Parental Concerns...

As a student minister, I am used to receiving emails from parents with a concern they have about something that has happened at a youth service or event. Regardless of the content, each one provides a glimpse of how that parent perceives the ministry. Our response to that parent is a goldden opportunity to cast vision for the ministry. Sharing that email with your leaders provides a training opportunity. I would suggest doing both. Here was an email sent by a parent along with my response.

-----Original Message-----
From: XXXXX [mailto:@msn.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008
11:31 AM
To: Silver, Matt
Subject: hey Matt

Hi Matt:
My name
is XXXXX and I have a son, 12 who is in Impact--XXXXX. He loves coming to church at the Movie Church and he especially loves the youth group meeting every Sunday night. Last Sunday night, he was playing one of the video games with another boy about his age (sorry he couldn't remember the name--XXXXX thinks it may have been a visitor). Anyway, this kid used extreme amounts of profanity (including the F word) the entire time he and XXXXX were playing this game.

XXXXX told the boy not to swear and the kid said he could do and say and whatever he wanted to. I told XXXXX that he should have gone to one of the leaders to report this, but he felt uncomfortable. I know you shouldn't yell at 100 kids bc one of them is swearing, but I am concerned that my child should not be exposed to profanity at a church get-together.

Matt, I appreciate all that you do for the youth and want you to know that my son loves CCV. I just wanted to make you aware of this situation and I've told XXXXX to let an adult know the next time something like this happens.

Thank you for your attention to this matter and God bless you as you continue to serve Him.

Sincerely,
XXXXX
610-XXX-XXXX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey
XXXXX,

Thank you so much for taking the time to email me! I certainly wish a leader was in proximity to address that situation. I am going to forward this email on to them with all names removed to increase awareness. Through this email I am encouraged of two things:

1) XXXXX was willing to ask a student to stop using profanity. It takes a lot of guts to lead a peer and he showed it that day. Kudos to your parenting!
2) I am glad that a foul mouthed gamer felt comfortable coming to our church.

Please continue to pray for our students! I would guess that approximately 40% of them have parents that do not attend a church at any location. For them to keep coming is awesome! We as a ministry really go after a students consistency of character regardless of geographical location. We want our students that have a relationship with Jesus to integrate their Sunday night personality with their Monday - Friday school personality. We stress the same thing to those who are non-Christians. It is inappropriate to drop the F-bomb at any location whether it is at church, school, or at home well because it is a lame thing to do. It shows disrespect as well as a lack of vocabulary.

Thanks again for your email! Appreciate the feedback! See you Sunday!

Thanks!

Matt Silver
Director of
Student Ministries
Christ's Church of the Valley
1560 Yeager
RoadRoyersford, PA 19468
Ph: 610-792-0777 ext. 205
Fax: 610-792-1112
http://www.moviechurch.com/
http://www.studentministryhelp.com/

A Great Review????

Alright here's a pop quiz for you...

1) How many books are in the Bible? _____
2) What's the breakdown of those books:
Old Testament:
_____ # of Historical Books
_____ # of Poetical Books
_____ # of Prophetical Books
New Testament:
_____ # of Historical Books
_____ # of Pauline Epistles
_____ # of General Epistles
3) When the Israelites returned from Exile, who took on the task of spiritually rebuilding the Jewish People? __________________

Alright I'm done with the quiz but here are a few other questions. How would you score on an in depth Bible quiz? How well can you summarize the parts of the Bible? How about the leaders in your ministry, how well do they know the Bible? Are you the "go-to" person as biblical questions arise?

I have been working through Max Anders book, 30 Days to Understanding the Bible. This book is not only a great refresher from those Bible courses in college a long time ago, but provides short statements that will help you communicate more concisely about the Bible. This is also a great training tool for volunteers. Check it out!!!

Don't wait to change

So did you make a resolution? How are you doing with it?

For me New Year’s resolutions don’t cut it. I’m more of the spontaneous let’s start now kind of guy. For example, in the past I used to say, “I’m going to go on a diet at New Years.” The problem is I would eat like a pig all through Thanksgiving and Christmas and when the New Year finally came I would find myself 10 lbs heavier! New Year Resolutions are an excuse to continue bad habits for a continued portion of time. I bet some people have vowed already to make 2009 the year they go on a diet!

For youth ministers, the New Year typically occurs in September. That’s our big chance to start fresh, create momentum, and institute some new dynamics. We can have the same natural tendency to not re-evaluate or try anything new until the next calendar year continuing to forge ahead until the school years over.

I recently read Andy Stanley’s book the The Seven Checkpoints for Youth Leaders and it caused me to create some big changes in my teaching calendar. The need for reevaluation came from four questions posed by Andy and Hall:

If we could permanently imprint anything on students’ minds, what would it be?
What do they need to know? What is the irreducible minimum?
When everybody else is “doing it,” what’s going to keep them from joining in?
When they are sitting in a dorm room during their freshman year contemplating their options for the evening, what principles or truths should drift through their minds in that potentially defining moment?

After reading those, I was convicted that some of our topics were just too broad and not specific enough. I felt that I was trying to cram too much material in one calendar year. Perhaps those questions will encourage you as you review your teaching calendar for the upcoming months. Remember, you can begin a resolution today!