One of the best things I ever initiated, while being a youth pastor, was to engage parents in their child's faith journey. For our youth ministry it meant emailing the care givers of our students each week with the content we were sharing with our students. We'd also share some good questions parents could ask their students to engage the topics we covered during our weekly gathering time. We would also gather parents after a conference or significant event in the life of our youth community to debrief with them.

Now we all recognize that many of our students don't live in homes where Jesus' ethic or message is received or lived out. What an incredible gift however, we give to parents if we invite them to participate in their own child's journey of faith. This invitation might be an opportunity to engage their own journey of faith.

For your students who do live in homes where their care givers (parents or otherwise) live out the message and ethic of Jesus, the Strategy behind the Orange Curriculum can be an excellent integration of the investment of the church and family in a student's life. Take a look at the below resources from a friend who works with Orange. I'd also encourage you to check out their website: http://thinkorange.com

This is only a brief introduction to the strategy of Orange Curriculum, because I believe their strategy is vital to the health and future of the Church. While using their curriculum would be great, it's not going to be a good fit for everyone because of cost or context. I do hope however, that the heart behind their strategy will encourage you to seriously consider how and who you will encourage to engage your students on their own faith journeys.