doug

How friendly is your ministry to parents?

May 20, 2013 by doug 1 Comment

Last week we had our 2nd annual FAM Conference. It was a great event and there was a lot of talk about how ministries can become more family-friendly. Here’s a few notes I took from conversations. I’ll share more later this week.

1. OVER COMMUNICATE
Life is busy in the home! Teenagers have a lot going on in their life and parents have an incredible task attempting to balance all the different demands on their time. Make the commitment to help your families and clearly communicate with your parents. Make it a goal to try to over communicate. Let them know about upcoming events (which doesn’t mean the week of the event), content that’ll you’ll teaching on, ministry successes, changes, costs, activities, etc. Your communication doesn’t have to be long, but it should be consistent and clear and speaks to the parents’ world. Learning how to plan well will make this much easier.

2. SPEAK HIGHLY OF PARENTS
We’re on the “same side” with parents, so make sure to take every opportunity to speak highly of them when you’re around teenagers. Resist the urge to join in when a teenager is verbally bashing his/her parents. Rookie youth workers may try to “build a bridge” with a teenager by trashing parents (i.e. “parents just don’t understand”)…but it doesn’t work long-term. Keep your integrity and speak highly of parents.

3. SPEAK HIGHLY OF THEIR KIDS
Affirmation is a great gift to a parent! Each time you see a parent, try to pass on some time of verbal encouragement about their son/daughter. Parents love to hear great things about their kids and when it comes from someone who knows them and really cares about them, the affirmation is even more powerful. Returning home from camp this summer is a great opportunity to brag to parents about their kids and set a positive tone for post-camp family conversations. There are few things more rewarding to parents than hearing good words about their kids. This is a powerful gift that doesn’t cost you anything.

More ideas coming later this week.

When it comes to being family-friendly, what are your intentional actions? Share them here.

Filed Under: Family, posts, youth ministry Tagged With: affirmation, Communication, Family-friendly, ideas, parents, summer camp

What makes your church family friendly?

May 16, 2013 by doug Leave a Comment

I’m currently at our FAM conference (held at APU) and we’re gathered with a bunch of people who care deeply about the family who are trying to figure out what it means to come alongside families and better care for and help them.

We’re not selling a program for leaders to “buy-into”… rather we’re talking about what it might look like for a church to better help families. We are looking at the values of…

STRONG marriages
CONFIDENT parents
EMPOWERED kids
HEALTHY leaders

We are asking these types of questions:
1. What would a church “look like” if its leaders cared deeply about these values?

2. What if the church could make a 1% change in the divorce rate? Imagine if that single 1% change became a reality–that one change would impact millions of kids.

3. What role is the church supposed to play in the life of the family?

Question: What are the questions you’d be asking? Share them here.

Filed Under: Church, Family, Leadership, posts Tagged With: APU, divorce, FAM Conference, family ministry, Family-friendly, Leadership, marriage

An Amazing Evangelism Tool & Opportunity for Your Teens

May 14, 2013 by doug Leave a Comment

As you may know, I’m a big fan of FREE… a fan of organizations that resource youth workers, and a fan of teenagers being resourced to win with their friends.

For those reasons, I’ve become a big fan and promoter of what my friends at The Life Book are doing for teens when it comes to peer-to-peer evangelism. Here’s the concept in a nutshell: The Life Book contains a short summary of the Old Testament – including creation, the Fall, and God’s redemptive plan–to help unchurched teenagers understand the need for a Savior. It also includes the entire Gospel of John (ESV), interactive student comments and questions, and a challenge to put their trust in Jesus as their Savior (it can be viewed online at: www.thelifebook.com/read).

Student’s love it and love to hand it out. In fact, students have handed out over 7 million Life Books so far! Plus, the Life Book is given only by students, so it fosters personal, ongoing relationships between those giving and those receiving God’s Word.

As a youth worker, this could be an easy “win” for you as it helps you equip your students as missionaries to reach their classmates & encourage them to develop habits that will give them confidence to share the Gospel. Let your students see God’s power to work through His Word. They don’t have to memorize any speeches or know everything about apologetics. They simply give The Life Book as a gift and watch God use His Word. Upon request, you will receive 1,000 FREE LIFE BOOKS for your students to give to their classmates. Life Book is 100% funded and no longer ask for a love offering or anything in return for your FREE 500, 1000, or 1500 Life Books… “No love offering, no strings attached, TOTALLY FREE.”

This could be a great way to kick off the school year or for the week of See You At the Pole, but order now to make sure you get your Life Books in time. They go fast every school year!

How It Works: Your students give the gift of the Gospel and then watch God work…

Register at thelifebook.com/register to get your FREE Life Books.
Show your students the free, short training videos.
Your students hand out 100% of The Life Books. You can do it during a short-term “mission trip” to their school. IMPORTANT OPPORTUNITY: They also highly encourages you to have your students hand out one or two Life Books a week throughout the school year as an ongoing evangelistic effort.

Get your FREE Life Books today!