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    building a family-friendly ministry (in a not-so-friendly economy)
Mark D. Williams
The continuing national recession and increasing unemployment rate have created some difficult and unexpected financial challenges for many youth ministries and churches this past year. With less money to spend and fewer students who can afford to participate in the programs and events planned, many of our youth ministries need to rethink our approach to help our families in the coming year. Here are three suggestions we are trying in our ministry.
1. Rethink the calendar.
Gather your team and calculate how much it would cost for a student to participate in every program, event, or trip you have planned for this year. Be willing to make some tough choices to help make your ministry more affordable for all of your families, especially those who are struggling. This may require you to reschedule or replace bigger events with creative new options. Your students may complain at first, but your parents will be breathing a sigh of relief.
2. Plan and host your own trips and events.
Instead of loading up the vans and driving several hours to take your students to a big name weekend retreat, plan and host your own event where your youth worship band leads and your youth staff team-teaches. Consider partnering together with other local churches for big community events. By partnering with other local ministries, hopefully everyone can share the cost and responsibilities.
3. Give parents extra time to budget for the big “stuff”
For that expensive trip that cannot be replaced, make sure you give your parents as much time as possible to come up with the money. As a rule, we try to give your parents up to six months to pay for camp and mission trips with small payments due each month. This may require you to plan ahead. Also, provide three or four fundraisers to empower your students to raise some of their funds themselves.
These are just three ideas we are hoping will help keep us family-friendly this year. Hopefully these will inspire some creative ideas in your ministry.
What’s working in your ministry? Send your ideas to mwilliams@cchville.org.
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http://www.simplyyouthministry.com/community-articles-from-the-field.html
Mark D. Williams
The continuing national recession and increasing unemployment rate have created some difficult and unexpected financial challenges for many youth ministries and churches this past year. With less money to spend and fewer students who can afford to participate in the programs and events planned, many of our youth ministries need to rethink our approach to help our families in the coming year. Here are three suggestions we are trying in our ministry.
1. Rethink the calendar.
Gather your team and calculate how much it would cost for a student to participate in every program, event, or trip you have planned for this year. Be willing to make some tough choices to help make your ministry more affordable for all of your families, especially those who are struggling. This may require you to reschedule or replace bigger events with creative new options. Your students may complain at first, but your parents will be breathing a sigh of relief.
2. Plan and host your own trips and events.
Instead of loading up the vans and driving several hours to take your students to a big name weekend retreat, plan and host your own event where your youth worship band leads and your youth staff team-teaches. Consider partnering together with other local churches for big community events. By partnering with other local ministries, hopefully everyone can share the cost and responsibilities.
3. Give parents extra time to budget for the big “stuff”
For that expensive trip that cannot be replaced, make sure you give your parents as much time as possible to come up with the money. As a rule, we try to give your parents up to six months to pay for camp and mission trips with small payments due each month. This may require you to plan ahead. Also, provide three or four fundraisers to empower your students to raise some of their funds themselves.
These are just three ideas we are hoping will help keep us family-friendly this year. Hopefully these will inspire some creative ideas in your ministry.
What’s working in your ministry? Send your ideas to mwilliams@cchville.org.
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