LIVE from the Orange Confernece all week...

So excited to be heading to The Orange Conference again in 2010 and this time I am joining a team of guest bloggers to help you stay connected and think orange in your ministry context. Throughout the conference I will be trying to share the BIG IDEAS that are being talked about in the sessions and the breakouts through twitter and here on the blog. If you are going to be at the conference please stop by and connect in the Orange Leaders Lounge...we really want to hear what is going on in your ministry and have the chance to think Orange with you as you lead in your church. Here are the breakouts I will be in this week...

Preconference...
How to be a Better Communicator in Front of Students
Leading Strategically from Your Strengths
Catching Volunteers up to Speed

Conference...
Helping Adults Navigate the Adolescence Maze
Drawing Students into Healthy Community
Difficult Conversations in Leaders Circles
Aligning Parents to a Vision for Family

Check out everyone who will be blogging this year from Orange...AND make sure and stay plugged in into www.makingoforange.com for live video from leaders across the country at Orange!

Happy Birthday Kelyn!

God rocked our family when he gave us Kelyn! She is our little Godzilla and loves making us all laugh. Beautiful, smart, loving, and passionate are all words that help paint the picture of my little girl. Happy Birthday Kelyn! We love you!

what does SUSTAINABLE YOUTH MINISTRY look like?

What does sustainable youth ministry look like...get this book and you will be able to see some amazing insight into how to build a healthy student ministry. Most of us who work with teens want a thriving ministry, a large ministry, an engaging ministry, but few of us consider how to craft an environment that will last for the long haul. There are a few book that I think are must haves when it comes to youth ministry and this book made the list. Mark DeVries leads an organization called Youth Ministry Architects and has lead a student ministry in Nashville for 20 years. He has sat with church after church looking for how they can make their youth ministry grow. Asking how our student ministry can"grow" usually means that a group of church people want a bunch of teens to be happy, show up, get baptized,  and become the biggest ministry in town. Few churches start by asking what healthy youth ministry can be...few youth pastors are asking that. This book is a call to step back and examine what ministry to teens should and could look like. Over and over through the book I was reminded about lessons learned over my 11 years of serving teens and families in the local church. I was reminded of all the times I tried to take the shortcut and find the magic bullet to make things work better for our ministry. What I found through experience was that there is a path that leads to healthy long term health in student ministry. I also learned there is no quicker way to fail than to copy what someone else is doing just so you can advance the ministry. This book lays out clearly many lessons I had to lean the hard way. Experience is the best teacher, but it doesn't have to be your experience. If you are leading a student ministry click on the logo here on the blog and get this book ordered. This is a great resource for student pastors...CHECK IT OUT!

Stay LONGER...lead BETTER

This week is the NFL draft and I heard a comment the reminded me of the power of STAYING when it comes to effective leadership in ministry. The Tennessee Titans general Manager said...we can take a risk on a younger player in the draft because we have a stable coaching staff that has been together form many years that can develop that player. Ok, I summarized that but you get the point...TEAMS THAT WORK TOGETHER, LONGER HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO LEAD IN A MORE EFFECTIVE WAY. Why...because leadership flows out of relationship. When you stay plugged into a church or organization for the long haul you build relationships of significance, you build trust, and create momentum that makes strong, consistent leadership possible. I am working on my fourth year here on the staff of Grace Community Church and I promise that leading from the stability of quality, trusting relationships is significant in my life right now. Parents know me, teens know me, kids know me and these relationships help create trust when I step out and lead our family ministry team in a new direction. When you lead you have to have people following you...when people know you they are more likely to come along for the journey! I will be the first to tell you that when you are young you will have many times where you find yourself in new leadership roles. You will have to move around to discover who you are, who you work best with, what your true calling is, but there will come a time to stay. When we choose to plug in and stay your leadership influence might just go to the next level.

Parents, don't just DO...BE

Last night our daughter was coughing really bad and my wife and I both knew we need to give her a breathing treatment...neither one of us wanted to stop 24 to do it but we needed to go help the kid have a good night of sleep. I ended up getting up, getting the machine, and holding it in place so she could breathe the medicine and not wake her up. Sitting there I was reminded that those of who are parented will DO anything for our kids when they need us. We are wired that way and it is important to be there and be active in our kids lives. I think sometimes we get caught in the trap of thinking DOING all this stuff with and for our kids is all they need. We get caught thinking accomplishing the DO LIST for our kids makes us the parents our kid needs. For some reason, I was reminded last night that our kids need us to BE and not just to DO. They need us to...

BE consistent (in our faith, our choices, our discipline)
BE hopeful (when problems arise in our family life)
BE patient (in a world that wants immediate gratification)
BE loving (as they watch how we treat others)
BE forgiving (as we model God's forgiveness to them when they make mistakes)

When we decide to BE ______(you insert the word) in front of our kids we allow them to see faith in action. Our kid's image of God is shaped by what we choose to BE not just by what we DO. Sure we know there is a link between what we do and what we believe but when we choose to live out significant virtues in front our our kid's we provide them anchors for what following Jesus looks like in the real world...at HOME, at SCHOOL, at WORK! Please continue to do amazing things with and for your kids but never forget to BE.

Orange Conference 2010 iPhone App is here!

We are 8 days away from the Orange Conference! How did I know that? I opened my iPhone conference app! Did you hear that? I have a conference app for my phone. I am so proud of the Rethink Team for taking this jump and making an app for the conference. Just played around with it some and it has everything you need to stay up to date with the conference as you attend the conference because I know you are not going to miss this and I know you will get tickets today and find a hotel and I know you love this run on sentence that my English teacher can't do anything about! Take that English teacher! Seriously, I hope you will go download the app and check it out for yourself. There is still room for you at the conference and we would love for you to join us for ORANGE 2010!

