Just noticed on The Student Ministry some great resources that you could give out to parents at your next parents meeting. If you’re don’t have some form of communication going out to parents, you’re missing a critical element of student ministry. Here’s some additional thoughts from Fields, too:

One area of youth ministry where I frequently mess up is in communicating to parents. I can’t count the number of times parents have asked me questions that should have been answered with simple communication. I’ve got some smart parents but none who are mind-readers. If you want to win with parents, you MUST communicate. Here are some tips I’ve learned over the years.

Communication to parents should be…

1. Consistent: every month parents should get a brief top ten (or five) list of announcements. This type of communication should be something they grow to count on each month. It will take the worry and stress from their lives when they’re informed. Your communication piece doesn’t need to be fancy, but it does need to be consistent. Try hard to get it in their hands before the month begins. An April parents’ letter should arrive the last week of March, not the second week of April.

2. Concise: parents don’t have a lot of time to read and, to be honest, they really don’t care about the youth ministry as much as we want to write about. They don’t want all the stories and the things we think are funny, cute, and inspirational…they want the details. They want a menu… not the recipe (save the cute-stuff for parent meetings and use live testimony there). The majority of parents can’t keep up with all their reading; mail, school reports, newspaper, magazines, etc… They need dates and major details to put on their family calendar. Here’s a good, general youth ministry rule: leave them wanting more-this applies to students within a small group and it applies to communicating to parents.

JG