In Australia Grandparents Day is celebrated on the last Sunday of October, each year. This may be an opportunity for you to celebrate Grandparents with an all age worship service or other intergenerational event.
A few years ago we celebrated Grandparents Day as part of our worship service. We invited grandparents to bring their grandchildren and grandchildren to bring their grandparents to church that day. Everyone was also invited to bring a picture of their grandparents. We shared stories of our grandparents in small groups and added the pictures to a large tree on the wall as we sang “Oh When the Saints Go Marching In”. We also blessed all the grandparents who were in attendance at the service and shared a resource page. This resouce page contained a prayer for grandparents and an article written by Nurya Love Parish who’s faith was positively influenced by her grandparents.
Grandparents Day Worship Resources & Ideas
Here are a few resources and ideas for celebrating grandparents in worship.
- Honouring Grandparents – Resources from UCA SA Synod include a worship service, grandparenting seminar notes and grandparenting posters
- Resource Topic: Granparent’s Day – Suggests topics and Bible Readings that could be used for Grandparents Day
- Blessing and a Burden to be a Grandparent – Bible Readings to affirm this
- Grandparents day prayer service – Although written for a school setting, it could be adapted for a church worship service
- Grandparents Day: Grandparents are the Face of God’s Mercy – Another service written for a school setting
- Grandparents day service
- Celebrating Grandparents: Services to say ‘Thank You’ by Nick Fawcett – This book contains five fully worked out services to celebrate the part grandparents play in family and church life.
- Worship Songs for Grandparents Day
- When God Created Grandparents: Grandparents Day Song
- Grandparents’ Day Sermons from Sermon Central
- Celebration Ideas for Grandparents Day
- 5 Quotes to Use to Celebrate Grandparents Day
- Pop Up Grandparents Card – Download this free template from Clever Patch
Here’s a blessing I wrote for a Grandparenting and Faith Workshop but it could also be used to bless grandparents in a worship service.
Lord,
May you bless these grandparents with the wisdom of Solomon so that they will know how to speak into their grandchildren’s lives.
May you bless them with the courage of Ruth to speak up & act for you even when it’s hard.
May the grandchildren represented by these loving grandparents know how long, and high & wide is the love of God for them.
And may these grandparents know that God will do much more than we can ask or imagine.
Bless us we go from this place and out into the world to spread God’s love, wherever we may travel.
We pray this in Jesus’ name.
Amen
Other Grandparents Day Events
- Grandparents Day Ideas from Ministry Matters – Includes Adopt-a-Grandparent and Go Visiting
Articles About Grandparents and Faith
Share links or print a couple of these articles to give as an encouragement to grandparents
- Faith-ful Grandparents
- Grandparents give the gift of Faith
- 20 Ideas for Grandparents
- Grandparents: Embody God’s Love (with your unchurched grandkids)
- How to help your Grandchildren become Strong Christians
Grandparenting and Faith Workshop
Another way to support the grandparents in your congregation, is to help them see how they can share their faith with their grandchildren. Even though I’m not a grandparent out of my experiences and passion for sharing faith at home practices, I’ve had grandparents ask for the resources and ideas I was sharing with parents. From this I developed and led a Grandparenting and Faith Workshop. This workshop covers why grandparents are important in nurturing faith in their grandchildren and shares lots of practical ideas and resources for shaing faith with grandchildren (whether they live close or far away). I’d be happy to run a Grandparenting and Faith Workshop for your congregation (either in-person or online). Visit my workshops page to find out more about workshops or contact me.