It’s time for some good old fashioned Blogger math. John Saddington challenged bloggers to subtract today. His new blog Tentblogger is super awesome and it all about you becoming a better blogger. Subscribe here. But today I’m asking you. What should I subtract? But also what should I add? I know that’s sort of backwards of the challenge. But I wonder if what they say is true, “It’s all about the content”.
And don’t forget subscribe to jcisonline.com
So to end out my Orange Week posts I wanted to focus on something God has really been teaching me over the last few months, but really culminated in a lesson I learned this weekend at the beach. The picture above is a picture of Drew Barfield. He is my brother-in-law. He’s 21. He’s got CP. He’s in a wheelchair and has been for years. Dave and Beth take care of him and in the 6 years that I’ve known them they’ve never complained about “having” to take care of their son. They won’t be done for awhile, but they are in it to take care of their son.
This weekend we went to Drunken Jacks to eat. They had an elevator for the handicapped, but Dave or Beth wouldn’t be able to ride in the elevator with Drew. Beth joked about “Drew is probably excited to get to do something without us.” It got me to thinking just how much they invest into Drew. The struggles that it must cause in their marriage, with Kristen and Emily (the sisters), and other family members. Not to mention that Dave carried Drew who must be in the 130-170lb range up a flight of stairs and down a flight to load into the car from the home where we were staying. Up the stairs, down the stairs, in the car, pushing the chair, feeding the milk down the tube, wiping his face, and taking care of so many other personal things. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, serving their son.
Great story, why do we care? Here’s why.
There are tons of families out there like Dave and Beth and Drew and Kristen and Emily.
I’ve never thought about strategy to reach families like Dave and Beth. It’s somehow always about the “stock family” or getting families to look like a “stock family”. Our parenting, discipleship, teaching content all center around the ideal and less about the real.
I wonder sometimes, if we miss a lot of real families because they aren’t and never will be the ideal. But they are real with real struggles and real issues and most importantly a real need for Jesus. How are we reaching out to these families struggling with divorce, kids who attend once every other week because of splitting time between parents’ homes, or kids that are facing death and illness in their family.
I don’t know how or when but it’s something that God is shaping inside of me. What if Dave and Beth had a special needs ministry when Drew was smaller? Would it have eased their transition into ministry? I know they would never say they wish things were different, but what if the church could have met some of the needs that they had?
What are some areas that we really feel like God is using us to meet needs in our community? What are areas that families need help? What are some things that we can do to meet the real need of families and be less concerned about them living up to the ideal and be ok with God making a real connection.
For Dave and Beth it could have been babysitting, meals provided for their family, a small group, etc. But what is it for families that you minister to.
Thanks Dave and Beth for all you do and for how God is using you to shape me into the person that looks so much more like Christ.
Picture from they call me daryn
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes -Romans 1:16
Not just for conversion, but also for final triumph of perfected discipleship and sanctification. It’s about the gospel. How can we get the gospel in front of families, students, the lost, those that are walking their journey with Christ. Yes, red is about strategy of partnering with parents, but yellow is all and only about the gospel of Jesus Christ, which alone is the power unto Salvation. Figure out your initiatives and make sure they fall in line with the gospel.
Sam’s post was much more profound, but I agree with everything he said and more.
If the gospel is just a part of your ministry, you need to re-evaluate.
Some detractors from the Orange Philosophy say this, “What about the kids? Shouldn’t we be focusing efforts on the kids?” It’s pretty funny actually that my targeting parents, in some way is leaving kids in the dust. You can’t help parents and not help kids. But it’s so much more than that. It’s putting an emphasis on the God-given role of parents. And it’s allowing them to Parent their child in all walks of life.
A Couple things I would like to highlight about families and their importance in scripture:
Not sure if I even spelled that right. But when I was a kid, I always, always, always skipped through this part in the Bible. ( I still do :/ ) But the reality is that ALL SCRIPTURE is God breathed and so there must be a reason that it’s in there right? Well, yeah there is. First I think it’s because family tells a bigger picture. And secondly, to go along with one of my favorite messages of all time by anybody. Reggie Joiner talks about the stock family and how the families that we deal with aren’t perfect. The perfect family just isn’t where it’s at. We’re jacked up and messy just like families in the Bible. So check out a little genealogy from Matthew 1:
1. Roboam begat Abia;
a bad dad had a bad son.2. Abia begat Asa;
a bad dad, a good son.3. Asa begat Josophat;
a good dad, a good son.4. Josaphat begat Joram;
a good dad, a bad son.
