Speakers & Seminars
Sherry Schumann
Sherry Schumann is the Director of the Christian Grandparenting Network and has the privilege of helping grandparents leave a legacy of faith in Jesus to their grandchildren and the generations following them. She is an author, blogger, and frequent speaker. She and her husband, Sammy, live in rural South Carolina, have three married sons and seven grandchildren.
Seminars offered by Sherry
As grandparents, many of us have bought the cultural lie that we are inconsequential in the lives of our children and grandchildren. This lie tells us to retire to “leisureville.” It tells us that, if we want a relationship with our grandchildren, we need to provide expensive presents and fancy trips. Nothing, however, is further from the Truth.
Join Sherry Schumann as she digs into Scripture and uncovers what the Bible says about our role as grandparents. Discover what it means to leave a Gospel shaped Legacy. Learn practical ways to share your faith stories with your grandchildren, offer them the gift of the spoken blessing, and commit yourselves as prayer warriors interceding regularly on their behalf.
Scripture tells us, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16). Why, then, do so many believers feel as though their prayers are powerless and ineffective?
Join Sherry Schumann for a one-or-two-day retreat as she digs into God’s Word and examines ways to step up our prayer life, thereby unleashing the power or prayer. This retreat features sis 45-minute sessions, which include the following topics: Intimacy with the Savior, Intimacy with the Holy Spirit, Hindrances to Our Approach to Prayer, Hindrances to the Work of Prayer, Intercessory Prayer and Prayers of Thanksgiving and Adoration. This retreat can be customized to fit your time frame.
Grab your Bible and favorite jammies and join us for a grandmother’s overnight. Whether your grandchildren call you Grandma, Gram or Nana, you’ll enjoy engaging with other grandmothers as you explore God’s call for this season of life.
Signature features of a Grandma’s Gathering include an intimate setting limited to a maximum of twenty-five attendees, Scripture based teaching, engaging discussions, heartfelt connections, devoted times of prayer, and snacks galore!
Sherry Schumann currently offers three Grandma’s Gatherings from which you can choose: Creating a Legacy for Your Grandchildren, Unleashing the Power of Prayer, and Shepherding Your Grandchildren According to Psalm 23.
David, the Shepherd-King, penned the twenty-third psalm approximately 1000 years before our Savior’s birth. Despite its age, this beloved psalm is as pertinent and timely today as it was 3000 years ago.
Join Sherry Schumann for this one-or-two-day conference as she digs into Psalm 23, verse-by-verse. Look at King David’s words through a shepherd’s eyes. Learn about the work of a shepherd, the characteristics of sheep, the unique relationship between a shepherd and his sheep, and how this relationship serves as a metaphor for our own relationship with God. Carry this metaphor one-step further and discover godly ways to shepherd your grandchildren and lead them to Christ.This conference can be customized to fit your time frame.
Josh Mulvihill
Dr. Josh Mulvihill is the Executive Director of Church and Family Ministry at Renewanation, served as a pastor for nearly 20 years, has a PhD in Family Ministry, serves as the Chairmen on the board of Awana, is the author or editor of ten books on parenting and grandparenting including Biblical Grandparenting, Discipling Your Grandchildren, and Grandparenting and is in high demand as a speaker.
Seminars offered by Josh
The Biblical Grandparenting Seminar includes four sessions, one workshop, and a Q&A panel. Your church can host the seminar to help grandparents capture a biblical vision for their God-designed role, learn practical strategies to strengthen family relationships, study key Scriptural principles about how to disciple a grandchild, and discuss common challenges many grandparents face. It is designed to encourage and equip grandparents to pass on a legacy of faith in Christ to future generations. It is available in two different formats, an in-person seven hour conference or an on-demand digital download that equips you to teach grandparents.
The topics for the seminar include:
- Vision: What’s the Big Deal About Grandparenting?
- Influence: Rejecting the Cultural Messages About Grandparenting
- Foundation: Understanding the Biblical Role of Grandparenting
- Application: Discipling Grandchildren: 8 Biblical Methods Every Grandparent Can Do
- Obstacles: Q&A Panel.
