Below is an excerpt of an article I wrote for the National Network of Youth Ministries’ blog. Click the link at the bottom to read the entire piece.
What if we did not do youth ministry alone? Yes, we need to network with other youth workers. It should not stop there, though. We should also network and partner with parents. But how do we do that?
During my college internship, I was asked to read the book “Family-Based Youth Ministry” by Mark DeVries. This was the first time my eyes were open to the idea of youth ministry reaching beyond teenagers. He gave several good ideas about how to connect with the parents of teens. And while it was a great book, I never really took it further than starting to say hello to parents more or making sure they had our youth group calendar.
Steve Cullum 