PROCESS Orange 2010

It has been an amazing 3 days here at Orange 2010. I know some folks on my Facebook account will be glad when I stop talking about the conference. Well...sorry I won't stop talking about reaching this generation, it is just who I am and why I blog, tweet, FB at all. I had the honor of meeting some amazing leaders this week being a part of the Orange Leader Blog Team for the conference. These are blogs you need to check out if you are investing in the next generation. Thanks for tracking with me through the conference here on my blog and I hope you will check out these other leaders across the country. Check out their perspective...that is what a blog is...its a web journal and a perspective. Check these blogs out...

Matt McKee: www.mattmckee.me
Amy Dolan: www.lemonlimekids.wordpress.com
John Saddington: www.churchcrunch.com
Kenny Conley: www.childrensministryonline.com
Jonathan Cliff: www.jonathancliff.com
Sam Luce: www.samluce.com
Gina McClain: www.ginamcclain.com
Kelly Dolan: www.iblogo.com
Dan Scott: www.danscottblog.com
Michael Bayne: www.michaelbayne.net (oops that is mine)
Chad Swanzy: www.chadswanzy.com
Rick Smith: www.rickwsmith.com
Henry Zonio: www.elementalcm.com

Continue dreaming, thinking, rethinking, and processing with us online. Don't stop fighting for the family...SERVING the family...loving kids/teens...and pointing people to Jesus, our hope, our savior! Thanks Rethink for an amazing week at Orange 2010.

7 principles for HEALTHY kid and student ministry

Healthy student and kid ministry does not happen by accident...it doesn't happen by just hiring a staff person to fill a position, building a new area for kids, painting the youth room black, our making a new logo. Healthy family ministry happens by being intentional. This morning at The Orange Conference Perry Noble, lead pastor at Newspring Church in South Carolina, talked about seven principles that guide their church when it comes to creating healthy family ministry. Trust me I have connected with their staff, been to one of their student services, seen their volunteers in action and they are a healthy team. Check out these 7 principles from Perry...

1. Family ministry has more potential than any other ministry in the church.
2. Healthy FAMILY MINISTRY must be supported by the senior pastor // cast the vision, be the cheerleader, fund the process
3. Senior pastors need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. // get used to working outside the box, let your team dream how to reach kids today! Some senior pastors don’t want a move of God they can’t take credit for. UNLEASH YOUR TEAM! Learn from you generation behind.
4. Environments matter // make sure you fund and create relevant environments for your kid and student ministry. Make their space as much a priority as the adult service. Environment can help a kid go next level with discovering the love of Jesus.
5. Keep it simple // you have to make sure your family ministry is laser focused. We can’t do EVERYTHING if we want to be effective.
6. Tension and conflict must be addressed //  people in kid/teen ministry compete way to much, we have create the practice of serving and loving each other as a team
7. We have to have the right people in the right places // make sure people are serving in the right ROLES

Win tickets to ORANGE 2011

OK, this is my 600th post! No better way to celebrate 600 posts than giving away free stuff. Here is your chance to win tickets to The Orange Conference in 2011...here is how!
List the top FIVE reasons you will be back for Orange ’11. Post your reasons to return on the Orange Leaders blog at http://www.orangeleaders.com

One winner, chosen at random, will receive FIVE tickets to Orange ’11!

Go to www.orangeleaders.com for details!

Fight for your FAMILY

It's amazing to think that we could spend our life serving in the church and turn around and discover that our marriage is in shambles,  have no relationship with our kids, and go home to a house filled with misery. Tonight at The Orange Conference Doug Fields helped us process finding balance between our call to do ministry and our responsibility to lead and love our family. This life of following Jesus can't be defined only by what we say but it must be fleshed out in how we live.  We have to model what following Christ looks like in our everyday life. The sad truth is that many of us are so passionate about our job that we leave little room to invest in the lives of our spouse and children. How can we talk about the importance of family when we constantly throw our family under the bus and blame it on Jesus and churches we work for. The question we all need to wrestle with is, will we fight to gain margin so we have the time needed to SERVE OUR FAMILIES. When you leave your church people will miss you for about five minutes before they start looking for the next leader to fill your spot. When you abandon your family (physically or emotionally) you are leaving your family with a vacuum that really can't be filled or forgotten. How can we fight for our families? Here are some thoughts Doug shared tonight...

