Parting Words to NMC Parents

As I make my transition this summer from the Student Ministries team to the Adult Ministries team at NMC, I thought I would take some time to share a few parting thoughts with the parents of the preteens and teens at NMC from my 10 years of experience in youth ministry at Nappanee Missionary Church...

Big Thought: GOD’S PLAN FOR YOUR CHILD’S LIFE MAY NOT BE THE SAME AS YOUR PLAN FOR YOUR CHILD’S LIFE

"God’s Dream for Your Kids" By Chip Ingram

What if God’s dream for your children isn’t about their happiness?

Now, that’s not to say that God doesn’t care about their happiness; He does. But what if their happiness is only a gracious by-product of His primary agenda for their lives? What if we, as parents, are unconsciously working against God’s best plan for our kids?

That would mean that we need a completely different parenting paradigm to raise effective kids in this defective, hostile world.

Bringing up confident, Christ-centered kids in a culture that is at odds with scriptural priorities is no easy task. As parents, we often act based on cultural cues and pressures we don’t even recognize. There are many parenting myths that run rampant in our culture.

God says that my goal as a parent is not to make my kids happy; but to make my kids holy—set apart for God.

Our culture’s focus on making our kids happy is dangerously shortsighted. The result is children who constantly strive for more and better. Happiness is always just out of reach, because more and better is never enough. They are never content.

In contrast, the by-product of holiness is joy. If our focus is on cultivating the character of God in our children, we’ll be setting them up for the kind of happiness that comes from genuine, deep joy—both now and forever.

Parting Words to NMC Parents

As I make my transition this summer from the Student Ministries team to the Adult Ministries team at NMC, I thought I would take some time to share a few parting thoughts with the parents of the preteens and teens at NMC from my 10 years of experience in youth ministry at Nappanee Missionary Church...

There are two “ditches” I see parents often falling into…

Ditch #1 – Choosing to let the church raise your kids spiritually
In this ditch, you as a parent disengage more or less from your student’s spiritual life thinking that the church has it “covered.” You rarely engage your student in spiritual conversations. Yet, at the same time, you might be very engaged in many other areas of your student’s life. The result is that you communicate a mixed bag of messages to your children when it comes to priorities and faith. They hear you saying one thing but your actions and priorities say something completely different. And quite naturally, the areas of their lives that you are extremely engaged in become the ones that they will learn to value the most themselves. The resulting carnage is often a student left with nothing more than a “form of religion” upon graduation.

Ditch #2 – Choosing to encourage/allow your kids to have only minimal participation in church activities since you’re called as a parent to be the spiritual leader of your student and not the church.
In this ditch, you as a parent think that since you are suppose to be the primary spiritual leader of your student, that he/she only needs minimal connection and/or involvement in what the church has to offer to you and your student. I’ve seen this approach yield little in the way of harm in the preteen years. However, the older a student gets the more damage I see done to the spiritual development of a student. Many parents found in this ditch are left asking, “What happened? He was such a good boy. We didn’t see this coming.” I want to respond, “I did. I’ve seen it coming since Junior High.” The “going it alone” approach is never in the best interest of your student’s spiritual development. Students need to be in spiritual community with their peers and need to be around other adults who are modeling Christ.

Parting Words to NMC Parents

As I make my transition this summer from the Student Ministries team to the Adult Ministries team at NMC, I thought I would take some time to share a few parting thoughts with the parents of the preteens and teens at NMC from my 10 years of experience in youth ministry at Nappanee Missionary Church...

Summer Camp Talk - Part 2:

As I said before, if there is nothing else you here me say please here this: Based on my first-hand experience of helping lead NMC Student Ministries camps for the past 10 years, what happens at these camps has the distinct possibility to change and/or set your child’s spiritual trajectory for a life-time!

And yes, students have a ton of fun at NMC Summer Camps but that fun is created intentionally, just like every other aspect of camp, to better position your student to be receptive to the voice of God. However, it isn’t just about fun and games. It’s life changing. And if it’s life-changing, it worth your best effort as a parent to make sure you do everything within your power to get your student to camp each year.

