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.
Strategy is a plan of action with an end in mind.
Think of motorcycle training through cones. Look at the cones, and you will hit it. Look at an object at the end of the cones, and you will pass every time.
Misalignment happens - all the time - relationships, marriage, teams, tires.
What you need to work on is alignment
Let me reacquaint myself. I used to send you blog posts on ministry and culture... that is, until my family and I moved to Miami and welcomed a brand new baby boy into our family.
As you can imagine, life turned upside down for my family and me in all the best ways. Almost a year ago today, I received a call, asking me to interview for a new role in a new city. That same week, my wife discovered that she was pregnant!
Within a month, we waved goodbye to the only city our marriage ever knew, welcomed our first born, and made the closest friends of our life. We set out on a new adventure, beckoning us to a greater calling than we could imagine!
My journey with Orange began 4 years ago - at a former church in another state on the other side of the coast - leading a ministry with a staff team in a city for which I still an enormous amount of respect to this very day!
I started my employment and pastoral leadership over the Hillside Church student ministry in August 2011. Ironically, I began this journey on the same exact day that my Lead Pastor started his employment, as well. To some, this may seem so bizarre. It was for sure, but for us in our context, it was the best possible scenario, for it opened doors for both my Lead Pastor and me to explore Orange with our Family Ministry Team without any pretense or hesitation.
***This post originally appeared at Orange Leaders on 23 July 2015:
Ever receive one of the billion Internet memes floating in cyberspace? Ever let out a sigh when you receive a text from that kid, open it, and discover that you just got meme’d by an angry cat or a one second repeating loop from a 1960s sitcom? Of course you have, because you serve as a family ministry leader! Another phrase for “family ministry leadership” should be “meme receptor.” We serve a generation who loves making, finding, and sending memes, especially to us!
Just in case you might be the only person who reads this post and thinks, “Hmmm, what’s a meme?” Let me bring you up to speed: a meme is a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.
I think most of us would agree that as kids, the stories from the Old Testament scared us! At least they did for me! Reading those ancient, historic tales kept me up at night. They juiced my imagination and instilled the fear of God in me... literally! In fact, they shaped me into the man and Pastor I am today.
One story in particular stayed with me. It is so familiar that you might know it yourself: Exodus 20 - the Ten Commandments! Now, you might be thinking that this story does not consist of the battle scenes and death blows like some of the other passages in Exodus. True, but God says something here that frightened me as a kid, and if I am honest, still frightens me today. The author writes in verses 4-5:
In less than 24 hours, I will be touching down in Atlanta to attend the annual Orange Conference, hosted and sponsored by the reThink Group.
I make the Orange Conference my 'must attend' conference every year. In fact, it is the only conference to which I travel (from California to Georgia), even investing my own money at times to make this trip possible. I believe in what this conference represents. It is the most comprehensive conference in Family and Next Generation ministry out there. It targets children's ministry just as well as student ministry, even creating space for special needs ministry and executive tracks for senior leadership. I have written extensively about Orange, the conference, and all of the benefits of its curriculum and community. I am sold out for Orange. I am a blogger for the organization and contribute on a monthly basis to the Orange Leaders blog. Visit my Archives Page and read all of my posts about Orange under the heading "Orange." Most important, I use it every week in my respective areas of ministry. I highly commend this organization to you.
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?
Just a couple of days ago, some great people in the field of Student Ministry launched a brand new, fresh podcast called "Youth Ministry Answers."
Though brand new, it will soon become one of the must-listen-to podcasts in the field, and I highly encourage you to go over to iTunes, download it, and make it a regular rhythm of your podcast diet.
But what if you are not a Student Pastor? Is it still worth it?
