Parents | Youth Missions Insider

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts GUEST POST: I’m Kinda of a Planner… she’s not kidding :)

I’m kind of a planner. That might actually be an understatement to some in my church. I start planning for trips at least a year out. When we returned from our mission trip last year, I was online signing us up to early registration a week after we returned.

Planning early comes in handy at some points and other times makes for great jokes…or maybe just jokes at my expense.

After preparing groups to attend mission trips for the past few years, I have found it helpful to:

Plan ahead. Really. Get the information out to parents and youth over the summer to be prepared to put their deposits in by as early as possible. The summer can prove difficult to get information to parents and teens as many are thinking of that summer, not the following summer when they are making their plans. I begin before we go to on the current year’s mission trip by telling people to expect the information about next year’s camp sometime in July or August.
Make room for the new kid. Inevitably we always have new kids that come over the summer and into the fall and don’t know about the crazy-planner-youth-director who has been preparing for a trip 365 days out. Plan for the new kids and communicate with new parents about the opportunities for the mission experience the next summer.
Allow God to work. Each year I am praying and fretting (I know, those two shouldn’t go together-no fretting!) about the adult leaders, numbers on the wait list and how much money we will be asking for to support the youth. What I’ve learned (and keep learning!) is that God knows who is supposed to be on which trip. God knows the adults that are good to bring and those that would be a detriment to the ministry. God knows the money figure and since He is Lord of all, He will provide in His time and in His way.

There are many more things I have learned over the past few trips. However these are my top 3 as I begin to prepare…a year and a half out from the trip. To God be the glory!

Tara Wolf has been in youth ministry for the past 12 years and lives in Williamsburg, VA with her amazing husband and Hungarian hunting dogs. Her first youth mission experience was in 2006 and she continues to encourage the youth and adults in her congregation to connect with God and His people through mission trips.

Add Comment May 10, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts GUEST POST: My church is a changed church

I’ve been a Youth Pastor for nearly 20 years now and for almost every one of those years I’ve taken my students on a mission trip. I’ve taken large groups and small groups, affluent teens and homeless teens, football star types and head banger types, and just about everything in between. I’ve seen the football player types pray with the headbanger types then break into a game of Ninja with some math Olympian types. I’ve seen affluent teens with everything in the world stand in shocked silence at the realization that not everyone lives like them. I’ve had shy, I-can’t-do-anything-right sort of kids turn into I-did-it sort of kids when they stand back and watch with pride as their resident wheels down the ramp they built. I’ve had many, many teens give their lives to Christ on a mission trip. I’ve come to expect that the lives of my students will be changed by their experiences on a mission trip. This year though, I got to experience a different side of things. I learned first hand how a Group Mission Trip can change not only the lives of the students who attend, but the church as a whole.

Last year, my church became a lodging facility for Week of Hope – which means that we hosted teens from all over the country during the months of June, July and August. There were teenagers everywhere. Shower tents were setup in the parking lot, the dumpster overflowed with trash, on any given Sunday morning you were sure to find towels, t-shirts or boxers left to dry on the bushes. One day someone sat on a table and it split right down the middle. Another person stuck their foot through the glass door. On the very first Monday of the summer every single toilet and drain in the whole church over flowed….at once. As we were running around trying to stop the great flood of 2011 a burning smell came from behind the sanctuary and the power went out in one side of the building. A few weeks later the air conditioning went out. It was July. In Florida. This was not good. Our roof is now permanently littered with Frisbee’s and our once pristine parlor..well…isn’t.

It was fantastic!

If the fact that our almost 60 year old building survived isn’t proof enough of God’s divine intervention in the world, the reaction of our older members surely is. When arriving at our very traditional, stained glassed building on Sunday morning to find someone’s forgotten boxers lying across the courtyard wall, our senior members would smile, pick them up, bring them to me and say, “Looks like they worked their pants off this week.” When asked to move every single meeting and gathering of every single group in the church to another location for the entire summer, our oldest members said, “Well, let’s meet at Sue’s house and call it a party.” As I stood on the sideline I watched as my congregation opened their arms to strangers, happily changed their regular schedules and graciously over looked the crumbs in the classrooms, stains on the carpet and grease in the kitchen. Instead, they focused on the hearts opened, lives changed and love given.

Was it a challenge for my church? Yes. Was it difficult at times? Yes. Would it have been easier not to have so many teenagers living in our church? Yes. Would we do it again? Yes, in fact we are this summer. My church is a changed church. No longer a sub-group of the church, teenagers are now embraced and welcomed as a vital part of the larger church. As a result of this welcome, the number of teens in our church has doubled. The mission work of our church has moved from collections and check writing to personal, relational service. Our folks have been praying for this years’ teens, adults and staff all year long. Our focus isn’t on what might break or go wrong, but on all the ways God will show up in the chaos.

