JCISONLINE

Outsiders 5 questions to ask when reaching unchurched students

This post is my thoughts from a breakout I attended at Orange Conference 2013. You can click the link to view all of my Orange Conference 2013 posts.

Here are a few of my main takeaways from the session.

There is a stark difference between a ministry geared towards insiders and geared towards outsiders.
If you develop a ministry geared toward outsiders you could help the insiders develop an outward worldview.
Why would you use feedback from insiders to reach outsiders?

In order to reach outsiders you have to strategically think through all elements from your program from top to bottom.

Here are pictures from my notebook filled with goodness:

Do you struggle with designing a service geared towards outsiders?

The power of focus #oc13

In case you didn’t know. I’m at a conference. It’s called the Orange Conference. Over the next few days, I will be blogging primarily about what is going on at the Conference. I’ve already posted a little bit about the Orange Conference and you can view my stream about Orange.

They are also debuting a new app showing you a timer of a date when your kid will graduate. It’s pretty amazing. It helps you keep focused on making the most of your time.

“Teach us to number our days, so that we will gain a heart of wisdom” Psalm 90:12

I dare you to download the Legacy Countdown app and put your kid(s) birthday in it.

Blog Magic from Orange Conference 13

We made it here last night and had some dinner with old friends and made some new ones! I’m pumped as always for the conference, but I’m super pumped about the conversations that result from the Conference.

I love Orange because even if you aren’t here you can experience a ton of the conference by reading some bloggers and hearing their voice. This year they are more interactive than ever by providing us with some sweet Hashtag and experiential ideas for some fun stuff to do with your team.

Noah’s Ark Bible Game from Little Halo Games

I was recently given a copy of Noah’s Ark Bible Story game by Little Halo Games to review. I downloaded and played the game and came away impressed, but for a younger age group. The illustrations are very well done. The games are fun for 4 – 9 year olds. It tells the story of God telling Noah to build the ark and keep his family from being killed by the flood. (Why Noah’s ark is such a famous children’s story I’ll never know.)

The games are entertaining for kids and I could see them playing these numerous times.

New blog design thanks to JBrad

Blog design is so important. But for me it’s not for SEO or traffic or anything like that, even that is a benefit of good design. For me it’s about the inspiration to write. I love to get a different look on my site every year or two because it keeps me interested in my craft. I don’t have a killer budget to work with for my site so I have to use free resources and tweak things in an area that i’m not that strong in.

I recently got a fresh new look thanks to Jason Bradley, aka JBrad in the Standard Support Forums. He’s developed a child theme, with some tweaks of my own, that I’m using here but not only that but is a huge support voice on the support of Standard Theme, the theme I’m rocking.

You can check out his stuff over on his website, Everchanging Media, including his list of child themes for the Standard Theme.

Sometimes you just need a facelift to get inspired and I definitely got one.

I’ve got a few more changes coming down the freeway that I’m excited about:

New logo and branding
System for more consistent writing
More Giveaways
More Resources

Tell me what you love and what you hate about the new look. I can take it, I promise.

Be sure to give Jason a peek and let him know that JC sent ya!

Discovering your voice

Sometimes things stick out like the rotten fruit in the produce section. This post by Sam Luce is one of those that has just stuck to me and I can’t get it unstuck. Yes, it’s from a year ago. Yes I can’t stop thinking about it.

I like to read, like just a little bit. Bible, Blogs, books, and notes all entice me with their learnings. Learning is something that I love to do, but Sam scared me with the Doing header in his post. He says:

This is where you start to find your voice for your generation. This doesn’t mean that you are going to travel and speak it means that you are going to use the skills you have learned to reach your generation.

Me, reach my generation? I have no idea what I’m doing yet!! Not only that but I really don’t have a good grasp on who I am.

I mean, as a young person I feel as if I’m in the middle of two stark differences sometimes.

What I currently do + What I will one day do

or

Who I am currently + Who I will be one day

What’s hard is that discovering who you are is essential in the journey of becoming you will be one day. But it’s an interesting balance in development and work. Maybe I’m the only one in the world struggling with this but you have to get your work finished. I desire to finish my work well and to the best of my ability, but at the same time, I desire to learn who I really am and begin to develop the gifts that are uniquely mine.

Orange Conference 2013 Primer

In about 10 days, you and hopefully some of your team will be traveling to Atlanta, Ga for The Orange Conference. You are pumped, excited, and ready to go. But honestly you are probably thinking a lot about the breakouts and other stuff and you could sometimes miss some of the things that are happening to help your conference experience. Here are a few that you should be aware of:

How to teach kids the gospel

One of the things that I have struggled with since beginning in ministry is how to share the gospel with kids. It’s the most important thing that we get to do. It’s something that you must get right. I hope to share some of my struggles and failures and point out a resource that will help you to share the gospel effectively in your ministry to children.

I read more books on the Gospel lately than any other topic. I really care about getting this right with kids. I’ve seen the research and teenagers and young adults not clearly being able to articulate their faith is something that I take personally. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is beautifully simple and yet rich with depth. It’s a story that never gets old or dusty. You must continue to dive deeper the longer you are connected to the Gospel. The Gospel is the basis of what we believe about God and us and should give us a foundation on how we live our lives.

But oftentimes, pastors, volunteers, and sunday school teachers struggle with teaching the most important story ever told to 5, 6, & 7 year olds and beyond. So how do we teach kids the Gospel?

Today I’d like to share my story and hope that it provides encouragement to you.