is your ministry friendly to parents? (part 1)

More than media, school, or friendships, parents are the biggest influence in a teenager’s life. As youth workers we know this to be true, but do we also know that parents ought to be prioritized within our youth ministry? This week we are going to give you list of ten ideas (broken up over 3 articles) of how you might begin to make your ministry more family-friendly. These are ideas that all youth workers can implement so consider passing them along to your youth ministry team.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
12 contagious qualities for healthy relationships
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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 (we dare you). 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. Here are three articles we wrote on planning:
...| http://youthministry.com/flash-forward-dont-forget-about-fall
...| http://youthministry.com/how-plan-fallwithout-over-thinking-it-part-1
...| http://youthministry.com/how-plan-fallwithout-over-thinking-it-part-2

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. We've noticed that this is a common way newer youth workers try to "build a bridge" with a teenager...but it doesn’t work. Trying to leverage this type of common ground doesn’t build Christ-like character.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
12 contagious qualities for healthy relationships
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 

3. SPEAK HIGHLY OF THEIR KIDS
Affirmation is a powerful gift! Each time you see a parent, consider using this opportunity to praise 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 is a great opportunity to brag to parents about their kids and set a positive tone for post-camp family follow up. There are few things more rewarding to parents than hearing good words about their kids. This is a gift that doesn’t cost you anything.

When it comes to being family-friendly, what's happening in your ministry?