I’ll admit it. I’m a pretty big fan of Perry Nobel. He’s fun and exciting and doing great things for the kingdom. In a lot of ways, he’s pushing new paradigms with his leadership in South Carolina. Going into this session, I knew it would be a very “quotable” session and he did not disappoint.
So, Perry is a huge proponent of Next Generation ministries. He believes in it fully and is highly invested. So this year at Orange, he shared seven convictions about family ministry.
  • Family ministry has more potential than any other ministry in the church.
  • A healthy family ministry must be supported by the Senior Pastor.
  • Senior Pastors need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
  • Environments matter. (Parents are going to ask two questions of their kids. What did you learn? Did you have fun? If you know that this is the question that eery parent is going to ask, then create environments to know that the kids are going to answer these questions correctly. They’ll be able to tell their parents what they learned and that they had SO MUCH FUN!)
  • Keep it simple.
  • Conflict and tension must be addressed no matter what.
  • Have the right people in the right places.
Okay, so this talk seems like a simple list, but it was a great talk with powerful (and hilarious) illustrations in only the way Perry would bring. If you get a chance to download and listen to this talk, it’s well worth it! As the family pastor/Next Gen pastor at my church, several of these principles spoke to me as things that need to change or things I need to be reminded of. Powerful and encouraging talk, the kind you want everyone on your team (especially your senior leadership) to hear.