• I started off the day with a post defining the strategic element of “refining the message.”
• Jonathan Cliff talks about the results he’s seen in the last two years as they’ve practiced this idea of refining the message through the curriculum choices they’ve made. His post stands out the most to me thanks to the graphic coloring sheet of Absolom’s unfortunate death. Even more interesting was that Jonathan still has this now infamous coloring sheet.
• Gina’s giving away a really cool resource. Click here to find out how you can get it before it’s gone.
• Anthony Prince throws in his two cents concerning messaging. He describes how his church as intentionally refined the message depending on the audience and objectives of that program.
• Dan Scott writes three blog posts concerning refining the message. The first defines the element and how their use of 252 Basics allows them to clearly refine their message. The second post amazingly demonstrates how they refine their message through the experience. Last of all, Dan writes a post about marketing in the light of refining the message. Dan shares practical things of how they do this at Ada Bible… very helpful information!
• I wrote a second post about refining the message mainly focusing on what I’ve been thinking about concerning developing a biblical worldview in the lives of our kids and how refining the message might help us to do that.
• Kendra Golden shares a very unique perspective about refining the message. She talks about how as a content developer for many years, she sees the importance of “the message” finally when her child hits the student ministry and doesn’t seem to be grasping the true message. Maybe he is, but the reality is that the messaging was confusing and it caused Kendra as a content developer to see how to craft a message that resonates with kids as well as family with kids in multiple programs.
• Matt McKee approaches the concept of packaging and communication. Refining the message isn’t always about content, but about delivery. If we knew that we could present the content in a differnt way that would produce greater results, would we? Check out Matt’s thoughts on this element.
• JC throws out a post from a bit of a different perspective, of how when we refine the message, we also make it more potent and powerful. I agree. There’s a lot of noise in the church at times… sometimes we have to say less to say more.
• Nick Blevins jumped into Orange Week with a great post on refining the message. I like his use of “knowledge puffs up” as a reminder that trying to teach it all to the kids can be counter productive.
• Gina McClain wrote a great post on refining the message. My favorite line: Creating an echo isn’t easy to do. But then it isn’t easily forgotten either.

In addition to these posts, we had two other bloggers jump into the Orange festivities. Henry Zonio (who’ll be coming to Orange this year) threw out some information on Orange to his readers and pointed them toward all the Orange mania. In addition, Eric Griffin posted about his thoughts on Orange and how some obstacles to overcome are denominationally driven, something I’ve never really thought about.

That’s it for right now. If I missed one, leave a comment and I’ll add it. Gina’s give away is still up for grabs and there will be a new give away announced tomorrow. Oh, and I’ve got a BIG… er, HUGE announcement tomorrow. Hang on tight people, good stuff is coming you way!

I’ve been thinking a lot about this very thing lately. At my church we use 252 Basics and My First Look. It’s great curriculum. However, I do think that every church needs to evaluate their own unique situation, determine their target and evaluate what message needs to be presented. Obviously, there are central biblical truths that need to be communicated in every church, but not all churches are the same and neither is the demographic of the people they’re trying to reach.

Here’s what I’ve been wrestling through the last few months. In George Barna’s book Revolutionary Parenting, he defines a biblical worldview.

A biblical worldview, as defined by the Barna study, is believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is completely accurate in all of the principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today.

In his book he provides further clarification of what the life of a spiritual champion looks like which includes this worldview and specific behaviors.

So as I think about the concept of refining the message, I’m thinking about what do I specifically need to present over the context of 18 years to produce spiritual champions? It looks like regardless of what curriculum I use, supplemental material is needed. Obviously we’ve learned that parental leadership is the only way we’ll pull this off, but in most churches if parents get engaged, it’s using material that ties into what the kids are learning on the weekends, which would affect the message we present on Sundays.

Any thoughts?

All of it? Everything? Sure. However, this creates a problem though. Since we only have about 40 hours a year (in some of the best case scenarios) to teach children, it isn’t possible to teach them everything. So as we face that environment of 1st-3rd graders, what messages do they specifically need to hear. When choosing from the entirety of the scripture, we must be selective. What about when they’re in the middle school environment. What are you going to do with those 40 hours a year? Will they be different messages from what the 1st-3rd graders are hearing?

You must refine the message.

In your effort to refine the message, you’ll need to take into account these three things.

• All scripture is equally inspired
• All scripture is not equally important
• All scripture is not equally applicable to every stage of life

What does this mean? All scripture is God-breathed, but not every verse in the Bible carries the same weight. There are certain passages and scriptures that bring more impact than others. When sharing your faith with a friend, there are certain specific verses that we tend to share because of their importance. When confronted by the religious leaders and asked what commandment was the most important, Jesus didn’t back down. Although every commandment was inspired, Jesus said that all the commandments could hang under loving God and loving others. Jesus wasn’t inclusive, he prioritized what was most important. Last of all, we need to filter what scriptures are appropriate for different ages. When teaching in children’s ministry, you’re going to glide over details pertaining to sexual sins. They don’t need to know it to realize the depth of God’s love and his plan for our lives. However, once those hormones are kicking in, these 6th and 7th graders need to know what the Bible says about sexual purity.

You have varying audiences. You have limited time. You have a goal before you. What are you going to say? Refine the message.

So in a nutshell, what is Orange?

Orange represents change. It’s the color of transition. What color do you think of in the Fall? Orange. Similarly, many feel some serious changes confront the church. Business as usual hasn’t been working. Children growing up in the church are leaving their faith once finishing High School in alarming numbers. Change is needed.

Orange represents partnership. It’s the merging of two colors to become a third. With Orange, this partnership is between the church and families. It’s when the church, heavy with resources combines with parents, who have significant influence, begin working together to make a bigger impact. Two combined influences will make a greater impact than two influences.

Simple, huh? Really it is. But there’s more. Central to the Orange “philosophy” are five core elements:

• Integrated Strategy
• Refine the Message
• Elevate Community
• Reactivate the Family
• Leverage Influence

Over the next five days we’re going to look closely at these five elements to see how we can be agents of change that will impact THIS generation.

During Orange week others are blogging on the same topic each day and links to their posts will show up in the comments. Be sure to visit their posts to see how the elements of the Orange strategy are being carried out in real-live scenarios. If you want to share your thoughts surrounding this topic you can either by replying in the comments or writing a post on your own blog and linking back to this specific blog post (so the link to your post will show up in the comments.