Orange
Ryan Reed
You Gotta Make It to OC17

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. 

You Gotta Make It to OC17
Leadership
Ryan Reed
The Important Role of Self Awareness in ...

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:

The Important Role of Self Awareness in Leadership
Leadership
Ryan Reed
Key Ingredients for a Thriving Ministry Recipe

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.

Key Ingredients for a Thriving Ministry Recipe
Church
Ryan Reed
May the Real Me Meet the Real You

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. 

May the Real Me Meet the Real You
Orange
Ryan Reed
Rethink Leadership Conference Day 2 #OC16 #RL16

CAREY NIEUWHOF INTERVIEW WITH JON ACUFF

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.  

Rethink Leadership Conference Day 2 #OC16 #RL16

Church

May the Real Me Meet the Real You

May the Real Me Meet the Real You

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. 

God Changes Everything

God Changes Everything

Sophomore Year… High School… Camp Cowen… As I did every year, I sat next to my camp girl friend… because after all, doesn’t every freshman boy go to camp for the ladies? I listened to a speaker named Rob Ely talk about why Jesus should matter to me… a popular, All-American kid with a bright future and a clean record. He spoke about this God who rescued every one of us through the person of Jesus. He spoke about the love and unmerited, undeserved grace of Jesus for the ENTIRE world - all for the sake of restoring every person… as his beloved!

As Rob spoke that night, I felt something strange begin to happen. I let go of my camp girlfriend’s hand. Scenes of my life began to rerun in my mind, but rather than disregarding them, I decided to feel them.

On that night, the very hearing of being called a beloved child of God so moved my heart and renewed my weary soul that I did not care so much about the girl sitting next to me or the buddies from my cabin when I got up, walked to Rob, and accepted the love of Jesus for me. 

Parent Like the Next Four Generations Matter

Parent Like the Next Four Generations Matter

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:

Seeing Red: Getting Unstuck from Anger

Seeing Red: Getting Unstuck from Anger

I delivered this sermon yesterday at my church, Hillside Church of Marin, and a few people who heard request that I post the transcript on my blog, along with the audio on my Talks Page. I have edited the script on this post from the original content that I delivered yesterday. 

Personally, of all the issues that can stick people's boots in the mudflats of sin, this one in particular has trapped me over and over again. If you feel stuck in your anger today, then I pray that you may find healing by the power of the Holy Spirit. Surrender. Confess. Repent. Put up your hands, and let the Savior of the World find you, pick you up, and set your feet on a path toward freedom and health! 

May this sermon bless and encourage you today!

The Joy of Advent

The Joy of Advent

I can remember well sitting in our doctor’s office, fully confident that the image that would soon appear on the sonograph screen would be... a boy. In my gut, I just knew it. Though my wife - also fully confident - knew that the little baby inside of her would be a girl, I still daydreamed with her about our little boy.

Who would he be? What would we name him? Would he love football as much as his daddy? Would he follow in his daddy’s footsteps? Would he experience premature male pattern baldness like his daddy? In fact, I felt so confident that our little baby would be a boy that I invested a considerable amount of time thinking about how I would console Stacy when she learned of the news.

The time came.

Because of His Great Love for Us!

Because of His Great Love for Us!

A couple of weeks ago, I offered a sermon at my church within a series on Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus. Even though my previous posts reference sermons on chapters 1 and 4, I want to make chapter 2 available for you also. Truly, chapter is the Gospel. It is the Good News of hope and reconciliation for our sin and transgression. 

During this Thanksgiving week, I feel grateful that because of God's great love for us, we no longer face the wrath of God and consequence of death for our sin and transgression. May know that good news awaits for those who believe because God's great love for you!

Read my sermon below, titled: "Because of His Great Love for Us!"

Live Into the Calling You Received!

Live Into the Calling You Received!

One of the most comprehensive and instructive selections on the church found within the Bible is the great passage from Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4. 

It provides the follower of Jesus with the tools necessary to understand the foundational mission and purpose of the church, the real, active presence of the Body of Christ in our world. 

I believe in the church. As one prominent Pastor once said, "The local church is the hope of the world!" I agree with it so much that I have staked my life and vocation on it.

Below, I have posted an excerpt from my sermon this past Sunday. It is rooted in Ephesians 4, and it contains a worked out response to living into the call that you received from Christ, the head of the church!

May you come to see the church as the hope for the world and the primary means through which one discovers the grace of our Lord and works out her or his redemption!

The Choice, the Plan, and the Inheritance!

The Choice, the Plan, and the Inheritance!

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been working through Paul's Letter to the Ephesians for the adults of our church on Sunday morning. 

In doing so, my Spirit feels so refreshed and renewed from studying this letter and crafting sermons to share the Gospel for our community. The first 2 chapters in particular address the Good News of Jesus Christ - the work of the Father for every person through his son. 

As I thought about what to post this week, I kept returning to the idea of sharing an excerpt from my sermon. I believe this letter - short of what we observe from the actual act of Jesus himself in the cross and resurrection, as recorded in the Gospels - offers the most robust treatment of the why Jesus matters for our world and what to do about it. 

Read how Paul opens his letter to the church in Ephesus, beginning with chapter 1, verses 3-14: