1.  Pray! Ask God to show you how He would want you to proceed in your church. Who else would He lead you to invite into this effort?

2.  Share Judy Gann’s story with your Pastor and Elders in your church. Ask them their support, and how they would like you to proceed. Let them know what you have already done to prepare for this opportunity.

3.  Begin forming your ministry team.

• Pray and plan together how God would have you approach this opportunity in your church.
• Identify the families with young children in your church or community who might appreciate having a surrogate grandparent relationship.
• Develop a strategy for recruiting and screening “surrogate grandparents” from your congregation
• Determine how and when to share the vision with your congregation.
• Invite parents and older couples or individuals to come to your vision/informational meeting.

4.  Host all interested parties to your Information/Orientation event with food, activities for kids, a time to meet each other, and discussion about expectations and your process for matching families.

5.  Follow up in six months with families and ‘surrogates’ to see how things are going. Don’t try to ‘organize’ too much. Let these develop organically on their own. Some will work. Some won’t.

6.  Share some of the stories with your congregation. Celebrate the blessings God has poured out through these inter-generational connections!