- Blessing & Commitment: Becoming an Intentional Christian Grandparent
Dr. Mulvihill regularly speaks on worldview and apologetic as a single seminar, half day, or full day conference. In these seminars, participants learn what worldview is, why it matters and how to help a child or grandchild develop a biblical worldview by teaching four foundational biblical truths. Participants will learn to identify strong cultural messages that threaten to distort and destroy faith in Christ. These seminars will help individuals gain confidence and equip them to have intentional conversations so that children and grandchildren develop a deep, lasting, and culture transforming faith.
Seminar options include:
- 4 Reasons Why Every Child Needs to Develop a Biblical Worldview
- Navigating Culture with a Biblical Worldview
- How to Help Children Understand and Defend Their Faith
Paul and Diana Miller
Throughout 50+ years of marriage, Paul and Diana have gained unique experiences as university, elementary and early childhood educators and as Bible teachers to senior adults and children. The Millers have three adult children and spouses as well as 11 grandchildren. Since 2013, they have been deeply involved with CGN’s GrandCamp ministry as participants, speakers, and coaches, and are now serving as GrandCamp Coordinators. The Millers’ books, A Guide to Great Grandparenting and A Parents’ Guide to Great GrandPartnering, describe why grandparents and parents can benefit from positive adult-to-adult relationships and explain how to build and maintain them in the context of “The Family Trinity.”
Seminars offered by the Millers
This concept describes the relationships, roles, and responsibilities in three-generation families. A new Family Trinity begins when a couple becomes parents and is complete when their children have children. The family enjoys great benefits when God is at its center and everyone seeks to follow His will. A family that understands the Trinity can maximize its love for and ministry to others while minimizing conflict and other issues.
The Family Trinity concept shows that parents should instruct their children what to do and how to do it and may apply discipline to ensure they learn. As their offspring mature toward and into adulthood, wise parents change to coaching them by asking questions, making suggestions, and standing aside without discipline. Wise grandparents teach their grandchildren by modeling God-honoring wisdom and behavior while respecting the parents’ instructional goals.
Some grandparents understandably but mistakenly focus primarily on the grandchildren. Instead, they best help the family by having a mature adult-to-adult relationship with the parents that supports their efforts without undermining or contradiction. As a simple example, thoughtful grandparents show respect for the parents when they initiate their phone calls by asking them how they are doing before inquiring about the grandchildren.
This concept identifies four possible categories of relationships between grandparents and parents. The best situations are created when grandparents fully release the parents to be independent adults and the parents fully embrace their independence. Difficulties arise when grandparents do not release their adult children and/or when adult children choose to remain dependent. Families who understand this matrix are more likely to enjoy positive relationships while avoiding conflicts.
Some grandparents mistakenly believe it’s suitable for them to inundate their grandchildren with gifts even though doing so can harm the parents’ relationships with the grandchildren. Rather, it’s far better when the grandparents are thoughtfully generous instead of selfishly lavish. Other conflicts can be avoided when grandparents don’t break the parents’ rules when they’re baby-sitting and when parents don’t exhaust the grandparents’ goodwill and energy by requesting their help too frequently.
Parents and grandparents who have God-driven adult-to-adult relationships can cooperate in helping the grandchildren become Christ-following adults. The two generations will benefit from clear communications about the parents’ goals for their children, their teaching strategies, their other challenges, and their expectations about how the grandparents can help. Likewise, parents should respect the grandparents’ needs to conserve time and energy for non-family activities.
Although the word “boundaries” may suggest that conflict exists, establishing mutually agreed-upon expectations always promotes harmonious and productive relationships. Our guidance can help both generations create and operate within loving limits and thus avoid imposition, misunderstanding and other uncomfortable outcomes. For example, wise grandparents avoid making the parents look ungenerous by asking for and honoring their requests for the gifts they want their children to receive.
Adult children and their parents are wise when they build mutually beneficial relationships between them before grandchildren arrive. Doing so leads to smoother transitions into helpful grandparent-parent relationships. Of course, their relationships must continue growing and deepening, eventually preparing both of them for the “role-reversal” stage when grandparents need their adult children to assist them in many different ways
All families face the possibility of encountering one or more of the “Destructive ‘D’ Factors,” such as disability, disease, deployment, death, and divorce.
Many grandparents are challenged (and rewarded with great blessings) by adapting to unfamiliar situations, such as when their adult children marry someone from a different background, adopt a child, or have a child with special needs. These events give grandparents wonderful opportunities to show extra grace and understanding, as well as love, patience, flexibility and generosity. We know from personal experience that the end results are amazing!