So this is in the “Jesus-line”. That should give you some hope about your family and also your children. 4 sequential generations with a great mix of the good and the bad, and probably some ugly.
God saw Adam and it wasn’t good that he was lonely. So God created Eve. Fairly simple concept but it changes the dynamic of the created world. Families have existed since the beginning. God has used families to teach young people since creation and you can even see an instance in Deuteronomy 6 called “The Shema”. God uses families to develop and maintain faithful generations of people.
Well when you really believe that parents and families are where the power to develop healthy kids that love Jesus, then your priorities change, your programming changes, and your communication changes.
Here are a few of those in our context.
And that’s the reality. Do we get it right or perfect? More times than not, probably not. But we have some families that can attest, some of what we do works.
But enough about us, what about you?
What about you? What’s your Red strategy?
First of all did you not know it was Orange Week 2.0? Second of all. Are you watching the crazy things that are happening that Kenny is keeping up with over there on childrensministryonline.com
:p
But Seriously…
What are you doing that’s working?
Parents, what is the church missing to help you walk this road of faith with your child successfully?
If you are in kidmin then this is a no brainer. Seriously click this link and show up as someone who works in Children’s Ministry. It’s time for you to connect with people in your area and learn from them.
Seriously! Every feel alone in ministry? Wish you knew someone nearby to have a coffee and just communicate about struggles, victories, and the crazy student team (o, wait that’s me too :p ) Then you need to join Imakidmin.com and connect with those just like you. Don’t sing it bring it. It’s time to be a part of something bigger than yourself. Invest in those around you.
Have you signed up yet?
PS – if you are in Children’s Ministry at Brookwood you need to do this. Consider it a must do, just sayin.
Yep it’s that time again. The Orange conference is about to start the registration process. This year it’s going to be better than ever. And to celebrate the opening of Orange Registration on Oct. 5 me and a bunch of my blogging homies are putting on another Orange Week.
If you don’t know what Orange is, please clickity click it.
And make sure to follow Kenny Conley’s blog to get all the linkage your heart can desire of all things Orange.
So, John left NP. Now he’s a legit pro-blogger. I use his crazy awesome theme. I am loving his new stuff. And if you watch this video you will be able to tell that he seems to be loving it too. John you’ve inspired me. Time to change my pre-blog routine.
And sorry, couldn’t help but share :p
Video will be coming…
Something that I’ve struggled with in my time here in Greenville/Simpsonville Sc area is really embracing the local scene. Before I moved here, I spent my entire life in Memphis, TN. The music, the food, and the sports (specifically the basketball) are things that I miss greatly.
But God has really been moving in my heart about really letting some of those things go. It’s much harder than I ever thought. Allowing myself to love another city as much or more than I love my hometown. But in order to be more effective and genuine it’s a step that God is leading me through.
Now that we are looking for a house, taking another step in our family’s story, I am learning that I haven’t embraced the beauty of the Greenville community like I should. So in the next few weeks, I hope to do some of the things that make Greenville and Simpsonville unique.
We have a bro trip planned for camping.
I want to hike with my wife up into the mountains.
I want to experience some of the waterfalls that this community is known for.
I want to eat some local food. (still won’t replace Memphis BBQ :p )
I want to sit in one of the most beautiful downtown areas ever.
All in the month of October. So let me ask you this:
What makes your city unique? What is your favorite part?
I’ve been incredibly intrigued lately about the idea of message preparation in ministry. Mainly because the new guy at Brookwood, Jared Patrick, is a rock solid communicator and I’m incredibly impressed by his ability to communicate. As a sidenote I’m so incredibly excited for the new season of Student Ministry at Brookwood Church and what Jared brings to the table as High School Pastor. Anyway, he’s been dropping a few bits and pieces of wisdom on my head about homiletics.
Homiletics is defined as the study of the analysis, classification, preparation, composition and delivery of sermons.
Now he hasn’t called it homiletics and I don’t have a Bible degree (mine is in Marketing), but it’s what it’s called nonetheless. I get that Senior Pastors probably have a crazy incredible process, but not really what I’m interested in learning about today. I want to hear from Kidmin, Stumin, and Preteenmin communicators. A couple things I want to know about are these:
I would love, love, love to make some notes available for people if you have screenshots, digital copies, or scanned images that you would like to allow us to see. But honestly, here is my heart. I would love to see rock solid communicators everywhere in Family Ministry. I would love to help spark some conversations and provide some resources in that way.
So what do you have?
Teach me….
