The following is a transcript of an interview with Ken Lasater, SBTC church ministries associate and the author of the newly released book study titled “Home-Based Student Ministry: Leading a Student Ministry Focused on the Family.”

Published by the SBTC, the study is based on extensive research of parents whose children have been actively involved in church life from youth through young adulthood. Lasater spent 23 years in youth and music ministry before joining the SBTC staff. The book is available at sbtexas.com/hbsm ($14.99 plus $5 shipping).

How did you get involved in tackling the research for this book?

There has been a lack of resources in Southern Baptist life for involving parents in student ministry. It’s been a need for a long time and it’s been on a lot of radars, yet we still lacked a working model for that to take place.

Also, there have been many voices out there questioning the role of the youth minister and even questioning whether or not it’s even biblical. We needed to answer, “If there’s going to be a student minister, what can he do?” And then, “what might that ministry look like?”

Several studies show that about 70-80 percent of students are not attending church after high school—at least for a few years. How much did that trend influence the writing of this resource?

It really didn’t help form this material. But what the statistics caused was a question as to whether the youth minister role is valid or not. It was because of these statistics and the decline in baptisms that caused a second look at how youth ministry was being administered and the recognition that there were ministry approaches that were not building the church, not reaching students, not hanging on to students. And so the statistics indicated there was a problem.

This material grew out of a completely different perspective. What really began this material was asking the question, “Who really has the answer to these problems? Who can guide us in the right direction?”

What about statistics that show that multiple positive influencers in a student’s life make a difference in whether or not he is a lifelong disciple?

That comes from several studies, and it’s not just students. It also applies to new church members—that they need more than just one or two connection points. They need to be immersed into a community of believers who are involved in each other’s lives in a positive way.

Who is the book written for?

The book has been mailed to churches for the pastor and the student minister. It provides how-to information for the student ministry leader. This material will show how to implement an effective student ministry that will keep the parents connected and involved. But it also puts the parents back in charge of the discipleship. The student ministry may choose to do a lot of that teaching through Sunday School, discipleship classes and other means, but it does put the strategy in the parents’ hands. It puts the tools in their hands. They are kept abreast of what the studies are going to be so they can discuss that in the home. In a lot of churches it is the pastor who makes the decision on the ministry approach, and so this resource is for the pastor as well.

What did you learn in preparing the book?

We didn’t want to ask the general culture about where we are as a church culture. All of the studies had already shown there was a decline in baptisms, that students were failing to stay connected. We didn’t want to find that same information again; we already knew that.

But what we wanted to find out was, who was doing it right? Who was turning the tide? Who has corrected this and who is bringing about the kinds of results we want everybody to have? And so the question was, what are we going to shoot for? And we wanted as the end product students who are connected to the church all through high school, through college and into young adulthood. Students who are prepared to become leaders. Students who are supportive of their church staff. We wanted to find students who want to develop other students who love the Lord and are committed to the Lord. And so we started with those criteria.

These are the kind of students we want to have. And the only place to go to ask the right questions were the parents who had produced those types of children. And so we identified these parents and asked them very pointed questions—27 questions—each with nine possible responses.

We asked them about who is responsible for the spiritual discipline of the student? Who is responsible for the character development of those students? Who is responsible for the biblical instruction, for the biblical worldview? Even questions like who is responsible for your student’s recreation experience in the context of the church setting? The survey really revealed some pretty surprising results.

What stuck out?

These hallmark parents said, “We see it as our responsibility to be the chief disciplers of our children. God gave us that job.”

The second biggie was that they did in fact validate the position of the youth minister. But they said, “What we need the youth minister to spend most of his ministry and time on is providing leadership opportunities for our students to lead.” Put them in charge of ministry. Train them to do things that are on their level of ability. Give them an opportunity for missions or a speaking opportunity. And then spend your time training them to do those things. So the parents said, “Give us back the discipleship. Let us be the primary spiritual nurturers. God told us to do that; we’ll do that—if you will find places for them to serve and to lead.”

The third thing was that the parents, regarding recreation, fellowship and entertainment, said that’s not a primary job the youth minister needs to worry about. That came as a real surprise.

What should someone expect when working through this book?

The first third of it is really the book itself. The remaining two-thirds are the survey and the survey results and a how-to implementation tool. For example, the parents said, youth minister, pastor, if you all will develop a discipleship strategy and then equip us with those studies, we’ll help do them at home. So one of the appendix materials is how to develop a discipleship strategy. There are examples in there where they have a five-year or six-year discipleship rotation for student ministry and for the church.

There is also an appendix on in-home study tools. There’s a great section that we have entitled “Approximate Grade-Level Expectations for Youth.” If the parents are asking the youth minister to provide leadership opportunities for students, one of the questions that might be raised in the youth minister’s mind is, well, I wonder what a seventh-grader can do? What responsibilities should a ninth-grader be expected to carry out? So from Dr. Wes Black at Southwestern, Brent Baskin, a youth minister in Wills Point, we compiled information that has hundreds of effective leadership activities that students seventh-though 12th grade can perform.

What kind of response have you gotten?