Thursday, July 30, 2009

Youth Ministry Lite #10

Today we celebrate our 10th Youth Ministry Lite column!! To some 10 isn't a big number, but when it comes to my column it's huge! Writing this column is such a blessing to me and and I hope that it has been a blessing to you as well. On to column 10!
Resource #1 today is a great way to help partner with the parents of your teens. You can even make it a group effort and make your youth leaders responsible for a section each, and use it to bring the team together. So what is this amazing resource? A parent newsletter. The newsletter could contain sections such as: Youth Pastors Column, Upcoming events, Topics to be covered and a brief overview along with a question or two for the parents to ask their teens. Also include articles on teens and their daily walk with Christ.
Our second resource are pocket gospels. A pocket gospel is a "tract on steroids", so to speak. They contain the basics of the faith (Jesus is Gods only Son, Died for our sins, Resurrection, He is the only way to be saved)the entire gospel of John and how to accept Christ. They have even partnered with dare2share (a previous resource) to design one just for teens. These are great to have out on a table for any visitors and to give to your teens to hand out to their unsaved friends.
Our talk sparker section is going to be a short one this week but its important. Youth Ministry can only be successful if you integrate the parents into the mix. You need to have regular meetings with them and host events where the parents and teens mix. A great "event" to have is a parent/teen conference so to speak. You need to be the catalyst that helps the two better understand the other. Be the mediator and coach them through how to communicate with one another. A big topic to bring up is compromising, coming to a middle ground. Also, try to get your teens to understand that they are on loan to their parents from God and their parents are responsible for raising them properly and that as teens they aren't always going to like what their parents want from them. I will stop here as I could go on and on. Have a great and blessed week and until next time...........

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