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/