Family in Junior High Ministry

This past weekend in our ministry we were talking about being gifted by God.  We talked about how we need to use the gifts God gives us.  Our entire church focused on this topic this weekend.  We looked at Ephesians 4:11-16.

We also hosted my favorite event of the year in our ministry.  We held our Junior High Family Cookout.  We invite all junior high students and their entire family to come out to church to cook hotdogs on the fire, make smores, drink hot chocolate, and play games.  We provide everything you need except your family and your lawn chairs.

This is an amazing event for us as families come out and play games, eat some food, and start conversations.  I truly wish I could find a way to keep this fresh and do it all the time.  I love to see parents spending time talking who didn’t know each other before they came and put their lawn chairs down.  It is such a family atmosphere.

The atmosphere of family isn’t just biological either.  Families meet together and discuss the relationships of their kids, they discuss small groups, they reach out to new families, and they make each other feel like a part of our Ministry Family.  I saw a mother of 2 of our junior high students pulling people together to get to know each other and have some fellowship together. I have to admit when I saw this happening I just stepped back and smiled.

It is always amazing that when you create a comfortable environment for people to do ministry you can just move out of the way.  God has gifted parents and students in our ministries to be able to build relationships and involve others.

Sometimes we just need to step back and stop focusing on what we can do to reach people, and focus on how to create an environment and setting for people to be able to come and do ministry themselves.

God moved in our ministry Sunday Night.  I spoke for a few minutes while everybody was gathered around the fire, but I believe God was moving through our families long before I ever got everybody quiet and focused on me.

What are you doing to encourage ministry in families?  How do you create opportunities for others to get involved?

2 Replies to “Family in Junior High Ministry”

  1. Eric

    Hey man,

    Great idea and article! I’m gonna steal that one from you! Right now my ministry is trying to champion the homefront as well. As student ministers we are all very aware of the need for parents to take part as the number one disciple-makers of our students. One thing we do every week to help this process is send out a Parent Nexus. It’s basically a run down of what we will be talking about, the Scripture, and so forth. We use this to give parents many Scriptures and questions to read, as well as maybe a song to listen to or a video to watch, with their students throughout the week that hopefully reinforce what was taught in church.

    1 Response
    1. Terry Goodwin

      Very Cool Eric! Do you send this home on a paper or do you send an email. How do you get this info to parents, and what feedback do you get back from it?

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