Maybe bottomless soda, ultimate frisbee, and high school students attempting to eat their weight in pizza rolls aren’t your thing. Now that your kids are teens, you’re happy to send them to youth group, but volunteering is the last thing on your mind. You may even think, If I’m part of this student ministry event, all I’ll do is make it lame. But what if, far from ruining your church’s youth ministry, you’re a secret, indispensable ingredient for its health and success?

In Old Testament Hebrew, there’s a word pair used to express loyalty to sworn oaths and covenant promises: hesed and emet. Sometimes English versions translate those terms “steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ex. 34:6; Prov. 3:3). The Greek equivalents are translated “grace and truth” (John 1:14, 17). When used together, the terms describe committed and supportive love, the kind of love God shows his people when he carries us like a father with his son on his shoulders (Deut. 1:31).

I thought about those Hebrew words when I read Thomas Walters’s recent article on parents in youth ministry. Walters writes, “I’ve seen moms and dads serve in the church nursery when their kids are infants, lead preschool classes when their kids are toddlers, and teach their kids’ discipleship classes in elementary school. . . . When their kids become teenagers, these moms and dads are regularly present for youth group events.” Such parents have a long-haul perspective. They know that while the parent-child relationship changes as kids grow, the need to invest in discipleship continues.“No one parent can be involved with every aspect of youth ministry,” writes Walters, “but there’s something amiss if parents aren’t woven into the ministry’s fabric.” 

Parents of teens, don’t give up on faithful, committed discipleship. Offer rides to youth group, bring food, and lead Bible studies. Stay the course, remembering the faithfulness with which your Father carries you.

Grace and truth,