By The Rev. John Sosnowski
In my earliest days, as a child at St. Johns Parish Church, it was common for the men to stand around in that sandy parking lot and talk before going into the service. I can remember, at a very young age, walking up to a gray pant leg and putting my arm around it. My grandfather had a gray suit on that day, so I thought the leg belonged to him.
The voice from above that said, “How are you, young man?” was not my grandfather’s voice, but he gently pointed me to where my grandfather was, and that made all the difference.
Now my wife Patti and I are grandparents worshiping at St. Johns. It is the grandparent legs of the church and our guidance that our grandchildren need so they might be pointed in the right direction.
So we are part of a lay ministry movement called Grandparents at Prayer, or G@P. The purpose of G@P is simply to encourage grandparents to live into God’s call to pass on the legacy of our faith to our children’s children and to their children after them.
On the 3rd Sunday of every month, our G@P group meets for an hour immediately after worship. The format is simple. We first ask for “Grand News.” Grand News are opportunities we may have had in the past month to interact with our grands in ways to encourage their faith. Perhaps we have asked what they need prayer for, or have talked about what Jesus is doing in our lives and in theirs. Maybe we have shared something from our own faith journeys.
Sharing these occurrences helps us see how God is honoring our prayers and how he is working so that faith might be more of an aspect of our relationship with our grandchildren.
The “Boots on the Ground” activity for this time is prayer. We spend most of the G@P time praying for the faith needs of our grandchildren and our hopes for them. Sometimes we pray silently, and sometimes we pray out loud. When a grandparent is finished praying, they leave quietly.
Our G@P group is about 23 grandparents strong. We are almost at our 1st anniversary of meeting. We are already seeing the fruit of this ministry in many and surprising ways, and this is making all the difference.