If I had a 2nd great frustration over the years, it has been to see students miss summer camp for reasons such as:

• Optional summer football workouts
• Cheerleading competitions
• Family vacations
• 4-H Fair preparations
• Work
• Simply because, "I don't want to go" or "I don't know that many people going"

Please hear me on this: I'm not saying these things are bad or wrong. I am saying, though, that in light of the fact that the alternative could be to get your student to an event that has the "distinct possibility to change and/or set your child’s spiritual trajectory for a life-time", that these other options just seem, at best, to be really poor ones.

I know for many of you as parents to commit to getting your student to summer camp every year will take courage because it will mean going against popular sentiment and expectation as a parent in your own community. However, if NMC’s Summer Camps are truly life-changing and have the opportunity to set your child’s spiritual trajectory for a life-time, then it’s worth it!

As John Stott states in his book The Radical Disciple, "We are not to be like reeds shaken by the wind, bowing down before gusts of public opinion, but as immovable as rocks in a mountain stream. We are not to be like fish floating with the stream (for ‘only dead fish swim with the current,’ as Malcolm Muggeridge put it), but to swim against the stream, even against the cultural mainstream.”

Parting Words to NMC Parents

As I make my transition this summer from the Student Ministries team to the Adult Ministries team at NMC, I thought I would take some time to share a few parting thoughts with the parents of the preteens and teens at NMC from my 10 years of experience in youth ministry at Nappanee Missionary Church...

If there is nothing else you hear me say please hear this: Based on my first-hand experience of helping lead NMC Student Ministries Summer Camps for the past 10 years, what happens at these camps has the distinct possibility to change and/or set your child’s spiritual tradjectory for a life-time!

I had a conversation with the dad of two girls in our ministry a couple of years ago. He had just attended his first ever NMC camp as a volunteer. I had the chance to chat with him as he was getting in his car to head home following a week of counseling at our Senior High Camp.

I asked him a general question, something to the effect of, “So, how was it?” And his response was something along the lines of, “Wow, I thought all you guys did was go to Cedar Point and have a bunch of fun! I didn’t realize you had worship services and had kids spend time alone with God…”

All I could think in that moment was that I wished every parent could have experienced what that dad had just experienced for the past 5 days. I’m convinced that if the majority of NMC parents could attend just one Student Ministries camp that they would be blown away by what they experience!

Check out what's been going on so far at his year's NMC Student Ministries' camps here and here.

Parting Words to NMC Parents

As I make my transition this summer from the Student Ministries team to the Adult Ministries team at NMC, I thought I would take some time to share a few parting thoughts with the parents of the preteens and teens at NMC from my 10 years of experience in youth ministry at Nappanee Missionary Church...

NMC Parents: You have a resource at your disposal in the Student Ministries program and staff at Nappanee Missionary Church that is 2nd to none. Many of you understand this and thus do everything within your power to make sure that your student(s) squeezes every last ounce out of the opportunities that NMC offers in its Student Ministries program.

On the other hand, many other parents appear to not get this and remain oblivious to this fact thus allowing their student(s) to totally miss out on all that God could be doing in their life. This has been one of my biggest frustrations in the 10 years I’ve been doing youth ministry at NMC. Many parents, from other churches, would die (figuratively speaking, of course) for their child(ren) to have the same opportunities that the NMC Student Ministries can give your student(s).

There are two verses from Scripture that come to my mind as I share this with you:

• Mark 6:4 – “Jesus said to them, ‘Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.


• Luke 12:48b – “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

Parting Words to NMC Parents

(Kristy Mikel, Cindi Lantz, Derry Prenkert, Geoff Cocanower, Megan Rendall, Chris Lehane)

As I make my transition this summer from the Student Ministries team to the Adult Ministries team at NMC, I thought I would take some time to share a few parting thoughts with the parents of the preteens and teens at NMC from my 10 years of experience in youth ministry at Nappanee Missionary Church...

The NMC Student Ministries staff is one of the best in the country! Think that’s an exaggeration? I don’t! You have a great team of leaders that the vast majority of other churches and their parents would give anything to have. Take advantage of having access to such a great team! Use them as a resource when your student is struggling, ask them questions when you need guidance but, whatever you do, DON’T take them for granted! As the saying goes, “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”