Tag Archives: Orange
24 hours into my 2011 experience
Posted on 27. Apr, 2011 by Kenny.
I already feel like I’ve crammed 4 or 5 days in the last 24 hours. It’s been a wild ride already and we’re just getting started. I hope I have enough juice to last all week. Ha!
I got started yesterday with a two hour lunch with Rob Bradbury from Melbourne, Australia. I met him 3 years ago at my first Orange Conference. I only knew him as the guy on the cover of the first K Magazine. Over the years I’ve gotten to know him casually through his blog and through others and he’s gotten to know me through my blog. It was an AMAZING lunch. I love that guy. I’ll write more about my meeting with him later.
Last night I connected with the rest of the blogging team for dinner and a late night hang-out with some of my good friends. It was a great night.
Then this morning, I kicked off the Pre-Conference with 4 breakouts back-to-back. CRAZY! It was SO MUCH FUN! I’ll write more about those later as well. Ha!
Now I’m getting ready to grab dinner with Jim Wideman and other Infuse people before the conference kicks off. It’s going to be amazing!
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Orange Tour Live: TODAY!
Posted on 15. Feb, 2011 by Kenny.
I said this last week, but in case you forgot, the Orange Tour Live is today at 1:00 PM EST. Let me break this down for you in case you’re a dummy like me (I told my team and subsequently my volunteers, that that since it was starting at 1:00 PM EST, it would be starting here in Texas at 2:00 PM EST).
- If you live in EST, it’s 1:00 PM
- If you live in CST, it’s 12:00 PM
- If you live in MST, it’s 11:00 PM
- If you life in PST, it’s 10:00 AM
Usually I’m good with all the time change stuff, but I wasn’t with this one.
Orange Tour Live is going to be a rebroadcast of the Orange Tour that happend this Fall and Winter. It was an incredible and powerful presentation. I’ve heard that it will be in a fun web-based broadcast, so it’s not going to be just someone pressing play on a DVD in Atlanta. I heard a rumor that Matt McKee is involved (please oh please, I hope he’s wearing those white pants).
So, join me and the gazillions of others who will be watching the Orange Tour today at 1, 12, 11 or 10!
Click here to join the Orange Tour
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Orange Tour 2011 Notes: College Ministry
Posted on 09. Feb, 2011 by Kenny.
The last session of the Orange tour was totally unexpected. Reggie warned everyone that he wasn’t offering solutions, but simply beginning a conversation. He also encouraged us to stay engaged because he was going to talk about something that most of us in the room thought little about, College Ministry. He shared an interesting statistic from Lifeway.
Of 23-30 year olds who stayed in the church during ages 18-23, only 6% are not currently still in church. (This is probably not exact wording)
Studies have shown that the year after graduation, a significant majority of kids who have been involved in church all their lives “check out” of church, many to never really come back. However, the Lifeway study above shows that if we can get them to stick with it for those critical college years, they’re most likely to make a life-long commitment to a local church. We all know that this isn’t just about attending a church, but if they’re in church, it’s more likely that they have a relationship with Christ.
So, Reggie suggested that the church has been programed to draw a finish line at the end of the 12th grade. The problem though is that we’re abandoning our kids when the stakes are the highest. The solution might be to move the finish line out an additional four years. We’ve invested in these kids for YEARS and taking care of them during their college years is about protecting that investment and ensuring that what’s been put into them comes to maturity.
This isn’t about “a” college ministry. Small groups, bands, relevant teachers and social events. It’s about seeking out college students and investing in them during these critical years. It’s about every leader taking ownership of this need, investing in a student. Your ability to appeal to college students isn’t as important as your ability to be authentic with a young adult. This is a an issue where everyone needs to be be “in.” Maybe it’s 12th grade small group leaders continuing to reach out to the kids they led in High School even though they may have scattered across the US.
Whatever happens, we have to be more intentional about this problem. For the past few years, I’ve had a soap box where I’ve suggested that most Children’s Ministries are measuring success the wrong way. Rather than judge success in how many kids we have attending this years as opposed to last year, we should be measuring if the kids we had in 5th grade 13 years ago are still following Christ. Yeah, it’s probably near to impossible to measure, but permanent life change is what we’re after, not a bigger crowd. Until we figure this out, how to help kids grow up into adults who love and follow Christ with all their hearts, we’re just fooling ourselves into feeling good about temporary (and potentially meaningless) successes.
So, what do you think?
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Free Curriculum
Posted on 21. Oct, 2010 by Kenny.
Free curriculum! Did that get your attention. I heard about this a while back and thought to myself, “what a great idea!” We’ve been using 252 Basics and My First Look for over two years at Gateway and it’s been a great experience.
