Strategies for Grandparents
Today I finish up my conversation with Steve Bradford, Director of Operations at The Legacy Coalition - a ministry dedicated to connecting Grandparents with their Grandchildren to make disciples for Jesus Christ. We talk about how we can reinforce this generational link in our local churches, and the various strategies grandparents can use when faced with resistence to the Gospel from their own children.
Reuel Sample:
Who do you get more resistance from when you set up these ministries and churches? When we talk about this generational link, are our grandparents embracing this? Are the children embracing this or is the church saying, Oh, we need we need younger people to do all this? How are you reinforcing this generational link in churches?
Steve Bradford:
What we find is that pastors and church workers generally get it. One of their goals and desires is to see younger families and even kids impacted and reached with the gospel and grandparents are a natural way to do that. So we don't see too much resistance from pastors. Other than that, they are so busy this season. A lot of them will say, Hey, you guys are right, we need to do this and let's pray for a leader within the church to step up and and do this. Grandparents, a lot of times will kind of get it, but they say, Hey, I'm a good grandparent. It's not that hard and I see my grandkids. I take them to school. I do all this, all the activities with them. I have a great relationship with them and we say, that's great and that's a very great thing to do. But there's more you want to be intentional about passing along that faith. And then there's just the opportunity for grandparents to to understand how culture has changed so much, you know, since we were growing up. And it's difficult sometimes for grandparents to understand well and what their grandkids are going through is they face gender issues in their schools and then talk to their grandparents about it. But grandparents have a lot of wisdom and a lot of openness, and prayer is the key thing.
Reuel Sample:
You said that our culture is changing and it's changing amazingly and probably not good ways, but people don't change, and grandparents bring a perspective that is tempered by years.
The Legacy Grandparenting Conference
Join us for the only national conference on Christian grandparenting.
October 21-22, 2021