partnering with parents THIS FALL @ relevant

Today was a big day. Not big as in anything went down out of the ordinary but BIG as in that Chelsea (my wife) and I got to have some time to dream about what it looks like when a student ministry is partnering with parents. For so long student ministries / youth ministries have just engaged teens with a program and focused on reaching more and more teens. What could happen if a student ministry also tried to empower parents to come along side us and begin to invest in the spiritual lives of their kids. For an average student we get 40-60 hours a year to invest in their life. A mom or dad has over 3,000 unplanned hours to spend with their teen in a given year. Here is the idea...we invest and then we give parents tools so they know how to invest in their teen. What an idea! We think it can happen. Not with every parents but with many. We cannot wait for every family to get on board to do what we know what God is calling us to do. SOOOOOOO this fall we are going to take some risks and try to connect RELEVANT STUDENT MINISTRY and HOME with the hope that 2 influences working together can be more significant than one working alone. Chelsea and I made a list tonight of some great ideas for the fall, no we will not release those yet. We want to be a ministry partners with the family...this fall we are gin to do more that dream and talk about it.