Curriculum can be expensive, so this free trial comes as a huge gift. Obviously, Orange would love for you to use their curriculum. They believe it will help your church in your strategy to reach the whole family, something few curriculums do. Over and over again you’ll hear Reggie Joiner say, “It’s not a curriculum, it’s a strategy.” However, even if you end up not sticking with Orange, isn’t it at least worth a shot? At the very least you’ll save money for three months as you won’t have the curriculum expense that quarter.
This offer applies to My First Look, 252 Basics and XP3 curriculum. Even if you’re already a subscriber, they have other gifts to give away. Jump over and check out Orange, it could be the best thing you can do for the ministry you lead.
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Leadership for FREE!
Posted on 21. Oct, 2010 by Kenny.
Did you know that Orange is giving away YouLead during the month of October. If you haven’t already signed up for the free month, you really should now. I spent some time looking through the material and found it to be valuable content for me, my staff and volunteer team. The idea behind it takes into account that you’re busy. All you’re asked to do is take 20 minutes one day a week to spend on the site and you’ll have huge leadership take-aways. The price is very reasonable, but there’s no reason not to take advantage of the free month!
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Orange Week Day 7: Recap
Posted on 05. Oct, 2010 by Kenny.
This is it, the last day or Orange Week. Here’s the recap of what was said:
Michael Bayne talks about one of his Orange memories, the talk Nancy Ortberg gave about conflict. Unfortunately, I missed her talk in 2010, but I did experience her conflict breakout in 2008 and I have to say it was one of the most powerful breakouts I’ve ever been a part of. Something else Michael said at the beginning of his posts that’s worth repeating. He said the Orange conference is the only place where your preschool, nursery, elementary, junior high and high school pastor can all come together and be on the same page. He’s right, I’ve not seen anything else like it.
Chad highlights some of his best memories from the Orange Conference last year, including a video he made while flying to Atlanta. Chad’s a really creative guy who puts together amazing videos for both ministry and for his own enjoyment. He also remembers a conversation he had while driving to the tweet up with Sam Luce and Jonathan Cliff. I didn’t know anything about the conversation until he wrote a post about it 8-9 months later. It was a great read.
Then, by request, Chad reposted another great Orange memory from 2009, the “Sam Luce” video. I’d almost forgotten about this one. I have to admit, I laugh out loud every time I see it.
I wrote about my favorite memories from past Orange Conferences. You’ll notice that most of my memories revolve around things outside the conference. No, it’s not a negative toward Orange. The Conference continues to get better year after year and I attend almost every breakout and sessions. But it’s the people I get to surround myself with and bounce the ideas I’m learning off of that makes Orange so spectacular. Some people jump from conference to conference. There’s nothing wrong with variety. However, if you’re just attending a conference for the speakers, then it probably doesn’t matter what conference you attend because most people who speak at Orange will be speaking somewhere else as well. But if you come to connect with other family-focused and like-minded people, then there’s no better place that Orange.
Oh, I also published a post about all the great badges you can put on your website to promote Orange. You can read that blog here or just go to the page of badges right here.
Sam Luce posted 10 things he’s learned from Orange Conference pasts. What a great post, fully loaded of inspiring moments and memories that bring a smile to my face. I mus admit, I’m proud that a memory of me made it to the top spot. Lanny, the answer is Tiberius!
Jonathan Cliff has tied me in the number of times he’s attended the Orange Conference. He does a great job summarizing his experiences from each. You should read his recaps, they’re great. It’s true, no Orange Conference is the same, each one unique in it’s own way.
Jared authored another post on Kidmin 1124 about what he learned from Orange last year even though he wasn’t there physically. He talked about Doug Field’s talk on leading and loving your own family and how it should be a privilege to your family that you work at the church. Right now my boy LOVES coming to church with his daddy. I know that it won’t always be that way if I don’t really make his time and experiences there special. Thanks Jared for the great reminder!
Wendy Douglas shares a very personal memory from Orange last year. She reflects on how she wasn’t that mom who truly led her kids spiritually, but ater reading Think Orange and attending Orange, she’s that catalyst for other parents to be that for their kids now. Beautiful Wendy!
One last post on Kidmin 1124 from Theresa Haskins tells her Orange Conference experiences. If you haven’t met Theresa, you’re missing out. One word. Enthusiasm. I don’t think anyone was as excited to be at Orange as she was! Ha! I do like what she had to say about Reggie. I’ve only met him a few times and know him better through other people, but from what I know, he really is the real deal. Humble and unassuming… passionate and a beating heart for what you hear him say.
