Parent Ministry Ideas

The new year is here, and it’s not too late to be thinking about new ideas, plans, and vision for this year. By this point, you probably already have some key event dates locked in, some rough ideas on things you want to do, a direction on midweek, and, hopefully, a curriculum lined up for Sunday mornings.  

 You’ve worked hard at creating a calendar or communication plan for the parents of students in your ministry so they know what’s going on and don’t miss out. That’s great!  

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 The next big thing to consider outside of ongoing parent communications is other ways to engage parents in your ministry. Here are a few things to consider as you seek to partner with parents in more intentional ways this year. 

 MINISTRY PHILOSOPHY 

Before addressing some new ideas, perhaps in your ministry, you need to develop a ministry philosophy for how you engage with parents. I’ve boiled parent ministry down into two different categories: inform and inspire. 

Inform is straightforward. It’s your way of informing them about what is going on. This happens through digital communication plans (e-mails, social media, church bulletin, etc.) and can happen in a hallway or lobby conversation at church, the ballfield, phone calls, meetings, etc. Informing parents is simply that. You are relaying dates, prices, events, plans, and an assortment of other important things they need to know to be in the know. 

 Inspire is the next step. You can’t effectively inspire without properly informing, so keep in mind that these two build off each other. Inspire is a chance to equip, train, resource, and help parents grow as the primary disciple-makers of their teenagers. One primary goal we have in youth ministry is to come alongside the disciple-making process of parents, and oftentimes, they need help, support, and resources in this area. That’s where the church can help step in and meet some of those needs for parents. 

 MINISTRY IDEAS 

On top of the informing you’ll do, consider creating ministry moments (inspiration moments) where parents can gather together to step into their calling as disciple-makers with confidence and community. 

 Consider hosting a parent conference. A parent conference can happen whenever you think the best time is for your church and ministry calendar. Meet with your Senior Pastor and determine what it would look like if your church went all in with a parent conference on a Sunday night or a Saturday morning. Bring in a speaker, offer breakout sessions, build in time for parents to talk with each other, encourage them, and give them some practical steps. As a young youth ministry leader or even a leader without kids, it can sometimes feel awkward or out of touch for you to be the primary voice in inspiring parents, and that’s okay. You don’t have to be THE voice every time. Bring in someone older, someone who gets parents, someone who has navigated parenting, and someone who can meet parents where they’re at. 

 Consider creating a parent connect group. On Sunday mornings, create a parent group that has parents of students in your ministry. What a great way to build community, share resources, and equip each other by having parents pour into parents. Find a trusted set of parents that you can lean on to help teach those parents. Everything they are teaching is about the biblical role of parenting. 

 Consider hosting parent round tables. Round tables would be a short-term discipleship group where you raise up a set of trusted parents and have them recruit 6-8 other sets of parents, and they meet to discuss a parenting book. Round tables help raise up new parent leaders, encourage parents to lead other parents spiritually, and help shape a parent ministry culture in your church and ministry. The short-term idea is because it is a low commitment. Asking parents to commit to a 6 or 8-week study seems manageable. You can even tie it into the rhythms of your school semester in your area. What an awesome idea to think about other parents speaking life, truth, and encouragement to others.  

 Consider a parent resource hub. Take time to pray, research, and develop a parent resource hub. Resources include, but are not limited to, podcasts, books, articles, websites, events, communication channels, etc. Maybe this can live on a designated page on your church website that you constantly promote and keep in front of parents in your church. It could exist as a physical location in your church lobby. It could be something you design on a sheet of paper and e-mail out to parents or make available for them to have at a parent meeting or Sunday morning. At YM360, we have a helpful parent resource called Ministry To Parents that would be worth checking out. It will help you resource parents all year long and offer you training as you partner with parents. 

 There are tons of ideas and ways to incorporate parents into your ministry plan for next year. My encouragement to you would be to be intentional with that. Take time to pray about it. Maybe even bring a few trusted parents into that conversation to determine what your ministry can do to help equip and best serve parents. Parent ministry is truly at the heart of a healthy student ministry. Let’s be a generation of youth workers that equips parents to walk with confidence in their calling as disciple-makers of their children.  

 If you want more specifics or want to brainstorm what parent ministry ideas could look like in your ministry, feel free to reach out to me. I’d love to talk through it! 

 E-mail: chris@ym360.com 

 Share your thoughts with others in our YM360 community: 

1. What ideas can you start to implement in your ministry? 
2. What parents in your ministry could you recruit to help you create an ongoing parent ministry? 

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