As someone who serves in and/or leads a Children's Ministry in your church, it is obvious the primary people you need to communicate with, back up and help equip to hand down the faith to the children in your ministry are the parents. In most cases, in most churches, the parents are the ones who bring their children to church. The parents are the ones who are handing down the faith to their children. The parents are the ones upon whom you need to put your focus when it comes to communicating, equipping and encouraging. But, they are not the only ones.More and more churches have more and more grandparents who are the ones who bring the children they love to your Children's Ministry. In most cases, if the grandparents are the ones bringing children to your church, it is because the parents are not. If these grandparents do not bring their grandchildren to church, nobody will. If these grandparents do not tell their grandchildren about God, the Bible and how much they are loved by Jesus, nobody will. If these grandparents do not pray for their grandchildren, nobody will. In most cases these grandparents are alone in handing down the faith to their grandchildren and they NEED their church to make this easier, NOT harder.
Keep in mind, it is the grandparents/parents job to hand down the faith - not the job of the church. But, the Children's Ministry/church has a definite "job" when it comes to coming alongside the grandparents and parents, and when it comes to helping the children connect/make friends and when it comes to providing additional adults for the children to connect with and learn from - for them to hear from these adults the same things their grandparents and parents are telling/teaching them; particularly if the grandparents are the only ones who are handing down the faith.
Yes, you have a "job" and so do the grandparents/parents, but there are things you may do which makes it harder for grandparents, in particular, to do their job and hand down the faith. How do Children's Ministries/churches make handing down the faith harder for the grandparents who bring their grandchildren to church? Consider the following . . .
