Dear Parents,
Thanks for all you do to invest in the life of your children. You probably feel like an Uber driver, coach, tutor, and guidance counselor all wrapped up in one!
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That’s why, with all the insane busyness of parenting a child, it’s easy to let LAUNCH Ministry attendance slide off the grid. It’s tempting to think, “My kid’s just too busy for a night of hanging out with other kids, playing some goofy games and hearing another Bible lesson.”
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Believe me when I say I understand the temptation. I am constantly under pressure to measure every event through the lenses of what matters most with our youth. We have decided that LAUNCH group attendance is a priority. Although we are the primary spiritual influences for our kids, we also believe that a strong LAUNCH ministry plays a vital role in their spiritual development.
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I want to give some short, yet powerful reasons you should encourage (make) your children get involved with new LAUNCH Ministry:
1. Our Youth need models and mentors.
In the Jewish culture, it wasn’t just parents that poured into the younger folks. Older men poured into younger men and older women poured into younger women (Titus 2:1-8).
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It’s important for your child to see that this whole “Christianity thing” is more than just mom’s and dad’s belief system. I like to call that an inherited belief! Of course, you as a parent are called to be the primary spiritual mentor of your children, but they also need other godly adults!
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2. Our Youth need community.
“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:24,25
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In an age of bullying, gossip, slander and hatefulness (which can destroy a child’s self-identity), young people need other young people who can lift them up, encourage them and challenge them in all the right ways. Our LAUNCH group is also a place where youth of all ages can discover their spiritual gifting and begin to use it to serve others.
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3. Our Youth need mission.
When Jesus challenged his most-likely teenaged disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations,” he was tapping into the activist wiring of these young men. In the same way, our youth need to be challenged with the mission to reach their peers with the good news of Jesus in a loving and contagious way.
Our LAUNCH group is a place where your child can invite their unbelieving friends to hear the gospel. Every other place in the life of students has a mission (sports, dance teams, debate clubs), and this should be true with our youth ministry.
LAUNCHING a Righteous movement,
Richard Duncan
Student Pastor