Nick shared a great post about his two Orange Conference experiences, both in 2007 and 2010. I didn’t realize so many of the great speakers where there in 2007 as in 2008… and 2010. Hope you’ll be there again in 2011!
Dan Scott shares the story of his role at Ada Bible and how they turned Orange and built a Family Experience slowly over the period of five years. This is a very refreshing story as I think most would agree that Ada truly is an Orange church, setting a standard for so many others to learn from. Thanks Dan for giving us a peak behind the scenes.
JC writes about a beautiful experience he had this weekend with his family and his brother-in-law who has Cerebral Palsy. He noticed how his parents serve their son so selfishly week after week, year after year. Seeing this kind of life played out in front of you is humbling and it’s hard not to be affected. JC shares thoughts about serving the community in a similar way as well as serving families with children like his brother-in-law. Don’t miss this one.
Well, I think that’s the end of the road. Another Orange Week in the books. If you’ve been reading these notes, you’ll know that some pretty incredible things were said/written this week. I’m still processing. That is the power of community and collaboration.
Well, expect some Orange Week spill-over this week. With writing all these long recaps, I know I didn’t finish saying everything I intended, so there will probably be a few more coming from me. Also, don’t forget that Tuesday, October 5th is the first day of registration for the 2011 Orange Conference. Do it! Sign up! Don’t wait! I can’t wait t see you there!
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Orange Week Day 6: Recap
Posted on 04. Oct, 2010 by Kenny.
So I’m a good 12 hours late posting Day 6 of Orange Week. Not too much was said as everyone was pretty busy with services. So, here’s what I saw.
Michael Bayne shares a quick post about multi-site and his team’s excitement to bring Orange to another community.
I wrote a post about an idea we had recently in adapting one of our adult services to be inclusive of elementary aged kids. The motivation was both out of necessity as well as an effort to be Orange. Although we didn’t have many kids participating, we were pleased with how things turned out.
Over at Kidmin 1124, Wayne writes about his dreams for Kidmin. It’s an encouraging post as most of us in ministry will identify with his dreams. I think penning our dreams is a very effective discipline, one that has to happen before we can expect them to come true. Be sure to check it out.
In another post at Kidmin 1124, Barbara Graves also shares her dreams for Kidmin. It’s a powerful post describing that her true dreams move beyond the dream staff, the dream facility, the dream ministry strategy (even if it’s Orange) to something way more important. Great job Barbara!
At CM Buzz, Keith shares some of the Orange ideas he and his team are working on. What I love about his ideas are that they move beyond the church doors and spill out into the community. Good stuff, I hope to hear about success in coming months!
Nice and short. Only one more day of Orange Week!
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Orange Week Day 5: Recap
Posted on 03. Oct, 2010 by Kenny.
I had a feeling that this would happen. It’s Saturday and there were only five Orange Week posts today. That’s okay for more than one reason.
- Most are off today and they shouldn’t be working.
- I wrote Friday’s recap earlier today and I’m a little happy that Saturday’s recap is only going to take a few minutes.
So, enjoy the short recap:
Michael Bayne wrote about how his Family Ministry team had a pretty big miss. For years, they avoided a large group gathering for preschoolers for a variety of reasons. Turns out that they had been wrong. Great post Michael, thanks for sharing it.
Today I wrote about ways we’ve missed it when it comes to being Orange. Mostly we’ve seen failure or something less than success when it comes to take-home papers, seasonal outreaches and the way our children’s and student teams integrate.
Jonathan Cliff announced a contest for his blog. Leave a comment or two on any of his Orange Week posts and you’ll get a chance to win a free digital edition of CUE Box.
At Kidmin1124, Barbara Graves shares about a mid-week program that she walked into. A great perspective about seeing what is wrong with a program and going after it. Barbara asks the right kinds of questions.
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Orange Week Day 4: Recap
Posted on 02. Oct, 2010 by Kenny.
Well, you can tell a lot of people take Friday off, not nearly as many posts on the 4th day of Orange Week. I’m sure the 12 or so who did wrote theirs earlier in the week, huh? There were still some great posts, so let’s get into it.
We start this one off with a post from Pete Wilson’s blog, Without Wax. Pete starts off with a very strong statement, “There are few things more important to me these days than figuring out how to help our kids and students … I do know that we’ll never figure this out until the church gets more serious about partnering with parents.” The post continues with Pat Rowland (Cross Point’s Family Pastor) talking about his theory about family ministry. He’s got great things to say and I loved how he finished it up by saying:
- Parents need a Clear Strategy, and the Partnership of the Church.
