One of the most important events on my annual professional calendar is the Orange Conference.
Why Orange? In sum, when it comes to a student ministry curriculum, I have not found one as powerful, versatile, comprehensive, and intentional as Orange. It cares for the middle school student just as much as the elderly aunt who takes care of him. Orange seeks to equip the entire family, not just the teenage kid, for both individual and familial faith. That simple.
As a user since 2011, I've continually been sold by how well it prepares me to share the Gospel with teenagers and build parent partnerships for faithful ministry in the home.
This post originally appeared on the Orange Leaders Blog on June 22, 2016.
What is the toughest question you’ve ever had to answer, and who asked it?
Given that somehow you made your way to this exceptional community called Orange Leaders, I automatically know a few things about you:
Not long ago my wife introduced me to the best show on television... Chopped. I love it. Hands down noting beats it. A simple show in concept: four chefs compete against one another using a basket of mystery ingredients - yet so captivating!
Why? Because the ingredients equalize the playing field. Whether the chef be a novice out of culinary a school or a multi-restaurant owner veteran, each chef receives the ingredients at the same time and must respond to them.
The ingredients are the star of the show. They call out the character of the chef. Not the other way around. It's the ingredients that define the path.
Said C.S. Lewis, "The prayer that precedes all prayers is may the real me meet the real you."
A great friend of mine from college once shared this quote with me. He and I served in Young Life together, leading high school students toward a growing relationship with Jesus. I can recall that he ended nearly every one of his ministry talks with this quote just prior to closing in prayer:
"May the real me meet the real you."
I probably listened to him share this quote with me dozens of times. I think I also used it. But quite honestly, I don't think I understood the meaning behind it until much later in life. Intellectually I understood it. It's simple in structure, but truly profound in its meaning.
Perhaps I missed it time after time because inherent within this quote lays an assumption that you know the real you.
Know your message enough to find the direction, but leave it open enough to let the Holy Spirit inspire new content.
For humor, build the island, but then make sure that you make a sturdy bridge to and from the island. Satire is about an idea, but mockery is about an individual. We are not called to mockery.
Put handles on ideas so that we can carry them forward. We have enough ideas. Put a handle on them.
One of the recurring themes that I hear in my conversations with teenagers is the feeling of isolation because of what they believe.
This past Winter, I led two retreats to winter camp with my middle and high school students, respectively, and spoke at another one. In all, I encountered several hundred students and adult leaders from my own church, along with several dozen others. In general, students and leaders from varying socio-economic, geographical, and denominational bounds all admitted to feeling isolated from the culture, friendships, and in some cases, even family because of their faith. One of my own adult leaders who leads in the high school ministry told me that this issue permeates nearly all of her conversation with students and ought to be something that we explicitly address during our program.
Welcome to the Thursday Morning Debrief with Ben and Ryan.
In Episode 01, Ben and I talk about a serious topic that every youth worker, pastor, and professional public speaker faces at one time or another: "What to do when you CHUNK your talk." Not stumble over some words, not slip on a phrase, not even forget a point. We both discuss huge failures of chunked talks and how to overcome the shame and embarrassment.
One of the most important events on my annual professional calendar is the Orange Conference.
I've written quite a bit on my blog about Orange, and you can read all of those posts by visiting my Archives page. Moreover, if you enjoy reading my other blog posts, especially pertaining to writings on student ministry philosophy and parent partnerships, then you may already be part of the Orange movement without even knowing it!
I was talking with a fellow youth worker the other day who asked me this question, "Can the Church really be a viable partner for parents?"
He shared with me about his current struggles a youth worker. He said, "Ryan, with all of the additional programs for students to attend, whether it be an extra-curricular sport team, counseling, therapy groups, community and non-profit service-based organizations, and the mall, what can the church possibly offer a student these days?"
That is a fair question. With all in which a student can get involved, along with all of the options available to a parent for personal, mental, physical, and yes, even spiritual development, what role can the church assume to partner with parents for the sake of the faith formation of a teenager?
As my good friend remarked the other day, there is an art to meeting with a parent.
I agree, and it is a crucial, learned skill. I know several youth pastors and youth workers who recognize the wonderful benefit of parent partnerships but feel either intimidated or under qualified to actually to do the work of building them and investing into conversations.
Allow me to dispel this: God has entrusted you with the privileged task of gathering, equipping, and sending students, which requires your intentional, faithful involvement with parents. You need to meet with parents. It must become a regular rhythm of your ministry. Not doing so wipes away half of the people to whom God has called to you to minister.
A few weeks, a good friend of mine, colleague, and fellow youth worker in the trenched, debuted our fresh podcast, "The Thursday Morning Debrief."
In our 'prelude' episode, Episode 00, we discuss a bit about how this idea came about, along with some simple comments about one another and the intent of the podcast. Our hope is that this podcast can be an offering of encouragement and wisdom for our maturing youth workers in the field. May our Lord bless you in your next season of ministry.
Welcome to the Thursday Morning Debrief with Ben and Ryan.
