Tag Archives: Strategy
Be Strategic
Posted on 23. Jan, 2012 by Kenny.
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.… Read the rest
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Do you have a whiteboard in your kitchen?
Posted on 16. Nov, 2010 by Kenny.
I mentioned earlier today that I just finished Patrick Lencioni’s book “The 3 Big Questions for the Frantic Family.” I’m also nearing the end of a small group built around “Revolutionary Parenting” by George Barna. Both book, written by two different authors from two different perspectives and two different end goals seem to have one major thing in common.
Success isn’t going to happen without intentionality and planning.
I got the very strong feeling that families who are intentional and plan around the development of their family and kids are peculiar (not that this is a bad thing at all). I remember several years ago (before Titus), Sara and I went off for an overnight trip in Dallas to develop a mission, vision and core values for our family and people thought this was kind of weird.… Read the rest
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State of the Gate 2.0
Posted on 26. Mar, 2010 by Kenny.
Every year my church has a “State of the Gate.” It’s really a gathering one evening of the week, usually at the beginning of the year where we share great stories from the previous year, share any exciting news and then cast vision for the coming year. This year we tried something new. Since we’ve recently launched our internet campus, we broadcast the State of the Gate over the interwebs. What a cool experience!
I still don’t know how many actually participated, but a pretty large group of people logged in with their facebook and twitter accounts and interacted with each other during the broadcast and asked questions during the Q & A. It was a totally unique environment. The people who watched live had a much more engaging experience than any State of the Gate in the past.… Read the rest
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Why attend the Orange Conference 10: Reason #4
Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.
You’ve probably heard the statistic that more than 70% of students walk away from their faith within one year of graduating high school? Reggie has been working on a study about the loss of faith in college students and it’s turned into a book called “Slow Fadeâ€.  This is another hot question in the Christian community over the past several years and the topic of many studies (and even controversy over what it means).  Reggie has a unique take on what is happening that will bring clarity to this issue.
You may be thinking, “I work with kids, why does this matter to me?” That’s a dumb question. Of course it matters to those who work with kids becasue these kids walking away from their faith are our investment.… Read the rest
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Why attend the Orange Conference 10: Reason #3
Posted on 02. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.
In this little series of why a person should attend the Orange Conference, I’m trying to show some of the great reason why to attend that aren’t totally obvious. Sure you’re going to learn a lot, you’ll get some great resources and network like crazy with all kinds of people. But there’s other reasons as well. Here’s reason number three.
This year Reggie will be unveiling a new strategy and resources for engaging parents. If you use ReThink materials, you’ve found that there are a lot of great resources for engaging parents, but not really one integrated strategy to present to parents of preschool kids or elementary kids. It’s been something they’ve been working on for some time and certainly a resource that people have been asking for.… Read the rest
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Orange Week: Leverage Influence Recap
Posted on 21. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.
Today concludes the primary posting for Orange week with the strategy element of “Leverage Influence.” So here are the blog posts from Thursday, the 5th day of Orange week.
- I started off Leverage Influence with a post about engaging students in meaningful ministry as a means of discipleship.
- Kendra Golden compares us engaging students in ministry to a drug dealer getting a kid hooked on drugs. Ha! I don’t think I ever would have taken that approach, but I like it in a weird way.
- Matt McKee posts about Leveraging Influence using another story form OrangeLeaders.com but then also sharing how it’s done at his church. One of the last things he said was significant. It was about being territorial about students and realizing we can work together to reach them.
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Orange Week: Leverage influence
Posted on 21. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.
Leverage influence is the part of the Orange strategy that primarily targets students. Although I oversee a student pastor and student ministry, my primary ministry gifting lies in children’s ministry. I’d really appreciate hearing from some student pastors who are putting this into practice. However, I don’t speak from someone who hasn’t experienced this. I look at the students at my church and the ones who are strongest in their faith are the ones serving weekly in the childrens ministry or middle school. Most importantly, this is how I was “discipled.” I am a product of this strategic element.
What is this idea of leveraging influence? It’s equipping students to live out what they’re learning and to be a part of an adventure that is bigger than themselves.… Read the rest
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Orange Week: Wednesday Recap
Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.
Sorry I’m a few day’s late on Wednesday’s recap. Between traveling back and forth to Dallas, attending the Orange Tour and then coming down with a nasty little stomach bug, I’m just now getting caught up again. So, let me catch us back up on the two Orange strategy elements being discussed on Wednesday
Elevate Community
- Kendra offers a very interesting view into the importance of Christian community. Of all the Christian disciplines, it’s the one discipline that translates easily to a new believer. It’s how God designed us, to have community.
- Matt McKee’s giving away ten Family Times Packs.
- Matt McKee pulls a story off of ornageleadders.com to illustrate this point, a story Reggie tells about his daughters need for affirmation as well as a description of what elevate community looks like at Matt’s church.
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Elevate Community: It’s gotta be in your DNA
Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.
It helps when the commitment to community is a part of your church’s DNA. If it’s not, then you need to find a way to change that. Otherwise your effectiveness to reach kids, specifically in student ministry will be severely limited. Fortunately for me, my church has small groups as a core part of the DNA. However, when I arrived almost 2 years ago, there had never been small groups in the children’s ministry. Now I’ve known a lot of childrens ministries have have existed without small groups, but not when there are small groups in every other aspect of the church. Needless to say, the leadership was begging me to launch small groups.Two years later, our elementary kids are more connected than ever.… Read the rest
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Reactivate the Family: What about when they need activating too?
Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this element of Orange. It seems like this is the element that has the potential to change everything… yet it’s the hardest to be successful in. Why? Because it’s something we can’t really control. Once we attempt to reactivate families, it’s up to them to lead their own kids. Us control freak pastors don’t like this so much… since we’re so good at it, right?
I’m pretty passionate about finding ways to engage parents. I’m a big believer that we’re not really successful until we see parents living this out in their homes, using our resources or their own without us begging them to. The problem I’m facing at my church is that I’m trying to reactivate families that have never been activated in the first place.… Read the rest
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