- They need resources, not just a program
- They need to be shown how it works, not just told they should do it
- They need a community of encouragement, not an unattainable image
- They need an environment of integration, not complete age segregation
Michael Bayne talks about a giveaway he’d doing in conjunction with Orange Week. Last year he used a series from XP3 curriculum that greatly impacted his students and he’s giving it away. Be sure to check out his post, leave a comment and hopefully win some free curriculum.
Chad Swanzy wrote about partnering with parents in student ministry. It seems Chad hits what a lot of student pastors get frustrated about concerning working around parents or parents just getting in the way. I think it’s something that student pastors have to come to grips with if they really want t make a lasting impact in the lives of students, working with mom and dad.
Chad offers another great resource on Youth Leader Stash for families of teenagers as well as younger kids. It’s a family scavenger hunt, something a family could do on their own or with a bunch of other families. Check it out, it seems like a lot of families might enjoy this as well as experience great conversations along the way.
Sam Luce starts off his Friday of Orange week with YouTube Friday. This week: Annoying Orange. I have a love hate relationship with this little video series. It’s funny stuff, but incredibly annoying as well. If you’ve not seen it, you should check it out. If you have boys, they’ll love it… but you’ll have to decide if the fruit violence is appropriate. In addition to the humor, Sam shares some ideas he’s working on to empower families and push a gospel-focused vision or every family. He’s dong this through parent directed catechism and family events. Check it out, this stuff is good.
Jonathan writes a great post about the family side of all the changes he’s been making. He makes a very important point: “Let me be honest about something.  A family ministry is NOT started with a curriculum change.” Right on! Read how Jonathan has been very intentional with his “take-home” material to truly support families. Some of us might initially be disappointed by the few people engaging, but it’s a positive step in the right direction. One of the best Orange Week 2.0 posts I’ve read this week.
Over on the Ministry to Children blog, Sue Miller guests posts. She addresses the frustration some Kidmin workers feel about the impact they’re making in the lives of kids. She address several of the things the church can do better than the home although there are many things that the home can do better than the church. The great thing about Orange is that its not either/or, but both/and.
At Kidmin1124, Lindsey Whitney writes about how her church has been transitioning to Orange. The biggest yellow initiative they’ve initiated is staff meetings. It sounds kinda weird, but when being intentional, it’s one of the most important things to be done. Check it out to see how Lindsey’s church us using staff meetings to integrate their ministry efforts.
Anthony Prince writes this day about how a curriculum shift helped them become more Orange. They made several changes in their strategy, but their curriculum and Sunday morning strategy didn’t support what they really wanted to do. Their switch to 252 Basics and My First Look help set up ministry for the rest of the week.
Dan Scott invites the Middle School “guru” to post about Yellow Student Ministry. Guru Jon shares about the Cell Family concept he’s been leading for the last ten years. The fact that they’ve seen success in a method/strategy for a decade is worth reading alone, but it seems that they’ve maximized relationships in this model. Check it out, you’ll learn something for sure.
Matt McKee shares his favorite memory from a past Orange Conference. I’m just honored to have been a part of that memory. What you’ll see in the video is 5 friends who’ve only met for the first time a few days before sharing a meal at nearly 2 AM. What you didn’t know what that for at least 90 minutes after that, Matt and I were running Gina back to her hotel which I think was on the other side of Atlanta. Great times.
At Kidmin360, Greg writes about language. As a church, are we speaking the same language as our parents? Are we speaking the language they need to hear?
Another great day for Orange Week 2.0. I eagerly await what is said tomorrow!
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Orange Week Day 3: Recap
Posted on 01. Oct, 2010 by Kenny.
Well, I’m a tad behind with this recap. Last night I took my family for a quick camping trip. It was absolutely wonderful, but there wasn’t any way I was writing a recap from my tent. So, here’s a catch up from what was discussed on Day 3.
Michael Hyatt, the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers wrote a great post about the Orange Strategy. He defined for his many readers what the Orange Strategy is and why he plans to attend the conference this year. Great post!
Here’s a fantastic post from Carlos Whittaker, a self-declared “Orange Dad.” What a great perspective he offers, declaring that he needs all the help he can get and he relies on the Orange essentials to help him be a better dad.
Ron Edmondson shared his thoughts about Orange and parenting here. Although a pastor and leader of ideas, Ron writes this post as a parent who has raised children declaring that he was Orange before he knew there was a term. He’s got some great thoughts about the role of the church as well as the role of parents when it comes to passing faith along.
Michael Bayne continues his series of posts, this time focusing on Yellow initiatives… specifically teamwork. He communicates how his church most impacts families by serving families as a team. The Children’s Ministry, Student Ministry as well as the College Ministry mutually serve each other as they reach out to families. I love what they’re doing. If this doesn’t describe the ministry you’re a part of, you should read his post!
