Parent Action Steps
With Yourself
You need to know where you’re starting to successfully get to where you’re going.
Get clear about your own call
Maybe you don’t feel like you ever experienced a call to an action or a career. Maybe you felt a call but didn’t follow it – by choice or by force. Getting clear on your own experience can help you talk to your child about theirs. These resources can help.
At Home
Some of the most impactful things you can do to support your teen or young adult can be done, unsuprisingly, right at home. Here are a few key things.
Encourage your kids to get involved in youth group, campus ministry, or a Christian young adult group
Tell your story to your teen or young adult
Share your sense of ‘call’ and share it with your teen or young adult. They’ll appreciate hearing your perspective (even if they act like they don’t)! Not sure how? These resources can help.
Tell them about the Timothy Circle!
Make sure your 14-24 year old young adult knows about the youth and young adult section of the Timothy Circle website and what it can offer them.
Want more resources on strengthening your child’s faith?
We’ve got you covered. We have a whole parent resource section devoted to exactly this.
At Church
You can be a powerful voice to encourage your church to nurture Calling.
Observe your church
Does your church promote Christian summer camps? Does your church provide scholarships to students to make it easier for them to attend? Are youth active in your worship service as ushers, greeters, scripture readers, and musicians? If not, work with your pastor and worship committee to make a plan for including them.
Listen to young people at your church
Talk to young people at your church. Do they feel included in the life and leadership of the church? If they name challenges, offer to help them take those concerns to the pastor or church leadership.
Recruit Call Champions
You don’t have to have all the answers yourself! Encourage people in your church to complete the Timothy Circle Culture of the Call course. Especially consider youth workers, youth and young adult Sunday school teachers, and members of the education council. You might even encourage a committee or individual to sponsor their $45 course fee.
Even More Ideas…
We’re all about call culture here at the Timothy Circle. Here are some more ways to advocate for call culture in your own church.
Supporting Church Leaders
Come alongside the people leading your church to help them support calling in young people.
Encourage your pastor and youth workers to cover Calling in their sermons or youth group time.
We want to make this as easy for them as possible. Resources that can help can be found in our Supporter Resources section.
Help support the youth group
Ask your youth director if there are ways you can help recruit volunteers to be youth sponsors or Sunday school teachers
Volunteer to be a youth sponsor
Give young people the gift of your time. Youth need steady exposure to adults who care about their faith life and their call journey. Plus, you’ll be showing your youth coordinator that you walk the walk when it comes to supporting young people.
Talk to your Worship committee or team
Talk to your church worship committee about including times for both adults to talk about ways they have been called by God, and for youth to share about what God is doing in their lives, especially after mission trips, camp, and retreats.
In Your Community
Be a shining light in your own little circle. What’s that phrase? To the world, you may just be one person; but to one person, you may just be the world.
Notice and talk about the strengths you see in others
Tell the young people in your life (your young adult, their friends, other young people in your church or community) the strengths you see in them. They might not know what’s unique about themselves. Your comments could help them recognize the skills and abilities God has given them.
Support your local Campus Ministry and share information
Reach out to the campus minister at your student’s college or university to let them know your child will be attending. With your child’s permission, share their contact information so the campus minister can get in touch with them