Next Thursday I’m heading up to Dallas-Forth Worth for a day to connect with Children’s Pastors and leaders from several large ministries. I’m really excited to partner with Greg Baird and speak, lead some conversations and learn from others on the subject of leadership within the context of leading in large churches.
The brains behind Worlds of Wow have put together a unique event at Gateway Church in Southlake, TX and I’m pretty pumped. It’s not too often when you’re in a room with other leaders who all lead at the same capacity or greater than you. I’m humbled because although I’ll be sharing the stage with Greg, I feel there’s probably much I could learn from those in the room. The thing I’ve found though is that this kind of stuff keeps you sharp. As I’ve been preparing for this event, I’ve been reminded of leadership gems I’ve gotten rusty on or simply stopped doing. Speaking and leading discussions like this sure keeps you honest… and focused.
I’m sure I’ll post more about this next week along with some information I’ve been preparing… hopefully to keep you sharp as well!
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Last night I had the opportunity to speak to the High School group here at Gateway. It was my second time ever to speak to High School students, my first time in about 9 years. It went well, despite my apprehension speaking to High School students. However, as I’ve been very involved in our student ministry this past year, I’ve been concerned about the lack of information that we have on our students. Last year as we needed to quickly promote our student ministry camp, I found that we literally had no contact information for our High School students. Since most of their parents don’t attend Gateway, we really had nothing.
This year I’ve been plotting ways that we can better care of these students even in an administrative context. How do we track their attendance and know how to get in touch with them when they’re here? I decided that last night while speaking to them, I’d try an experiment and see if I could start the process of collecting their information. First, I figured that if I had email addresses, cell numbers, schools and grades, that would be a great starting place. So I created a little game to play that also tied into what I spoke about… a texting trivia game. I had several iTunes gift cards and put up random trivia questions with a google voice number. The first person to text the answer to the number won a giftcard. It was fun and we had significant participation.
After the last question, I posed one more challenge. I explained that we wanted to better know who they were and how to contact them for things like camp and such. So, we asked them to text their first and last name, their email address, their school and grade the the same number. We said that we’d award iTunes cards to the 1st, 20th, 40th and 60th person to respond. Of the 70-80 people to attend, we capture this data on almost 60 of them. Because it all went to a Google Voice number, I could simple cut and paste the data to a spreadsheet. Later this week I’ll have a volunteer cut and paste the data to individual cells, probably only an hour or so of work.
So, if you ever need to collect a lot of data from a crowd in a short amount of time, consider using a Google Voice number and have people text in their responses. Participation is high and the work to get the data is easy.
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I think my last big take-away from the Orange Tour was this little concept.
Make it easy for parents to win!
In Think Orange, Reggie describes the four levels of parenting.
- Aware – These are parents who may be outside your church. Studies have shown that most parents are aware that the moral and even spiritual development of a child is their responsibility.
- Involved – These are parents who are in our churches. They’re around, maybe following Christ, but they’re not really doing anything intentional with their kids.
- Engaged – These are parents who are beginning to be intentional. They’re trying things that they’ve not done before.
- Invested – These parents get “it.” Whether you provide a plan or not, they’re going after it, developing spiritual champions.
Here is what I appreciated tremendously. Reggie shared that you’ll probably never get more than 20-30% of your parents to the invested level. As much as we’d like for it to happen, it’s just not going to happen. Set your expectations.
However, it’s possible to get a lot of parents to engage. It doesn’t take too much effort to take a parent who is doing nothing to start doing something… and this small change can produce huge results. We’ve got to celebrate the small changes. This is huge!
This is why this information was really refreshing for me. We’re in the process of developing a milestone family strategy and we’ll be putting a lot of effort into getting parents to engage with the plan. I would expect that the parents to truly engage in this strategy and follow it through are more likely to be invested parents. However, at the same time we’re panning to launch easy stuff, resources and opportunities to help parents do small things.
I guess it was just good for me to hear this stuff so that I know how to balance, that I don’t get frustrated by less people getting to the invested level where huge numbers are engaged.
I’ll leave you with one last quote that ties this all up and certainly rang a bell for me.
So, consider how everything ties to the next thing and in all of this, make it easy for parents to win!
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I have to say that I’m really excited about a new book coming out in a few months. Really excited!
