If You Only Had $10 To Spend On Your Parent Ministry

I want to start by saying that I believe you should invest way more than $10 on ministering to parents.

They are so crucial to helping you achieve your overall goal as an age-graded ministry. The shortest distance between your ministry and it’s goal to see students grow in Christ is to leverage the influence of their parents.

With all that said, I know that sometimes you're just short on cash. The goal of this post is to give you some ideas of how to make a big Parent Ministry impact with a small amount of cash.

Here are three ideas of how you can minister to Parents for $10 or less this week…

1. The Interview. With $10 you can take a parent out to coffee.  I’m sure you do this a lot.  But here’s a twist to that ministry approach: Take a parent out to coffee who has already raised their kids.  Then interview them for the lessons they learned during the process.  Then share that wisdom with other parents in your ministry by writing up the interview and sending it out in an email.
2. The Book. For $10 you can grab a great parenting book.  I’m sure you've bought books for parents before. But here’s a twist to that ministry approach. Ask a parent to read the book, write a few paragraphs of their reaction to the book on a separate piece of paper, tuck that paper in the book, and then pass it on to another parent.  Think of it like a chain letter styled book club.  It’s a great way to get your parents talking to each other about the issues they face.  (BTW, ParentMinistry.net is currently giving away over 35 of the best Parent Ministry books out there, so you can go to  to potentially get a fully Parenting Library for your ministry. CLICK HERE to learn more.)
3. The Letter. I’m sure you have written encouraging letters to Parents in your ministry.  But here’s a twist to that ministry approach. Buy $10 worth of envelopes and stamps for your next weekly event.  During the response time, give students the option of writing a letter to their parents.  Ask the students to write their letters as a source of encouragement and honor to their parents.  Make sure to read the letter before mailing it out.  If the student goes crazy in the letter, you might not want to mail it home without talking to the student and/or the parent.  

The fact is that if your church doesn’t have a lot of cash to spend, you’ll need to use creativity to get the job done.  I hope these ideas have sparked your creativity and helped you in your quest to encourage Parents to pass down their faith.

And remember, if you want to grab over 35 of the latest and greatest parenting books, you might think about entering the greatest Parent Ministry Giveaway in the history of the Universe. Curious? CLICK HERE for more info.