Parents as Leaders - Why Take the Chance?

After having been at the whole youth ministry thing for a while, I've realized a couple of really, really stupid beliefs I had earlier in my ministry.  One of the BIG ones was the idea that parent's make poor youth group leaders.  Here's how my thoughts kind of rolled:

1. They will parent their kids instead of being a leader.
2. No student will want their parent involved.
3. If kids see other parents in the group, they won't want to come.
4. Parents are too old, and don't have enough energy, cool factor, etc.
5. Parents are out of touch, and won't be able to relate to the students.
6. Parents will try to take over, and cause me a lot of grief.

You get the idea...

But slowly, God opened my eyes to a few things that I had wrong.  To begin with, most of the REAL argument going on inside of me was fear.  I felt inadequate to lead parents.  I was okay with other leaders my age, but parents?  Come on.  Why would they follow me?  And I was afraid they would see through my show.  I wasn't as well trained as I had hoped to be, and I knew far too little sometimes.  I would get embarrassed and be afraid to ask for help, because I was convinced no one would follow me after that.  So, I kept parents out due to fear, in large part.

Then, in my late 20's, I had some great parents volunteer.  I'm not sure why, it wasn't because of my great leadership.  They just wanted to serve teenagers.  So they began helping.  And I began growing.

Over the last 10 years (or more....sigh.....) here are some reasons I have found for involving parents:

1. They know students and students culture.  They are living it 24/7.  They know what is going on.
2. They are on the students schedules.  They are already at the band concerts, baseball games, and awards ceremonies.  They are involved in the schools.  They are in the student's worlds.
3. They have a passion for this generation.  They are HEAVILY invested in this group of students.
4. They know the kids.  Many of them have been coaching little league baseball and hosting birthday parties for these students for 10 years or more.  They know this group of kids.
5. They know the families.  It's so tough to get into a families life when only a student comes to youth group.  But my parents know the other parents, and are naturals at ministering to these families.

It's a win, for the most part.  It really is.  Tomorrow, I'll talk about who to recruit, and how to help them win with their own kids in the ministry.