Two Influences are Greater Than One

          Last week, I was privileged to spend the week working with some of our amazing middle school students during a mission’s week project.  I was amazed at their work ethic, desire to serve others, and the fact that we scraped, primed, and painted one entire house and half of another one.  They were truly a blessing to work with but I started thinking about a topic that has been spinning in my head for some time now.

             In the various churches that I have served in a goal of mine has always been to train and equip the volunteers that I serve with well.  This is something that I have heard repeatedly from volunteers when I arrive at the church and seek to develop with time.  As a youth director, I have been blessed to work alongside several amazing volunteers who have deeply enriched the lives of our students, not to mention my own.  The end goal for me to have a great team of volunteers who are equipped to serve and lead whenever necessary, but hold that thought for a second.

            As a youth director a large part of my responsibility lies with equipping not only volunteers but also parents.  Early in my ministry career I never saw a value in partnering with parents and often times saw them as people who were skeptical of my leadership and people who wanted to shoot down every idea that I had.  However, with time (and the addition of my own children) I have come to realize the need for the church to partner with parents to equip them to the best of our ability.  Part of this came when I started utilizing the Orange curriculum for the ReThink Group.  This curriculum discusses the partnership that can take place between the church and family making a greater impact in the life of a child/student.  At this point in my ministry, I not only see the value in investing my own children and their spiritual lives, but the need to partner with the church in this endeavor as well.

             Now to tie these pieces together, what if the church (as a whole) starting seeking to partner with parents (and vice versa) to make a greater impact in the lives of the next generation?  What if the church sought to teach/equip/train parents on how to be better parents and help them through their struggles?  What if parents sought to help the church learn more about their children/students in order to be more effective in ministry together?  What would it take to start this partnership?  A slower pace of life does not seem to be an option but what about a more intentional life between the church and parents?

            As a parent I am looking for ways to partner with our local church not simply because I work at a church but because I know that with the impact of my wife and I, alongside the church our children will hopefully be more equipped to handle the challenges of life with a faith-based mindset.  My question to ponder is simply this:  Church, are you willing to create a space where parents are trained/equipped to be better parents?  Parents, are you willing to join/teach the church on this journey about how to have a greater impact in your child’s spiritual life?  Are we willing to prove that two combined influences are indeed greater than two separate influences?  Are we willing to work together to impact the next generation?