Yes, I did help write the book. But that’s not why I’m so excited. I’m excited because I believe that it’s a book that is going to impact a lot of people in Kidmin. Shoot, it might impact a lot of people in student ministry and other ministries as well. Why? Because I feel that it approaches the nitty gritty issues that every pastor/minister deals with… the tension they live in on a daily basis and it offers hope. The book is written in a very personal way that most will identify with. A half-dozen people beyond the authors have read the book and almost all have essentially said, “I really related to this book and saw myself in these pages.” Plus, it’s a going to be a fun book to read. You’ll probably read through the book pretty quickly because it’s short and because it will draw you in.
This book, “The Eric Trap: Five things every leader has to get right” was written by Jim Wideman, Sam Luce, me and an incredible group of kid’s pastors that journeyed together through Jim Wideman’s Infuse for two years. The book will be available for the first time at the Orange Conference where there will be a book signing. Fun, huh? There will be a limited number of books available for bloggers, probably in March. If you’re interested in getting a copy to review on your blog, click here to request a copy.
Click here to read why Jim Wideman is so excited about this new book. Lastly, I leave you with a review from Jonathan Cliff.
“The “Eric Trap” takes Children’s Pastors on a dark, serious, and scary journey into the world of working in a church and balancing your priorities. It was eerie how much the story mirrored my own story in so many ways. I believe the “Eric Trap” can be a game changer for those willing to shine the light into the dark places of their own pastoral lives. It’s on the other side of change that the insights gained from this book pay off in a rich way!”
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On more than one occasion, I heard Reggie say this line last week at the Orange Tour.
We are stewards of timeless truths.
What I think is interesting is that I often hear people complain about Orange curriculum Usually I hear people complaining from the point of view that there isn’t enough Bible in it. The funny thing is that I have people on my own staff who at times complain that the curriculum is too church. Honestly, there’s no such thing as a perfect curriculum and that alone isn’t reason enough to go out and start writing your own.
Curriculum was made to be tweaked… especially when they give it to you in editable digital form, right? Whether your curriculum comes from a virtue perspective or a chronological spin through the scriptures, the foundation doesn’t change that scripture is the basis for all things taught. If we don’t connect kids and students to the life-changing power of the scripture, we’re sunk. We may explore how the scripture can transform us to lead self-controlled lives or how certain events in the Old Testament teach us about what God wants to do in our lives right now. The bottom line is about how scripture connects to our lives.
In ministry, we have to understand that we are stewards of timeless truths. Every one of us. Leaders, small group leaders, hosts and story tellers. We steward these timeless truths and it is so important that we convey these truths accurately and responsibly. Too many times in my ministry have I heard a leader butcher the telling of a biblical truth, either in delivery or in content. We need not forget about James 3:1.
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
We are stewards of timeless truths and we must never take this responsibility lightly.
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From day one of engaging with Orange (more than 4 years ago), the word strategy was a word I heard often. It’s not a new concept, but it was something that was brought to my attention again last Friday and I’m glad it was. Reggie painted a clear picture of the importance of strategy. He described how many great churches have incredible mission and vision statements that never really seem to do anything. Many of those church’s doors are closed now.
Strategy – A plan of action with an end in mind.
I love it. I’m leading a breakout at Illuminate in Nashville in a few weeks titled, “What Matters Most.” In this breakout I’m going to speak about how sometimes we lose track of that particular “end” in mind or maybe the “end” we’re focused on really isn’t as important as it should be.
I wonder what would happen if we as ministry leaders scripted out all that we did in a given week or month and then asked the very important question, “What is specific end we’re trying to get to as a result of this event/program/resource/meeting?” I think it would reveal what things we’re doing that are strategic and those things that are just wasting time. Man, do I hate wasting time. What’s worse is when I’m wasting time and don’t even know it.
Families, kids and students need us to be as strategic as possible. We must be strategic with our time, our tallent and our resources. How are you being strategic today?
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Last Friday I took 24 staff and leaders to the Dallas Orange Tour and Bent Tree Fellowship. What can I say, I’m a big believer in the local conference… something that’s close and affordable to inspire volunteers and staff that I can’t afford to take to the national events. It’s why I started Illuminate.
This Orange Tour was different for me. I was a little nervous. This was the first time I’ve ever taken student ministry volunteers. In the past I’ve brought my student pastor, but the team as a whole had never really been represented. They were very excited to have been invited and showed up in force. The Orange strategy is certainly something I believe in and I was more nervous that the student ministry volunteers would not connect with it or that it would somehow be a miss for them. Every year the Orange Tour has been one of the best conferences/seminars I attend and for no real reason, I was just nervous that it wouldn’t be as good as it had in the past.
