Informing parents. Recently a youth worker polled parents in her youth group and asked, "What do you wish the youth ministry of this church did more effectively?" The overwhelming response was, "We wish you would communicate with us about events, topics you are covering in the youth group and other general information." Parents want information, and we never should assume their teenagers are filling them in. The easiest ways to communicate with parents include a parent's newsletter/e-mail, parent informational nights or after-church meetings, a youth group information hotline and a prominent message board.

Assisting Parents

Assisting parents is a critical part of our ministry to help families succeed. Many healthy youth ministries assist parents by hosting seminars such as Wayne Rice's "Understanding Your Teenager," as well as developing support groups, offering family counseling referrals and creating a lending library filled with some of the excellent resources that are available to parents of teens.

Involving parents. Not all parents would make good youth workers, but many would be excellent leaders and mentors, especially in a world where so many parents of kids in the youth group don't attend church. My rule of thumb is if parents wants to volunteer in the group, they need the permission of their kids. However, there are several other indirect ways parents can get involved: prayer teams, advisory councils, retreat chaperoning, driving, food preparation, discipleship, fund raising and hospitality just to name a few. We need to provide a variety of ways for parents to get involved.

Encouraging Parents

I never understood how difficult it was to parent a teenager until I had three of my own. I need all the encouragement I can get. Some good ways to offer encouragement are developing parent recognition Sundays, writing affirming notes and sitting with the parents at their child's events. Get creative. Every time you offer a parent the gift of encouragement, you're doing family-based youth ministry.

I know the paradigm shift toward family-based youth ministry will continue to evolve, and hopefully it'll become more and more an intrinsic and recognized part of a youth worker's job.