we hired one of my Volunteer Leaders to take over the High School Ministry. He’s a young guy (mid-20s) and has a lot of passion for High School Ministry. It’s great to be around him.
With this hire, I am able to move my focus on middle school ministry, where I got my start in Student Ministry and something I am quite passionate about. As I was debriefing this plan with the Campus Pastor and Executive Pastor, I said this was the perfect plan for us and here is why.
[Tweet “Parents are the ideal Head Leader for Middle School Ministry.”]
As a parent of 2 middle schoolers myself, I have instant credibility with other parents of middle school students. Parents are still very much in control of whether or not their children participate in events or activities. And, if they are not comfortable with an environment or who is in charge, the less likely they will let their child continue to participate.
That is why, having middle school leaders who are parents are ideal…especially the Head Leader. The more they trust the leaders, the more likely they will let their children return. If they walk into a room and see a bunch of wild and crazy looking young, 20-something adult they may be a little concerned and wonder if this is a safe place for their tween.
Another reason why parents are effective is because tweens are not so skiddish around adults. They have not fully sought out their independence from their parents quite yet and are still comfortable around adults. Tweens are open to an outside adult speaking into their lives. That makes parents still effective in building relationships with them.
Two quick cautions on having parents help out with your middle school ministry:
- You have to have the right parents helping out. Some parents aren’t good with student in a relational way so you have to weed through to get to the rights ones.
- This doesn’t meant you should have only parents helping with middle school. Definitely not! You need younger adults in there as well. Your ministry team needs to be as well-rounded as possible so you can reach every student for Christ. Just because I believe parents are the most effective, doesn’t mean younger adults can’t be just as effective…in different ways (but that’s another blog post :)).