Well, the day didn’t disappoint. If one year’s tour could be better than the previous one, this one was… but I must say that each of them stand out equally on their own. I learned so much, I was reminded of so much and I was inspired with so many new ideas. It was amazing and initial reaction from most of the student leaders was incredibly positive. I think there is still a lot to process with them, but overall, it was a great experience.
This week I’m not as much going to regurgitate my notes for you, but more or less share about what impacted me the most and what I plan to do with such thoughts. So, stay tuned for my Orange Tour Gleanings!
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I came across this video a few weeks ago, very well done. The Great Recession has affected most of us. I’ve spoken to very few churches that haven’t had to make cuts. This satirical video very clearly illustrates the issue were facing in our country. It’s easy to point fingers at how sloppy our government has been, but most of us are to blame as well. When most of the population is carrying thousands in consumer debt, saving next to nothing yet still enjoying all the perks of life… it’s no wonder our nation’s financial situation is what it is.
In January, Gateway has been doing a series called Recovery Road. Really it’s just a four week sereis illustrating many of the principles from Financial Peace University. In February, we’re launching dozens of FPU classes to hopefully make a difference in the lives of people who need to make changes.
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Today I ate a burger (Number 15 burger in Texas) at one of the funniest restaurants I’ve ever been too. I kept cracking up at 
all the signs. Most of them would not have been appropriate in a church setting, but there were a few that would be tempting to install. Everyone enjoys a little slick humor in the form of a sign, but I’m not sure I’ve really noticed such signs in kidmin… or in most churches for that matter. I guess that many of these signs tend to border on the side of inappropriate, but that’s not always the case. So I’m curious, have you seen or do you have such signage in your church/kidmin? These would be signs that deliver smiles to adults and even has a disarming affect for those who are tense about their first church experience. Church should be fun, right?
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If you came to this site yesterday, you noticed that it was intentionally down in protest of the two bills going before congress next week. You can read more about this stuff in a post I wrote yesterday. A lot of people participated yesterday and good stuff was done. Here’s an email I got yesterday from Fight For the Future.
Today was nuts, right?
Google launched a petition. Wikipedia voted to shut itself off. Senators’ websites went down just from the sheer surge of voters trying to write them. NYC and SF geeks had protests that packed city blocks.
You made history today: nothing like this has ever happened before. Tech companies and users teamed up. Tens of millions of people who make the internet what it is joined together to defend their freedoms. The free network defended itself. Whatever you call it, the bottom line is clear: from today forward, it will be much harder to mess up the internet.
The really crazy part? We might even win.
Approaching Monday’s crucial Senate vote there are now 35 Senators publicly opposing PIPA. Last week there were 5. And it just takes just 41 solid “no” votes to permanently stall PIPA (and SOPA) in the Senate. What seemed like miles away a few weeks ago is now within reach.
But don’t trust predictions. The forces behind SOPA & PIPA (mostly movie companies) can make small changes to these bills until they know they have the votes to pass. Members of Congress know SOPA & PIPA are unpopular, but they don’t understand why–so they’re easily duped by superficial changes. The Senate returns next week, and the next few days are critical. Here are two things to think about:
1. Plan on calling your Senator every day next week. Pick up the phone each morning and call your Senators’ offices, until they vote “no” on cloture. If your site participated today, consider running a “Call the Senate” link all next week.
2. Tomorrow, drop in at your Senators’ district offices. We don’t have a cool map widget to show you the offices nearest you (we’re too exhausted! any takers?). So do it the old fashioned way: use Google, or the phonebook to find the address, and just walk in, say you oppose PIPA, and urge the Senator to vote “no” on cloture. These drop-in visits make our spectacular online protests more tangible and credible.
That’s it for now. Be proud and stay on it!
–Holmes, Tiffiniy, and the whole Fight for the Future team.
___
P.S. Huge credit goes to participants in the 11/16 American Censorship Day protest: Mozilla, 4chan, BoingBoing, Tumblr, TGWTG, and thousands of others. That’s what got this ball rolling! Reddit, both the community and the team behind it, you’re amazing. And of course, thanks to the Wikimedians whose patient and inexorable pursuit of the right answer brought them to take world-changing action. Thanks to David S, David K, Cory D, and E Stark for bold action at critical times.
P.P.S. If you haven’t already, show this video to as many people as you can. It works!http://fightforthefuture.org/
So, it’s not over yet. If you haven’t signed the petition yet, do it today!
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