Archive for 'High School'

Orange Leaders Forum (Part 2)

Posted on 26. Apr, 2009 by .

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Reggie spent a few minutes talking about why students are dropping out of church.

We haven’t given them a better story as they aren’t as intrigued by our story. They’re more intrigued by the world’s story.

As a church, our power is that we can give them a better story. When they engage in this story, it’s less likely that they’ll walk away from their faith.

Reggie came back to this later in the day as he was talking about the three Dials:

  • The Wonder Dial: Faith
  • The Discover Dial: How truth affects my life
  • The Passion Dial: How I serve

Too often in Student ministry, the wonder and discover dials are maxed but not the passion dial. This is a serious mistake.… Read the rest

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Chad Swanzy: Creativity is his middle name.

Posted on 24. Apr, 2009 by .

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I thought I’d introduce someone to you in case you didn’t already know him. Chad Swanzy is the Student Ministry Pastor here at Gateway. He came on staff about six weeks before me last year and I really enjoy working with him. Unfortunately for me I haven’t gotten to work as closely with him this last year as I would have liked (that’s changing this year though). One of the things I admire about Chad is his creative genius.

Perhaps it’s his need to be resourceful that sparks creativity, always maximizing resources on a shoe string budget. However, he connects very well to the students he leads and he connects through every medium possible. He’s constantly building sets, creating environments, designing totally insane games or filming promotion videos.… Read the rest

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Orange 2008: Rethinking Family Ministry

Posted on 02. May, 2008 by .

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Like the Rethinking Children’s Ministry, this breakout was more of a round table discussion. On the stage was Mike Clear from Discovery Church in California, Daren Kaiser from Scranton, PA, Dave Fox from Indiana and Reggie Joiner. Each of these men serve as the Family Pastor at their churches (except Reggie of course).

Reggie began by explaining some of the different models of family ministry. One model is the departmental approach. This is where each department (student and children’s ministry) does it’s best to connect with parents. Another model is the supplemental approach. This is where a family pastor is hired to add programs to supplement parents ministry. This pastor more or less informs the other staff members (children’s pastor and student pastor) what he/she is doing.… Read the rest

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Orange 2008: Family Ministry Around the Table

Posted on 28. Apr, 2008 by .

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This was the first pre-conference breakout I attended. It was led by Dave Fox, the Family Ministries director at “The Bridge Church” in Decatur, IN and Darren Kizer, the Family Ministry Director at Parker Hill Community Church in Scranton, PA.

The heading for this breakout were guided by these statements:

“We will be focusing on an integrated strategy for family ministry. In this strategy, leaders and parents are leading with the same end in mind.”

Darren started things off by bringing out a bottle of Diet Coke and a Mento. Yeah, we know what that does. He explained that the the Mento represents the influence of the church in 10 years. the Diet Coke represents the influence of the family in 1 year.… Read the rest

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