Do You Make it Harder?

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 . . . 

• When you do not help the grandchildren make friends, you make it harder. Keep in mind, children from your church who have parents who bring them to church likely have parents who are friends with parents of other children in their classes. This means they likely see/hang out with/play with these children in settings outside the church; they are likely friends outside of church. When they come to church on Sundays and Wednesdays, these children know one another and are already friends. They feel like they "belong", because they have friends. This is not necessarily the case with children who have grandparents who bring them to church. If they do not make friends, it is more likely they will not want to continue to come to church. If you do not help them, you are making it harder for the grandparents to hand down the faith.
• When you do not have consistent volunteers, you make it harder. Yes, this is true for many reasons, but one is because children who are brought to church by grandparents do not likely attend every Sunday/Wednesday. When they do come, if the volunteers do not know them - and they do not know the volunteers, the children are less likely to connect and want to continue to come to church. This makes it more difficult for the grandparents.
• When you do not communicate with the grandparents, so they know what is happening, they know what their grandchildren are learning, they know about special opportunities to get together, you make it more difficult/harder for them to involve their grandchildren and connect what they are doing at church with conversations they have with their grandchildren.
• When you do not follow grandparents directions to go get them if their grandchild is having a difficult time, you are more likely to have the situation end up as a negative experience. When you then label the grandchild as "naughty", you make harder for grandparents to bring the child back to your Children's Ministry. 
• When you do not teach in a way which engages children actively, you make it seem like church, God, the Bible are boring and make it harder for the grandparents to get their grandchildren to go to church.

These are just a few of the ways your Children's Ministry/church make it harder for grandparents to hand down the faith, Do any of these stand out as things you are doing? Trust me, if you have grandparents who are bringing their grandchildren to church, it is already hard for them to hand down the faith as they are likely the only ones who are doing so. They likely feel alone. They need your help - not for you to make it harder.

Go back through this list and honestly evaluate to see where you may be making it more difficult, where you may be making it harder for the grandparents in your church who bring their grandchildren to church and then make changes. It matters.