to grandparents who are physically, emotionally, and relationally separated from their families. Simply providing relational groups for older adults to engage with their peers for genuine Christ-centered fellowship is the first step.

Learning and growing with one another, especially those with a similar life situation, builds a network of support that would otherwise include family. Leaders may also need lay counseling skills and resource information to minister to group members struggling with family problems and emotional separation from their children or grandchildren.

Conclusion

Now, more than ever, the church is looking to the example of its older adults as legacy builders, mentors, guides, and disciple-makers. With the growing number of grandparent-aged adults—fueled by the graying of the Boomers—church leaders should acknowledge the need to encourage and train grandparents to fulfill their responsibility. They are disciple-makers in their extended family and strengthen family bonds among grandparents and their children and grandchildren. In general, Baby Boomers were known as a generation of “hands-on” parents who worked hard to build quality relationships with their children. That same desire can be used to motivate today's grandparents to take up their role as spiritual guides for the upcoming generations.

Training and support for parents as spiritual leaders in the home should be accompanied by intentional ministries directed at equipping grandparents for their spiritual role. More importantly, their potential as family ministry leaders cannot be overstated. The accumulated knowledge, wisdom, and experience of older adults are priceless resources for training newlyweds, young parents, and parents of older children and teenagers.

About the Writer: Chris Shirley serves as program director for the M.A. in Discipleship at Dallas Baptist University. Prior to his call to DBU, Dr. Shirley was at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he taught discipleship and family ministry. Dr. Shirley has served over 20 years in Christian camping ministry and in local churches in North Carolina and Texas. Purchase his book at www.RandallHouse.com.