I love this video from McLean Bible Church in Virginia. They used it in the main church services to challenge parents to “make their kids go” to Beach Week, their annual student camp.
Tommy Lippard (a friend and champion for THE Cause) and his daughter, Kristy, talk about how he made her go to Beach Week when she was in high school in spite of the fact that she didn’t want to go. But it was there that her life and perspective was transformed forever.
Watch this video and be encouraged. If you are a parent you know that sometimes you have to make your kids do what they don’t want to do. What’s true of unmade beds and hovering homework is also true of “church stuff.”
Sometime you have to make your kids go to camps, retreats, church, or, yes, even events like Dare 2 Share in spite of their protests. Of course, you want them to want to go. And there is always a fine line between directing and pushing someone so hard you push them away from Christ. But, as a parent, you have to remember that you are in charge. As I remind my kids, the Stier household is not a democracy. It’s a parentocracy. Yes, we take input from our kids, but then we make a unanimous decision.
If you are a youth leader show this video as an example at your next parent’s meeting and challenge them to encourage their teens to go to whatever potential life-transforming event you are promoting. And, if all else fails, tell these parents that they have the right to pull executive privilege and just make their teens go.
They, like Kristy, may thank you later.
