The Rainbow is one of the most interesting phenomenons to me. The sun actually shining on raindrops causes you to see an incredible piece of beauty right before your eyes. The rainbow is a cool illustration for me to use for parents that have a preteen. Because they are right in the middle of two totally different worlds.
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Preteen Conversations start to look like the Rainbow
It’s Orange Week
It’s finally here!!! You know that I absolutely love the Orange Strategy. Heck, last year, I even turned my blog Orange. And it’s time for another great year of bloggage.
I have a feeling that the Orange Conference, 2012 edition is going to be the best one yet. Here are some reasons why: Continue Reading…
Meeting friends at Orange ’11
Kenny Conley busting a move from J.C. Thompson on Vimeo.
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Kenny has mad skills. Don’t play yo!
So part of the draw of the Orange Conference is the relationships that you have the opportunity to develop over the course of a few days. I can say that I can call some of my fellow bloggers, friends.
I’ve seen: Kenny Conley, Gina McClain, Matt Mckee, and Chad Swanzy. I still have yet to see: Jonathan Cliff, Sam Luce, and Jim Wideman (one of my heroes).
It’s always fun to see them and also so much fun to meet new friends that I have followed from afar. I really can’t believe how blessed that I am to be able to do what I do. I cannot believe that I can have conversations with these people and yet they have been so open to just chatting with me. If I can give you one piece of advice this week. Get some courage and just go chat with them or even me. You won’t regret it at all.
Get past the blogger title and you have some amazing people that are doing ministry and want to get better and help others get better as well. Without you continuing conversations, we would miss so much. We don’t have the corner on any market and desperately want people to ask questions and challenge thoughts. So if you are chillin upstairs at the Gwinnett (yeah I dropped the Arena/Center part cuz I’m dope like that) then gather some courage and chat. If you ain’t skeered, then we want to chat with you as well.
I know that iron sharpens iron and without authentic community we would definitely be swimming upstream. So do everyone a favor and be a part of the Orange conversation. I know I can’t wait for tomorrow and for the weeks and months that follow because it really is a different experience.
Sleep well and see you tomorrow 
Safety
Safety. Such a safe word . This word scares me. I never thought that this word would describe me. But when I got married something shifted inside of me. Ever since I’ve been married, I’ve wanted to provide something safe for my wife. I want her to know that I would do absolutely anything in this world to protect her. But I wonder if I’ve crossed over into the Safety Dance realm. Continue Reading…
I’m Orange
Ok maybe not that Orange,
In order to reach the Next Generation I believe one strategy takes the cake. What is this strategy to reach the next generation? It’s being Orange.
It’s no secret, that I love everything associated with Orange the company, however the color is definitely not in my top 1,000 for Reason 1, Reason 2, and Reason 3.
But I truly believe that being Orange is something that is overwhelmingly important to reaching the next generation or Children, Preteens, Students and Parents.
Why? 3 reasons.
Parents become more of a focus
Ever since attending my first Orange Conference and hearing Reggie Joiner speak, I became convinced. You can hear about that experience here. Basically you need to know that having parents bought into your ministry is essential to multiplied impact in the students that you minister to.
If Parents are connected to your teaching, events, and resources, they will be repeating what the students are hearing in small group, large group, and campus ministry. That kind of focus will cause our students to think about the reason for such a focused effort.
Curriculum
One of the big reasons why I’m Orange is the curriculum that they produce. It’s so much more than a one experience type of curriculum (i.e. large group only or small group only curriculum). It gives you resources to give to parents for use outside of the church building (which is where we really want our students in our ministry living out their faith).
The fact that they put a ton of time into resources such as orangeparents.org, orangeleaders.com, and The Orange Conference overflow into their curriculum that they produce for Pre-school {First Look} (which Brookwood uses), Children {252 Basics} (which Brookwood uses) and Students{XP3} (which we don’t use because of the ridiculous deal we got on a curriculum and our current staffing).
