September 25, 2019 Jake Rasmussen

3 Reasons for Emailing Your Students' Parents Weekly

As Youth Workers, we know it is important to communicate with our students' parents. I am challenging you to begin to do this weekly. Over the years as youth pastor and now as a parent of two children in the youth ministry at my church, I value good communication from the youth ministry.

What started as 3 reasons turned into 4. Don't worry, you won't have to pay extra for the 4th one.

Information

I call this "low-bar information." We all have this in our ministry. The times we are gathering as a ministry. Sunday mornings or Wednesday nights. You know... the regular stuff.

In addition to the regular stuff be sure to communicate early and often about special events. Think your Summer Camp, Mission Trip, Disciple Now, Discovery Weekend, service days and so on. I'd encourage you to share these dates as you finalize them.

Empowerment

If you email your students’ parents weekly with announcement, make sure to also take the chance to offer some transparency into what you’re working through and challenge your students’ parents to discuss it with their students at home. It’s one thing for students to hear a topic at a youth meeting, it’s another for them to hear it again from their parents and have the opportunity for some deep discussion with their parents regarding the topic.

I get an automated text message from the youth ministry that my daughter is involved in at the end of every gathering talking about what they discussed and what topics they are working through and it gives me the opportunity to discuss that topic with my daughter and develop that strong spiritual bond with her.

Encouragement

Use your weekly email as an opportunity to offer some real encouragement to your parents. You never know what people are going through, and an email from you to your students’ parents could serve as a chance to lift up a parent because of the impact that they are having on their son(s)/daughter(s). As a parent myself, it is always encouraging to know that 1. There is someone else in my corner and 2. I’m not alone.

Confidence - Bonus One

If you use your weekly email to do all of these things, it will help you feel more organized and more confident. What type of youth pastor do you think parents will respect more:

A. A youth pastor who plans things last second, never has enough volunteers, makes no touchpoint with you as a parent

B. A youth pastor who informs you about what is happening this week and in the next few weeks, a youth pastor who gives you the knowledge and empowerment to speak to your students, and one who encourages you in the impact you are having on your students’ lives.

And with that respect comes confidence, and you feel like you’ve got your life together. That translates to your preaching, to your event, to your planning, even up to things like staff meetings with your preaching staff.

If you are looking for great Parent Resources CLICK HERE to see them know.