Thanks Anthony for being willing to step out of the norm. Yes, a friend said to me a few years ago, “I am so overwhelmed with ONE teen, how do you have 3?” As parents we spend more time overwhelmed than not- but we will never tell the youth leaders. I mean we are supposed to pretend we have it all together right? At least that is how me and many of my friends feel. Just step out and I would love to hear how it goes!

Carson, Please email me at leneitafix@gmail.com and I can send some resources your way 🙂 Here is a really easy place to begin- find creative ways to get to know your parents. You and your team can call parents introduce yourself and tell them one you feel honored they let you speak into the life of their child, then tell them one thing you love about their child. Every parent wants to hear why their kid is great. One of my kids has a strong personality- and when a small group leader turned this on its head and came to me with how much they loved the way she was vocal and wanted to lead, it made me feel like we are at least on the right path with her. Then try getting parents together and hold a brainstorming session of how you can better walk with them. They do need communication but that isn’t it at all. It starts with changing your approach to walking with parents- not in addition to them and it makes all the difference. Email me and we can chat more 🙂

Dwaine, I think we all get upset with parents when they don’t move the way we think they should. We are collaborating with parents and that is a huge blessing!! I know recently a small group leader of my son’s and I conspired together to help him with a problem, and he was blessed in a way that wouldn’t have worked if we hadn’t done it together.

Thanks Lorraine 🙂 You guys do an AMAZING job of keeping all of your family on track!

Thanks so much for the encouragement Charles!

I’m a youth minister at a small country church receiving part time pay. But I want to do full time work.
I’ve worked there for about 2 and a half years. I’ve been married since July. And I’m 22.

I have been growing our youth ministry in many ways steadily during this time.
The hardest thing I struggle with is the involvement of adults and parents.
I WANT to be able to freely communicat, involve, minister to, serve, rely on, etc. the parents of our youth.
But I’ll be honest…
I have NO IDEA how to begin this.

So, how can I begin to build a “family ministry” instead of just a youth ministry?
Any thoughts or suggestions.

This really has made me think about how often I get upset with parents (in my head) when they can’t be bothered to bring their kids to youth or when they’re 45 mins late to pick them up. I have never thought about things from a parent’s perspective and this has really helped…

In a way, we are leading our student’s parents as much as we are leading the students. Especially those parents who don’t come to Church. It’s so important that we extend grace and understanding to parents on a regular basis and grab opportunities to pastor them (and sometimes without them even knowing that they’re being pastored).