Jennyfer Norvell has been in youth ministry for about 20 years. She currently serves alongside her husband at a church in downtown Orlando, FL. She takes her students on a mission trip nearly every year and this past year led her church to become the host location for an entire summer mission trip experience.

Add Comment April 27, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts I hope he will get the chance to feel as close to God as I do…

For the past several months I’ve been writing posts about the struggles youth leaders are facing getting students to commit to the mission trip. So far the focus has been on things like the business of students and the failure of parents to understand. We received another take on this issue last week.

The quote below is from a student to their youth leader about their friend who signed up for the mission trip:

“I was talking to my friend about the mission trip this summer, and as he was talking about it with his parents, they brought up the point of how he would miss some baseball practices and a tournament. If I was him, I would skip the baseball stuff and go to work camp in a heartbeat! But, he’s not as committed to this as I am, and this is also a baseball team that him and his parents pay some amount of money for. I was really hoping he could come and experience what I have had the chance to go through twice, because its more than words to try and explain how connected it makes me to God. I really hope someday he will get the chance to feel as close to God as I do. I’m really sorry that you had to go through all that trouble and he won’t be able to go. I really appreciate what you did for me and for him! I’m really looking forward to another great summer on our mission trip!”

For this student, the frustration is very real. He wants his friend to attend the mission trip because he knows how much of an impact it can have on his friends life. Going on a mission trip brought the student closer to God than he ever was before. This student wants his friend to have the same opportunity to experience that closeness – just like he did. But baseball wins out. The money his friend and his friend’s parents have “invested” in the baseball is something they just can’t give up.

Here’s the thing… We know that nothing impacts a students like a mission trip. The mission trip experience changes teenagers in so many ways. Realizing there is need outside of themselves. The opportunity to serve someone else. Leadership experience in the context of service and devotion. Real life skills like construction and leading VBS. Transformational spiritual growth. And those were just the ones I could think of quickly!

The only way I know to overcome this issue is to engage parents in conversation and tell them how their child will benefit directly from the experience. We’re fearful of approaching mission trips from a “what we get out of it” perspective but that’s the perspective of any parent. What will my kid “get” from this experience? My advice – tell them. Tell the what amazing experiences their child will have. Don’t be afraid to “sell” the mission trip experience to parents.

1 View Comments April 16, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts Another New Fundraising Idea

Raising money for your summer mission trip (or summer camp or any summer activity) can be hard. Here’s another idea to help you get the funds you need.

Kroger grocery stores (King Soopers in the West) have a gift card program that helps people in your church as well as you. The basic idea is for your group to give out rechargeable gift cards that friends, family, and people in your church use to buy groceries. Kroger/King Soopers then credits a portion of those purchases to your groups account. The details vary a little by location or region of the country. The best way to get started would be to visit your local Kroger or King Soopers and ask to speak to a manager.

Here are two links to information for example programs at King Soopers and Kroger.

King Soopers

Kroger

My oldest son’s best friend’s baseball team uses this program and they love it. Everyone needs groceries. Kroger/King Soopers are pretty reasonable. It’s a very simple way to help your group raise funds from something everyone in your church does every week.

Let us know what you find out from your local King Soopers or Kroger.

Add Comment April 10, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts Great New Fundraising Idea!

I just witnessed a great new fundraising idea last night! There is a pizza restaurant chain that has locations across the Midwest and the Great Plains. Pizza Ranch has 163 Locations across 9 States including Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nebraska, Illinois and Kansas. And they have a pretty cool Fundraising program.

A youth group from Dubuque, Iowa that goes on mission trips and is helping to organize a Big Day of Serving in their community was having a fundraiser last night. They bused tables and helped serve guests. They got to keep a percentage of the tips and all the sales for the 3 hours they served the restaurant. The details are here. The youth leader for this youth group told me that they have made as much as $300 (or more) in one night. What a great idea!

I also want to give Pizza Ranch some props. Here’s the vision statement right off their website. “To glorify God by positively impacting the world we live in.” How cool is that?

1 View Comments April 5, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts The biggest pain for Youth Workers

Over the last week we’ve been meeting with youth workers and hearing from them about their ministries. It’s been fun and rewarding to hear what God is doing in ministries all over the country. I posted about some great things happening here. I’ve also heard some stories of things that are painful and frustrating. Here’s a few of the most consistent points of pain we’ve been hearing:

- Finding resources can be difficult: many youth leaders express frustration with finding a resource (curriculum, lesson plans, games, activities, etc.). It’s very difficult to find something that they felt met all their needs. The common response was to find and use several resources that added together to what they needed.