Chad Swanzy writes a very interesting post about parents connecting with their kids as well as ministries helping parents engage in what God is doing in that family. He equates it to a climb. We read in the scriptures that Jesus often when away to be with God, but sometimes these locations were treacherous. In the same way, the climb we must take with our families to discover what God is doing is difficult, but a trek worth taking.
On YouthLeaderStash, Chad posts a great resource for parents. It’s a questionnaire where parents can gauge where they are in respect to their relationship to their teenage kids. I think that it’s important to note that if you don’t know where you stand at this moment, it’s difficult to plot where you’re headed. So, this tool should help parents evaluate what needs to be done now before moving forward.
On Thursday I snuck in a handful of new posts for Orange week. My first post (technically written on Wednesday, but after I’d already written the recap was about Defining the Red. Parents need to know what a family is supposed to look like. Too often they get their definitions from the media or what they see around them. Secondly, I wrote a post Defining the Yellow. Even as someone who has been heavily engaged in the Orange Strategy, I’ve gotten distracted or have at times forgotten what it means for the church to be Yellow. I wrote yet another about deciding between Red and Yellow, personally how I’ve had to decide to not do really good things because it didn’t equip families. Last of all, I wrote a quick post of an idea I had to help pain the country orange, by using the new site imakidmin.com to display that you’re Orange. That way others in your community will know who else thinks like they do.
Jonathan Cliff writes a great post about how his church made the transition to using My First Look curriculum for the Early Childhood area. He shares about his space layout and room order so you get a picture of what he’s dealing with and how he uses the material to suit his needs. If you’re looking to use My First Look or tweak how you’re using it, this is a great post to grab ideas from.
Gina writes another stellar post. I caught myself nodding in agreement at several points. Either parens haven’t done any spiritual training in the lives of their kids or they’ve probably fumbled through it. Parents like anyone tend to not do things they’re not good at. Gina spoke on how to get parents to pick up the reigns… again. Here’s a fantastic idea she’s done for some time on helping parents engage in the most important thing they can do as parents.
Over on Kidmin1124, Jarred Massey (on of my favorite bi-vocational Children’s Pastors) talks about how they structured their Easter services to span multiple generations in a very Orange way. The service was a hit and probably responsible for the grow they saw weeks after Easter. Really great thoughts Jarred!
Nick Blevins builds on his previous post in talking about the importance of relationships. His church has specific environments designed to engage kids, but they put all their effort into creating a place where kids can have relationships with their leaders. This is the most important thing!
Anthony Prince gets my vote for favorite post of the day as he relates the Yellow part of the Orange strategy to yellow snow (reminds me while in college a few friends and I rewrote the entire song of “let the river flow” to “don’t eat yellow snow.” Thats all I could think of when reading this post. Ha!). It’s a great post, you should read it. Anthony continues with another post about calling something that’s Orange that isn’t really Orange. I loved the post and I think he’s got a great point. Don’t start a family service because it’s what Orange ministries do. Just because you hand out refrigerator cards or God-time cards doesn’t make you Orange either. You need to know and understand what it is you’re trying to do and carry out initiatives that help you find success in your context. Too bad the laser couldn’t shoot oranges.
Leave it to Dan Scott to knock another post out of the proverbial park. He interviews the coordinator of the special area at his church. It’s obvious that a special needs ministry MUST be orange. Great thoughts if you need help in better ministering to these families. Also, Dan also created a video of him and his son talking about CueBox. I love it and I need to get my hands on one of these!
JC wrote a very short post on Yellow initiatives. This will be short as well. What stuck with me was once line: “If the gospel is just a part of your ministry, you need to re-evaluate.” BAM!
Matt McKee writes another great post, basically about how bad the church is at being Yellow. Really, it’s a great post. It truly is the Grace of God and his desire to see people come to faith that we’ve made any traction this last 200o years. Good post Matt.
Henry Zonio echos so many other thoughts from this same day in being Yellow. The church needs to illuminate Christ, point people to the story of God. It’s about transformation! Good stuff Zonio.
Greg Baird brings a great point to light during this Week of Orange. In this whole effort of helping parents lead their kids, the goal is never for parents to become perfect or even more perfect than they are not. It is them allowing God to tell the story of restoration in their family which is what transforms. Beautiful and well said!
In this day’s post, Keith talks about parents owning up to their shortcomings and understanding that they’re not going to do everything right. When it comes to passing on faith, there is not a cookie cutter approach. He also provides some great and simple things parents can do to produce faith in their kids.
Okay, that does it for day 3′s recap. Looking forward to all the additional information to come!
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