Their experiences are awesome and their in-week resources are great for the family. Seriously you need to check out their stuff.
The People
The people that work for Orange are over the top awesome. Seriously, their team is not just full of producers (people that flat get stuff done) but also people that are innovative and looking to continue to improve and update what is going on in ministry to the next generation.
Reggie Joiner, Matt Mckee, Bre Hallberg, and Betsy Wright are just a few of the crazy awesome peeps that are a part of the Orange Team. They are top notch.
Needless to say you need to know where I stand. I believe that we must work with the family in order to more effectively reach the next generation with the Gospel of Christ.
Are you with me?
Best Breakout – Nancy Ortberg, Conflict
Nancy Ortberg taught a breakout called Dysfunction and Death. I was completely intrigued. I remember sitting there with my business school hat on and thinking everything she was saying was right. The difference, I hadn’t seen it in a church environment.
She talked about how church people sometimes shy away from conflict for the wrong reasons like fear or shame instead of engaging the issues to find the heart of the matter. I don’t remember if she said this in her breakout or in her main session but she said this:
In order to do conflict well you have to give people permission to do it poorly.
Are you allowing those that you lead to participate in conflict? Are you immediately solving the conflict? In order to be effective at anything we need practice but are we allowing them to practice the difficult things.
I think that conflict management is one biblical principle that I see handled better at corporations rather than churches, why?
- We define cowards as peacemakers – Matt. 18 teaches us about conflict resolution. Verses 15-17 look very different than the definition that we give to peacemakers. Peacemakers manage conflict and don’t avoid it.
- Conflict more clearly defines our outlook on God – we can see our trust in Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice by the way that we handle conflict. Do you really feel as though God accepts you and there is no condemnation in those who love Christ? If so you will handle conflict very differently than those who don’t
- Conflict is hard - it’s easier to do easy things. It’s hard to do hard things. So avoid hard things. Unfortunately this is how we approach the subject of conflict.
Nancy knocked this session out of the park. She recommended the Five Dysfunctions of a team and Death by Meeting as two books that you need to have read if you lead meetings or people or both
If you want a taste of the Orange Experience dont’ forget the Orange Tour it’s FREE! And if you want the whole enchilada including killer breakouts like the one above don’t miss out on the Orange Conference. Read about the special in the pic below. You only have til Feb. 17th!!!
Orange Week Best Speaker – Reggie Joiner
I will never forget the first time I heard Reggie Joiner speak. Honestly, the only thing that I knew about Mr. Joiner was that he was the founder of the then ReThink group now Orange that created the Orange Conference. That was enough for me. But when I hear Reggie speak about the family, I always come away challenged.
2008 was the first Orange experience for me. I remember so clearly being pumped about just going to a conference. I had never been to a church leaders conference. I was only 22 years old and was literally overwhelmed by what God was allowing me to be a part of not only at Brookwood, but getting to hear from some people that had been doing ministry for decades and I was soaking like a fresh sponge.
Reggie talked about influence and how parents see the church as a primary influencer on the spiritual development of children. Yep, I’m following you Mr. Joiner. Then he started to layout the differences in hours that parents had versus the church. My mouth dropped. I literally couldn’t remember anything else about the breakout.
My mind went into a tailspin. Why am I even in ministry? Did I misappropriate the influence that we could have on students and children? What am I going to do with all this one incredible piece of information?
You see the thing about Reggie when he speaks is that you never worry about what he is thinking. He wants you to get that we have to partner with parents in order to maximize our impact.
Nothing has changed my thoughts about ministry more than this one fact on influence from Reggie Joiner. I talk to parents differently with a boldness and courage because of the brevity of the role that they play. I am honestly more humbled by a killer parent than a main session speaker because of this one fact.
Everything inside of me knows that Parents have an incredible impact on their kids, and most of that knowledge has been gained because of listening, reading and engaging with Reggie Joiner’s content.