CHANGE the channel (listen to a new message)

• Some of us are stuck on the channel of hearing the expectation of other people and making your family live up to that standard…CHANGE THE CHANNEL! Turn the dial and set your own family standards
• This is the channel of unrealistic expectations

UNPLUG from church (set boundaries)

• We have to stop being available to the church all the time…we must be FULLY PRESENT when we are home
• You can change your location without changing your connection...set boundaries so you can engage

SERVE ice cream (go out of your way to make sure you home is a fun place to live)

• Be fun and make sure your family has FUN (trips, time, games, LAUGH!)
• Put as much work into making our homes fun as we spend making our church environments fun places for kids and teens to be!

If I’m going to expect families in my church to change...I will be waiting for a long time. I have to change and set the right pace for my family! I have to set the example.

Does any of this matter?

I know you have asked yourself that question! There you are serving in kids, preschool, or student ministry and you look around at the families you lead, the kids you lead, and your volunteer team and you find yourself asking...DOES ANY OF THIS MATTER? When I invest in this generation does it do any good. We get bogged down with the hurt and brokenness around us and we get frustrated because all the problems seem too large. This morning at The Orange Conference Chap Clark helped us work through the adolescent maze we face. In Chap's research he looked at the most influential voices in the lives of teens. You might think that friends landed at the top, or media, or school environment, or socioeconomic status...you would be wrong...look at this list and it is in order of influence!

1. Parents
2. Non-parental committed adults
3. Non-parental non-committed adults AND peers
4. Media, Ecology

We always jump ahead and say...MEDIA is influencing our kids, MOVIES are shaping our kids, and FRIENDS are running the show. The research shows that family and caring adult mentors (that is you church leader / school teacher, athletic coach, mentor!) are the most influential voices that shape the life of a kid or teen! Wow, that is so encouraging. If you are investing in the life of a family, child, or teen you are making a difference. You are needed. You are wanted in the lives of teenagers even if it looks hopeless! Please don't give up. What you do matters!

think TEAM

This morning Nancy Ortberg talked about the power of team here at The Orange Conference. There is nothing more important than leading our team when it comes to leadership in our churches. There is also nothing that frustrates all of us more than leading our team. Why...because we want to make it work but what we find when we lead is HUMANITY which leads to STRUGGLE because none of us are PERFECT! That is the beauty of teamwork. Working with a team leads us to serve, to be vulnerable, to be real if we want teamwork to happen. Here are some some of the thoughts Nancy had about what people on teams need...

People on a team have to be given opportunities.

• We have to empower team members opportunities that center around their giftedness not on ONLY what has to be done.

People need challenges

• Every team will move toward stagnation.
• Healthy conflict is a needed for the health and vibrancy of the team. 
• In order to do conflict well you have to give people the chance to get messy with conflict. Conflict management is learned! 

People need an environment of relationships

• People want and need to be known by their leaders!
• People have to know us…we have to be open and vulnerable.
• Relationships lead our churches to be the unstoppable force in the community!

Today’s Orange Leaders Challenge...THURSDAY!

The success of every leader is dependent upon knowing where to get your questions answered and knowing how to network with other leaders.

Today we will challenge you to do both. We have come up with a phrase, and the first two people to write the complete phrase on the Orange Leaders Facebook page (www.facebook.com/orangeleaders), will win!

In order to figure out the phrase, you will need to get a little help. Who can give you the most help on your Orange journey? Your Orange Specialist of course. Find the Orange Specialist for your state, and they will give you one word of the phrase. Then, connect with other leaders from around the country to find out the rest of the words. (Hint: Each Orange Specialist will have a different word. Orange Specialists are assigned by region of the country and curriculum.) You can use the blog, Twitter, and Facebook as well as networking, to connect with other Orange Leaders!

Opening Session @ the Orange Conference

4,200 people committed to serving and investing in the next generation gathering in one room with one heart is an amazing sight. The Orange Conference opened up with session 1 tonight and the tone was set to help us all rethink how God has called us to COLLIDE with our culture...with families...with kids...with those far from Christ. For the next 2 days we are going to process this together and I can't wait to see how God shapes all of us. Here are a few thoughts from session 1...
from Reggie Joiner...

