t_235Okay, I’m a cheater! When I signed up for the Orange conference, they had several breakouts that they highly recommended. They were a series of “Orangology” breakouts that explain the Orange philosophy. Although this is very important (since much of the other breakouts probably build on the Orange philosophy concepts), there were several other breakouts that I really wanted to attend. So, I decided to get caught up with the Orange philosophy before going. I decided to purchase the “Essence of Orange” DVD from reThink and I’m so glad I did. First of all, I’m glad I did so that I can attend these other breakouts without feeling like I missed something. In addition, watching this DVD gave me plenty of time to stew on these concepts… otherwise I’m sure I’d be at information (all of it mind-blowingly good) overload at the conference. I want to share a few concepts from the DVD here. I highly recommend adding this DVD to your collection. Reggie Joiner clearly explains this ministry philosophy in very creative ways that you can share with your teams, your staff and leadership. It’s good! In this post and a few to follow will give little snippets of the DVD… hopefully enough to whet your appetite to buy the DVD for yourself.

Selective Bible Teaching

In the very best-case scenarios, most of our kids will spend a maximum of 40 hours at church each year (they’ll spend over 400 playing video games alone).

So, if we only have 40 hours, what are we going to teach? This fact shows us the need for prioritizing what we are teaching. We’ve got to make the most of the limited time we have. We shouldn’t look at this issue like “we have less time to get more in… so how are we going to cover it all in only 40 hours?” Instead, we should look at this fact by saying “we only have 40 hours… so what are the most important concepts we’re going to cover this year.”

A revolutionary concept for many will be to “teach kids the Bible” rather than “teach the Bible to Kids.” These phrases sound the same but are amazingly different. Teaching the Bible to kids puts the emphasis on the material and figuring out how to get as much of it into the kids as possible. In this approach, distribution of knowledge is the priority. Teaching kids the Bible puts the emphasis on the kids and presenting the message of the Bible in a way that impacts the lives of the children. In this approach, understanding and application of knowledge is the priority.

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