If for no other reason to just understand more about the role that parents have in the spiritual development of their children, you should go to Orange. But if you need convincing then take it from a young, long way to go, pie in the sky, leader, it’s life changing for you and those you minister to.
Orange Week – The Zest
I love to grill. Absolutely love it. If you grill and add any kind of marinade or sauce, then you know the power of Zest. It’s used in baked items, marinades, sauces and even some firewater 
The cool thing to me is how such a small portion of the entire thing is such an incredible source of taste and aroma. Seriously, your dishes change when you add some zest.
Well I’m going to tell you about something that might be the zest that you need in your ministry. We all need that extra pick me up, encouragement, challenge or conversation that propels us to the next level. This opportunity could be it for you.
This week around the children’s/students/preteen blogging community you will see an array of posts about something we like to call Orange Week. It’s a way for us to promote something that we all believe can make a huge difference in your life or ministry and that’s The Orange Conference. It’s a 3 day event that could change the way you do ministry, literally.
But even before the Orange Conference, Orange is hosting an Orange Tour Online and it’s FREE!! It happens on Feb. 15th and it’s a way to add a boost of Orange flavor to your life. This FREE event will answer questions that you have about the Orange strategy. Did I mention it’s FREE.
I am Orange for so many reasons. But the best reason is because of my makeup. My greatest ministry is my family. I am more accountable to them for my actions than anyone else in my life. I believe that is why the family is such an important area of focus for ministry.
This week you will see some personal highlights from the Orange Conference and I hope to hear some from you as well. Honestly, I think you should clear out your schedule to go. I really believe that the philosophy itself is enough reason to go to this conference.
But here are a few others in no particular order.
Seriously, you need to come. I will be pitching hard this week to try and sell you on it. If you are on the fence then I challenge you to show up everyday this week to hear from someone who has experienced Orange and the impact it is making on them years (2 to be exact) later.
If you are already convinced then click here to register for the Orange Conference. The Early-Bird rate expires February 17th, so save some cash and sign up today.
Student Ministry Challenges in 2011
As our Student Ministry team is looking forward at the 2011 year, there are a ton of challenges in student ministry that we are ready to tackle. I’ve talked about some of the things I’m looking forward to already, but there are so many more. Our Student Team is ready to tackle some big things. Here are just a few of the challenges we look to tackle this year:
- Launch our revamped, better than ever small group program for Student Ministry
- Formalize our Volunteer Assimilation and Placement process
- Refine the meeting process. More creative and more productive (this will be fun!)
- Develop and implement a Student Leadership team
- Work in more fun for our Student Team, Godzilla was a start
- Define and package vision, mission, and values of Student Ministry.
- Integrate some new faces into our Student Team.
- Polish our Production Process
- Brainstorm missional opportunities for our students locally, nationally, and globally
- Communicate and push our students to share their experience in new and innovative ways
Needless to say my brain is completely full of ideas. I’m so pumped for this year. It will be the greatest year of ministry that I’ve ever been a part of in my life. I’m excited about so many things and also praying through some huge calls we will have to make.
It’s going to be big.
What’s on your list to accomplish in 2011?
Give Clean Water for Christmas
So today I found out that Americans spent $45 Billion on shopping this past weekend. I know from studying for Advent Conspiracy, that most people in the know think that it would take $10 Billion to give clean water to everyone in the world.
22% of what was spent this weekend on retail would have fixed the water problem in the world
22% of 1 Weekend
It’s time to step up our game. I don’t kid myself by believing that I know enough people to change the world. But I do know the Savior of the World and He knows some peeps. So with Christ leading the charge in your heart I’m asking you to send people to Carlos’ post on Blue Friday. It’s time we put our money where we say our heart is. It’s time to give a present that will mean life change to villages, kids, and even countries.
For Advent we are teaming up with Water of Life to attempt to build a well in Africa solely from donations from our Students at Brookwood. It’s time you contribute. Be a part of a solution to one of the world’s biggest issues.
