Few would doubt the wisdom that parenting is a tough call in the 21st century. I hope parents still have some pleasant moments with their children, but the pressures are still very obvious. Even government seems to be taking the role of the parent seriously.
As youth ministers, what should our attitude be to the parents of the children we minister to? There is little doubt that the Bible sees the parent as the prime teacher of spiritual things to their own children. Parents are to train a child in the way she/he should go (Proverbs 22.4) if God’s word is to dwell in the hearts of our children and they are to be followers of Christ.
It is fairly obvious that, in church life, many parents struggle with this role. They have to support, encourage and discipline their children to be good students and achieve good grades; they want their children to be well rounded, so they encourage them in their sporting or creative activity. They feel they have to monitor the relationships their children get into and help them with a whole collection of decisions they have to make.