- Parents just don’t understand (just like The Fresh Prince): youth leaders everywhere are struggling with parents not viewing youth ministry as important to their kids life as school, sports, music, whatever. We blogged about this issue here. Parents don’t believe a Bible study, Sunday school class, youth group meeting, retreat, mission trip, or service experience is as important in the life of their child as those other things. It’s almost universal in youth ministry right now.

- Students are over-committed: nearly every conversation I’ve had in the last 2 years with youth workers involves this topic. Kids just have so much (too much) going on. Between school, jobs, sports, family commitments, boyfriend/girlfriend, and whatever else their is youth group can barely be fit into their lives. They have to be here, do that, finish this, attend whatever and then try to make it to youth group if they can. It’s really hard to develop deep relationships with students you don’t see very often.

- Money: it’s a fact of ministry life right now. There isn’t as many dollars available for ministry as there used to be for many people in ministry. And yet great youth ministry is still happening. People fundraise, do less, choose less expensive programs but they are still doing ministry.

What about you? What’s the big pain for you in ministry right now? We’d love see if we could help.

1 View Comments April 3, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts What’s working with youth leaders

We’ve been out this week meeting with Youth Leaders. It’s been great to hear the stories and meet folks who are giving their lives to the students in their churches. Here’s a couple things they’ve said are working well in their ministries.

- Mission trips and service experiences: Students love serving. The youth leaders I’ve been speaking to hear from their students that they’d rather serve or get involved than just meet, discuss and play games together.

- Relationships are key: Every youth leader this week has said that the youth in their church seem to be crying out for relationship. They value time together with their youth leader outside of “normal” church activity. Meet over coffee. Watch a sporting event. Go to a movie. These times are just as valuable (sometimes more valuable) than a regular youth group meeting.

- Great curriculum works. Bad curriculum is almost worse than doing nothing: Many youth workers have expressed frustrations finding great curriculum. But when they do – the students really respond and are engaged.

- There actually are some churches that aren’t just focused on #’s: It’s been very refreshing to hear about youth ministries that don’t feel pressure for numbers but are free to pursue transformation and life change. A very cool part of this week.

What’s working in your ministry? Please share some of the ideas and things that you feel are going great and helps you to love working with the students in your church?

2 View Comments March 28, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts Oh no… Paperwork!

I know that we just mailed the individual participant forms for everyone going on a mission trip with our ministry this summer. So… if you’re going with Group Mission Trips this year, check your mail they should be there by now.

Regardless who you’re serving with this summer, it is time to start gathering the info necessary to organize and provide a safe mission trip for every person attending. Here’s some helpful tips to help you do that well.

Take time to get it right. If the organization that needs your forms will be scanning them, they could require blue or black ink, writing in all caps within the boxes, or filling in the circles completely. Spend a few moments before you hand them out so kids and parents know what’s required. Remind them. And give them the right color pen. Most organizations require the original forms with original signatures—not faxes or photocopies.

Know the due dates…then back-track two weeks. There are good reasons why organizations need your paperwork by a particular time. If you fail to do that, you might not be able to participate. Try telling THAT to your kids and parents: “Um, we can’t go because I didn’t send our stuff in on time.” So play it safe. Whatever date the forms are due to the organization, require your young people to give them to YOU two weeks before. That allows a little grace period for that one family that ALWAYS misses the deadline. It also gives you a last chance to look through them to make sure everyone filled out all the required places and signed in all the right places.

Remember privacy laws regarding medical information. HIPPA laws require health and medical information to be kept locked up and viewed only by those who need to know it. While it’s important for you and other adult leaders to know one of your students has a certain medical condition, it’s not allowed for you to share that with any of the students or other parents—even as a prayer request. Under the Health Information Privacy Portability Act (HIPPA), you can be sued for sharing such information with the wrong people. And this HAS happened in churches before. Shred these forms when you’re finished with them.

Have a forms and information night…that everyone must attend. If you’re going on a mission trip or other major excursion, you’ll likely need to distribute and collect a small forest of paperwork. If so, announce several months in advance—so everyone can get it on the calendar—the date of the required “Parents and Youth” night to talk about the trip. Announce this several times so it sinks in. Tell people to bring their insurance cards, birth certificates, passports…or whatever it is you have to have. As people arrive, hand them the paperwork to fill it out right there. If forms need to be notarized, have a notary available. Have another adult collect the paperwork and double-check that everything is filled out properly and all the signatures are included. If something’s missing, hand it back to the person to make the corrections. You should also talk about other important aspects of the trip while you have everyone there. Have this well in advance of when the forms are all due…because I guarantee a youth won’t show up, or a parent won’t show up (“I didn’t hear about this!”), or things will happen.