Just so you know...the Orange Conference is a experience that gathers children, preschool, and student leaders together to think about what ministry with parents and kids looks like TODAY. When we talk about thinking ORANGE we are just referring to the idea of the church (yell0w) and the home (red) working TOGETHER (orange!) Think about breaking away and joining us in Atlanta for the conference or just the preconference in 8 days...whatever fits your schedule, we hope to see you there.

Make a difference in the life of a FAMILY at GCC...

One of our core beliefs at Grace Community is that everyone was made to SERVE. God is doing an amazing work at GCC and we are seeing new people join us every week. With growth comes the need for more volunteers. We are looking for some amazing people to join our family ministry team as we invest in the lives of kids on Sunday mornings. When we make a difference in the life of a kid on Sunday we make a difference in the life of a family. We have amazing kid and preschool environments and we want to connect with you if you are looking for a place to plug in and SERVE. Come see us Sunday after one of the services check out what God is doing in the lives of families at Grace Community!

THE UPRISING conference / Quest Community Church, Lexington KY

Spending the day here at The Uprising conference put on by Quest Community Church in Lexington, KY. I love getting to visit amazing churches that put on a one day conference...the one day conference gives a chance for leaders to refuel, dream, and catch the vision of a local church making a difference. Why take time to hit a conference...I LOVE TO LEARN! Seriously, if I am going to lead I have to learn from others making an impact. If you are out there leading in a church environment (paid or volunteer staff) make sure you get to a conference once a year. With that rant in the books...here some great thoughts I heard today...

• What if God wants to recalibrate our heart? Does god have permission...it can happen when we are willing. - Pete Hise
• It's important to develop a philosophy of community before you develop a strategy for community. - Pete Wilson
• What scandalized Jesus was that he welcomed EVERYONE. EVERYONE should be welcome in our churches and we have to be willing to embrace people even when others won't. - Pete Wilson
• When people see hope, experience hope, embrace hope...life changes. The church was made to be  place of hope, Jesus brings HOPE. - Pete Hise
• To reach our city we need to display a self sacrificing love to prove/exhibit the love of Jesus. They don't need statements or minor program changes...people need to see Jesus on display in our lives. - Pete Hise
• We say to the people around us who don't know Jesus WE LOVE YOU but we act like we are fine if they go to Hell by the way we live and "do church." - Perry Noble
• Our environments matter because they help or hinder people from seeing Jesus. - Perry Noble
• Our passion, vision, and leadership flows from listening to God and doing what he says. - Perry Noble
  
  
  

Does my TEEN need counseling?

Does my teenager need to see a counselor? I get asked that question at least once a month. The teen years are hard! Kids hit 5th grade and they begin to change into people we are not sure we know. Sometimes it is really hard to determine if our teen is moving through a phase or they are in serious emotional trouble. The truth is that therapy and counseling are finally normal parts of our culture and many times our families could benefit from bringing another trusted voice into difficult situations. Why? Many times when we are in conflict with our teen, fear for their future leads us to focus on surface issues (don't talk back to me, I told you not to wear that, you will obey me or else...on and on) instead of the real problems underneath. (stress, depression, worry, poor self image, etc.) This is where the counselor/therapist comes in...a neutral voice who can bring up difficult issues, provide direction, and help formulate a plan. When parents have a plan they are empowered to not give up and fight for the health of their child. So when do you bring a counselor into a situation with your family. Mark Gregston (go check our his blog and ministry at Heartlight Ministry) had some great advice in this month's Living with Teenagers magazine...

1. When your attempts to engage him are met with no response
2. If you suspect she is stating that "she wants to die"
3. When you find that she has been cutting or engaging in self-destructive behaviors
4. Any time his behavior is self destructive and your attempts o stop it are ineffective
5. When he changes friends radically, experiences a major "shift" in thinking, or now dislikes all he used to like
6. After any traumatic happening in her life
7. When the "abnormal" starts becoming the "normal"

Need Volunteers...GO FIND THEM

We are in the middle of an amazing season of growth here at Grace Community Church. With growth comes natural demand on our infrastructure. We decided to add a 3rd service to our Sunday morning environments a while back and guess what...that extra service is growing. With growth comes the need to find new leaders to join our team. I use the term leader and volunteer almost interchangeably because that is what our volunteers are...they are leaders doing ministry every week. Leadership is service and if that is true than then role of the volunteers is the ultimate leadership role we have! We are wrestling through the process of adding new leaders to our team, training those volunteers, and continuing to strive for excellence while still needing more volunteers. Can it be done is the wrong question, IT HAS TO BE DONE! You may be in a strong position right now with your volunteer team but if you church has a heart to reach your city you will soon be in need of new leadership. Here are some principles that are guiding us as add leaders to our volunteer teams.

• Recruit to a mission >> people follow vision and they want to know what your area is about. When we recruit we are not filling holes, we are asking people to join our mission of partnering with the family! We are shaping the next generation one kid and one family at a time. That is a mission worth joining!
  
• Dedicate time to recruiting >> People are not going to fly out of the sky to join your team and volunteer...you have to block time out to spend on meeting with, emailing, and calling possible leaders for your team. Schedule it and make it happen all year!
  
• Raise the bar >> make sure you let the people you are recruiting know what your expectations are. Be clear about what volunteering looks like for your team.
  
• Make the BIG ASK >> do not be afraid to ask people top join your team! When it comes to investing into families we need the best and the brightest in our churches. Go ahead and invite high impact leaders in your church to jump on your team!
  
• Pray >> how much time have you really spend talking with God about volunteer needs. He knows who you need and you will only gain God's perspective on recruiting volunteers when you make prayer a huge part of your effort to build your team.