Partnering with Parents

This past Thursday I met with a few of my leaders to discuss the upcoming year. I wanted to really pump them up so I talked about the win in our youth ministry (which is probably similar to others) Life Change. I encouraged them to come up with a win in their ministries (i.e. small groups) and realized that the challenge lies in figuring out what it is we want our teens, leaders and adults to achieve.
As we get closer to Sept 9th our first Sunday of crowd programming I wonder what it is we can do as a youth ministry to better partner with parents to bring spiritual and faith formation back home.
Whether it is negative or positive the greatest impact comes from our families, especially our parents. I don’t know what it is like to be a parent, but I do know that my parents have had a profound impact on how I live my life. They weren’t perfect or right all the time, but everything they did, said and believed has shaped me in my faith journey. That’s why I’m a true believer that talking about faith with family is important.
But I do understand the struggle of talking with family. I’m a youth minister, I’m paid to spread God’s word and love, but like everyone else I struggle with verbalizing His love and plan without it turning into a theological debate. With family it can get personal, because you know each other a little better; however, that’s why it’s so important for faith inspiration and impact to come from family. I know that there is a fear with faith, but it’s so important for parents to work at encouraging a faith life. Even if you don’t have all the answers, if you believe it’s important to have faith in God, in Christ then tell them that. If you tell them about God’s love enough times, they’ll remember.