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

6 Reasons I Still Choose Orange

6 Reasons I Still Choose Orange

To wrap up Orange Blogger Week, I want to share with you why I continue to choose the Orange philosophy and curriculum, even while so many other organizations improve each year on curriculum writing and production. 

Over the years, I have written quite a bit about Orange on my blog, and you can view every single article on my Archives Page under the Orange heading. Every time I write about Orange, I realize even more why I value this organization. It is a unique one in several ways, but I want to highlight 6 reasons in particular that feature the hallmarks of the organization. They follow:

How to Stop Negative Self Talk

How to Stop Negative Self Talk

***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.

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. 

How to Make Fun a Team Value

How to Make Fun a Team Value

The words ‘fun’ and ‘church staff’ often seem more like oxymorons than necessary partners. In fact, even as I write this, I just finished a staff meeting. Fun is not the word I would use to describe it. 

And perhaps rightly so. 

Church staffs need structured, time-bounded meetings to discuss and critically engage with the necessary issues pertinent to ministry. Various seasons in the year call for team members to discuss hard conversations, make tough decisions, disagree with one another, and maintain deadlines. Not fun things to do, but very necessary things to do. The health and growth of every ministry organization depends on these kinds of meetings. 

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:

It's Just a Phase... So Get Equipped!

It's Just a Phase... So Get Equipped!

Because each phase of adolescence needs a strong, faithful, and equipped man or woman of God to lead, encourage, and challenge them through that phase. 

Strong and effective leaders and ministers know this single truth that the difference between a good and great ministry is one single factor: the level of preparation for that leader. That's it! Good looks, charm, wit, personal knowledge, and abilities can only take a leader so far - sometimes very far - before that leader bumps against a wall... a wall comprised of her or himself. 

Episode 07: Are Conferences Worth the Time and Money?

Episode 07: Are Conferences Worth the Time and Money?

Its been over a month since our last podcast. But with spring trips and conferences behind us, we are ready to jump back in and finish this academic year well. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Thursday Morning Debrief with Ben and Ryan.  

This is a podcast where we seek to leverage our friendship to maintain a soft heart towards Jesus and towards our ministry.

In this weeks episode: Are ministry conferences worth the time and expense?