Page 76 - Youth Discipleship Student Textbook

career in missions. Avoid inviting a jock who spent 15 years in the NFL making millions of dollars. Make
sure the guest is the kind of person you want the youth to become.

8. Create ministry teams among the students and look for opportunities for them to perform among
the community.

9. Plan an overnight retreat at the church. Plan special events throughout the night.

The Family Connection

I have discovered over the years that if the parents of students in a youth group are not walking with the
Lord and are leading lives buying into the culture of our day, that the youth from that family generally
resist the direction that the church youth ministry is taking. But when the parents really desire for their
children to become godly, and live a pure life before their kids, that those kids generally respond to the
direction the youth ministry is encouraging in their lives. This brings up a point.

It takes BOTH the youth ministry and the parents to be united in their efforts to bring their children up
to love the Lord with their whole hearts, which is the first and foremost commandment of God. If the
students see their father watching crud on television, and then come to youth group and hear a lesson
on Philippians 4:8, what do you think their response will be? Check it out…

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is
right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is

excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

The training student must receive must be consistent between home and church to make sense. That is
why a ministry to youth also involves a ministry to the whole family.

When initiating a youth ministry, a wise youth leader will call a meeting of all the parents of those in the
youth group. During this meeting, he needs to share his philosophy of youth ministry with the parents.
Then he should ask them what they think about those goals he has for the youth. Do they have the
same goals? Ask them what they practice at home that would hinder achieving these goals. Explain to
them that without them working together as a united team, that most likely your child will fail to
achieve those goals.

In cooperation with the parents, the youth leader could send home the curriculum being taught. He
could ask parents to watch a certain videos with their youth that would reenforce the concepts being
taught. A lesson coming from both the parents mouth and lives and the youth pastor has the probability
of a greater influence on the youth than inconsistency between them.

A youth leader who does this will find that some parents will offer a great deal of resistance unless they
are willing to make some changes in their family life. He needs to be willing to become thick skinned
and expect that resistance to come.

The idea here is to create a TEAMWORK mentality between the youth ministry and the home. With
unity, great things can be accomplished in the lives of their youth.

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