Zondervan, along with 43 sets of parents, have created a Bible for family reading.   The niche for this Bible is the parent gets to read the Bible story from the Bible instead of a Bible story book.  The Bible stories are broken down into 3-minute reads for a family with children 9 and under and longer reads for the older children.  Along with the stories, which are formatted right into the actual Scriptures, are tips to further guide the family devotion time such as short facts to steer the conversation, great questions to talk about the story, and two powerful takeaways ("Why This Matters" and "Points of Interest") which equip the parents with enough teaching points to do more than just read a Bible story but to actually teach something.

Recently Youth Specialties and Group Publishing have come up with their own version of a parent newsletter.  Meanwhile we are in Year 6 of providing this practical resource for you to give to the parents of your teens.  Mom & Pops Stuff is more than just passing on information to parents but it is full of ideas to practically help the parents with their role in the spiritual training of their teen. You can also add your own page for calender details. Giving a newsletter to your parents is a good youth ministry idea.  Why not give the one that is filled with encouraging and practical ideas?  When you sign up for Moms & Pops Stuff, it will come via email around the 23rd of each month to your e-mail inbox.

Click HERE to download Moms & Pops Stuff - New Download (August 24, 2010)

Subscribe to Moms & Pops Stuff 

Much has been said and written about the lack of rites of passage for teens these days.  Rites of passages are something that both parents and the church family need to celebrate with teens.   By acknowledging rites of passage we are giving our teens true ways to distinguish themselves as growing adults. Simply, part of what we need to do to grow our teens is to let them know when they have taken a step towards growth.

We have compiled seven life stages which a teen and young adult goes through.  Each life stage has two columns of ideas.  One column is for the youth worker to do something and one column is for the parent.  Also we have room to add more ideas so please submit one of your own at Submit an Idea. 

Download the .pdf document HERE.

We are excited to announce that we have acquired the URL of ChurchFamilyBasedYouthMinistry.org because that is another title for what we believe in.  And because we also have lazy tendencies, we have acquired the URL of www.cfbym.org.  Both will direct you to this website.