HOW TO: Plan a parents meeting
How to meet the parents.
Wait a minute…not THAT Meet the Parents!
If you are in ministry more than 2 minutes, you hopefully will have seen the importance of meeting with parents. It is important for a number of reasons – you partner with parents (instead of fighting against them), you share your passion and heart for their teens, you open up lines of communication between you and parents, and so much more. Meeting with parents can only benefit your ministry.
Ideally, you should have one meeting at the beginning of the school year. In this meeting you will introduce/reintroduce yourself to parents, reiterate your vision for the ministry, lay out the plans for the year, and allow parents to ask questions or provide input. On top of that meeting, you may occasionally have the need for another one during the year – a missions trip, major changes in the ministry, or tragedy in the church or community. While they say you can never have too much of a good thing, you can have too much meeting. Don’t devalue your parents meetings by having one every time the wind blows.
So, how do you plan a parents meeting. Here are 7 tips to help you do that.
1. Have a purpose – How many times have you gone to a meeting for something, and you’re like, “Why am I even here?” Don’t have a meeting just to have a meeting. Have a reason and a purpose, lay that purpose out front, and STICK TO IT.
2. Plan your agenda – Several weeks ahead of time, plan out what you’re going to talk about. Print it out for your parents so that when they walk in the door they think you’re prepared. Be sure to think through what you’re going to say. Don’t just write down you’re going to talk about small groups, know what you want to say about small groups. Going, “Um, small groups, um, they’re um, really cool, and um, they’re um, small and stuff.” If its important enough to talk about its important enough to think through what you’re going to say beforehand.
3. Make it brief – To the parents of the teens in your ministry, their time is valuable. Honor them by being as brief as possible. If you can say it in 15 minutes, do so! Don’t think you’ll impress them by wasting their time.
4. Provide food – Hungry parents make for unhappy parents. You want them on your side? Feed them. Provide child care if you have a lot of parents with younger children. Take care of the physical needs so they know you’re really thinking about them and not juts using them.
5. Introduce your team – This might be the only opportunity many parents get to meet your team. Introduce the volunteers, allow them to mingle, let them share their hearts as well. Let the parents know how you screen and train them.
6. Meet when the most can show – Don’t plan the meeting for 8 am Monday morning, then wonder why no one (including yourself) showed up. Find out what works best for your parents. Maybe it would be right after church on Sunday afternoon, or during Sunday school, or before your Wednesday night youth meeting. You’re never going to get everyone, but don’t sabotage your meeting by making it when no one can show.
7. Have follow up communication – Thank the parents for showing up. Reiterate what you said. Let parents know when and how they can reach you. Inform parents who missed the meeting what went on. Now that you’ve opened lines of communication, keep them open.
Meeting with parents is so important in ministry because otherwise you are setting up an adversarial relationship rather than a partnership. Having a good meeting is important to demonstrating your care and your competence to the parents who are entrusting you with their teens.
I’d love to hear about some of your meetings with parents, and how they went.
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