Make copies for your own records. Before you send everything off in the mail (so it arrives on time), make a copy for your own records. You might need to know the information during the trip, or you might need to have a back-up in case it gets lost in the mail or something. I always kept all these forms in an accordion file that I could take with me on the trip. I had everything I needed from forms to vendor agreements to hotel reservations to everyone’s T-shirt size. If we needed it, I had it. Right then. Right there. You’d be amazed how much easier this makes your life.

Hope this makes dealing with the mountain of paperwork associated with taking your group on a mission trip just a little easier.

Add Comment March 20, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts Parents just won’t let go

We’ve recently posted about the difficulty of getting students to commit to a mission trip here and here. But it’s an issue that many of you face as you try to finalize the people who will attend your mission trip this summer. Let’s address one more of the reasons kids don’t commit – Parents not letting go.

I have a teenager that calls my house “home”. I make him wear pads when he rides his skateboard. I make him wear shin guards even when he’s just playing a pick-up game of soccer. He takes his cell phone with him to school “just in case” he needs us. We (parents of teenagers “we”) are a protective group of people. I never did or had any of the things I just listed I do for/to my son. And yet… I “make” him. However, I consider myself a pretty “easy-going” parent. I don’t make my kids wear helmets when they ride bikes. Only my teenager has a cell phone not his two younger brothers. Etc…

But all of us in youth ministry have dealt with or are dealing with a parent who just can’t seem to let their child go on the mission trip. It doesn’t really matter what the reasons are. They simply don’t think it’s a good idea or safe for their child to go with you.

Here’s how you can help them feel more comfortable.

1) Be Professional: I’ve said this before but it bears repeating. Parents can’t possibly trust you or put their kids in your hands if you come across to them as a sloppy, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants, make-it-up-as-you-go-along leader. Why would they trust you with their child? Here’s a couple specific ways you can appear to be professional (even if you’re not really there yet).

- Plan as far in advance as you can. Most mission trips take 6 – 9 months to plan really well. You can do it in less but it just compresses the schedule.

- Make sure you know the details of your mission trip. Parents care about the big stuff – the “major” basics. Where you’re going. Where you’re staying. What you’re doing. Who you’re serving. Be as specific as you can about these big things.

- Bring along other great adults leaders with you on the trip. This is especially important if you are a younger youth leader. Parents will like the fact that you understand the importance of mature leadership.

2) Have an end result in mind: Parents that are reluctant to let go of their kids will be more likely to let them go if they see a concrete benefit for their child. Be sure to to spell out exactly what you believe students will receive as a result of attending the mission trip. A new perspective on life. Leadership experience. Less materialistic. A closer relationship with Jesus. Tell parents what their kid gets by going with you on the mission trip.

3) Have a safety plan: This should be basic but it’s very important to a protective parent. Have plans, back-up plans, and “then what” plans. Here’s some basic things to include in a safety plan.

- Supervision: what’s your adult to student ratio. 1 to 5 is good but no less than 1 to 7. How many adults will be serving with the youth when your at the project.

- Driving: How do you chose drivers? Do you charter buses with professional drivers? What about insurance?

- Medical Issues: Release forms. Insurance information. Nearest hospital or urgent care to your mission location. Make sure you cover these things.

4) A “What-If” List: Another name for this is the “worst-case scenario list”. The best way to plan this list is to think through everything that could possibly go wrong on your mission trip and what you’d do about it – step by step. Vehicle breakdown. Food issues. Serious injury. No supplies for projects. Death. Take the time, in advance, so you won’t have to think if something like this happens. You’ll have a plan.

None of these four steps are going to guarantee that a parent who struggles with letting their kid go will suddenly let them. But it will take you four big steps in that direction. Overcoming the fears of parents is not a easy or one time thing. It will take time. You’ll be proving yourself over and over again to them. These ideas will help.

Add Comment February 28, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts More stories of teenager’s lives changed

One of the greatest parts of being involved in youth missions is the stories of how God uses the experience to change a teenagers life. This article in a local newspaper from Omaha, NE gives a great example of this. The best part of this story… the students say directly the biggest difference was in their relationship with Jesus. How cool!

In their own words… Omaha World-Herald

If you haven’t considered taking your youth group on a mission trip, I hope stories like this will help you understand why we believe it’s so important.