• When we collide with God, it changes they way we see God.
• People far from Christ are asking...Will you still want to be my friend if I never choose to follow Jesus? 
• We need to invite a generation of people into a dialogue so they can process what it means to follow Jesus. We need to walk with people as they work through FAITH.

from Mark Batterson...

• If we are not careful we can stop doing ministry out of imagination and start doing ministry out of memory
• We are all called to a CULTURE MAKING process. We want to be a part of what God is doing in the lives of their people…NOT JUST them be a part of our calling as a church!
• If you want to think new thoughts…read new things, meet new people, go new places! 
• Change of Pace +Change of place = Changed perspective 
• We are educated way beyond the level of our obedience. We need more relationships and less education. We all need a relationship with people who are far away from God.

from Chris Wiersma

• We’re not just simply called to HELP PEOPLE. We are called to COLLIDE differently with each other.
• We are not called to just be generous…we are called to help people see the WONDER of Jesus Christ. To be FASCINATED with the chance to collide with those around us
• Let’s squeeze our ego through the filter of a child, the humility and wonder of a child. BE REAL and collide with those around us with reckless abandon.
• When we engage people…when we collide we are saying, I know you, I know your maker, I know your story, I know what the Gospel can do in your life
• There are NO one-way relationships

Catching Volunteers UP TO SPEED

If you work for a church you manage many team of volunteers to make ministry happen. I have yest to meet any ministry making a difference that was not powered by and amazing team of volunteers! This afternoon I had the chance to hear Darren Kizer talk about the process of helping new volunteers get plugged into our ministries quickly and up to speed with our organization. Maybe the question we should be asking is how do we get ALL OUR VOLUNTEERS up to speed without cutting corners and cheating the process...Here are some thoughts from this afternoon...

People choose to volunteer because they are motivated by the idea of DOING GOOD. People continue to volunteer because they ENJOY WHAT THEY ARE GETTING FROM THE EXPERIENCE. What it takes to get them involved is different that what helps they stay for the long haul! Volunteers need...

Organizational Support / people need us to set the course and provide personal support and resources

Group Integration / people need a TEAM, volunteers need each other!

Participation usefulness / people need to know it matters; they have to see the WIN. ARE WE MAKING A DIFFERENCE!

Empowerment / people need responsibility and a real mission to achieve, real expectations and clear expectations

Some BIG Questions to ask your volunteers and yourself as the leader of a volunteer team…
I know what is expected of me?
Do I have the material and equipment to do my job?
Do I have the opportunity to do what I do best? Do I enjoy what I do?
Someone cares about me as a person?
Do my opinions count?
Is our team committed to quality work? (other volunteers doing subpar work drag down volunteers)

Becoming a better COMMUNICATOR

Great breakout this morning with Jamey Dickens, the High School Pastor at Buckhead Church, on how to become a better communicator with students. Here is the direction Jamey went this morning here at the Orange Conference...

If you want to be a better communicator BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
Teens listen and buy in when they trust the people around them. They will listen to you when they know you or they know someone else who knows you!
If you want to be a better communicator FUNNEL YOUR PROGRAM
Make sure everything in your environment is helping teens move toward what is going to be taught.
If you want to be a better communicator FOCUS YOUR CONTENT
Say less to communicate more.
If you want to be a better communicator WORK ON YOUR SYSTEM
Make sure you have a system that works to help you plan and prepare every week.

What really stood out to me this morning was the power of building relationships as a enhancer in our communication. When people know you and trust you they buy into what you are communicating. Most of the time teens will not trust a communicator that they don't know or that one of their friends will not endorse. RELATIONSHIP helps every teenager let their guard down and trust us. The relationship factor is not about the student pastor knowing every kid in the ministry...it really is about creating  a culture of relational health throughout your entire leadership team. We have to empower small group leaders to KNOW KIDS, to be INVOLVED IN THE LIVES OF THEIR KIDS. Youth pastor...you have to build relationships with students, not just plan your program and  hope for better attendance and information transfer. We communicate because we want to see lives transformed. Transformation is relational...go for it!