Archives For Ministry

5 Things Orange

May 2, 2011 — 6 Comments

I had a great time at the Orange Conference last week.  It was my 4th time to attend, but the first time I’ve taken my entire team along for the experience.  I was abel to make the normal Orange Conference connections that I’ve made each year, meeting new friends and reuniting with old ones.  Because these Internets love a good list, I’m going with a top 5 things I took away from this years Orange Conference:

  1. The Team: Taking my senior pastor, executive pastor, college pastor, student ministry pastor, and connections pastor was quite the experience.  When you add me to the mix, that creates 6 different personalities living within close proximity with each other for 5 days.  I’m proud to say that nobody was killed.  :)
    • They all had different takeaways from the conference, and I’m looking forward to reaping a harvest of action from all the ideas planted within them.
  2. The Friends: I had breakfast each morning with some serious Family Ministry big-timers.  It was a great experience to get up early so I could eat, talk, dream, and pray with those that I share my life with.  Easily one of the best takeaway experiences of the entire conference, was the breakfast me and some others had with Jim Wideman.  I realize I don’t have enough Jim’s in my life right now, and the time I had with him; and the answers to my questions that he had were a blessing to me.
    • <rant beginning> And if you attended this conference or any other conference, and don’t make the time to connect with those that don’t work at your church…then you are missing it in a serious way.  Build it into your schedule to take someone from another church out to dinner, breakfast, or coffee when you have them in your view.  Don’t think they have the time?  Well, maybe you just haven’t asked yet. <rant over>
  3. The Word: Listening to Andy Stanley, Jud Wilhite, Perry Noble, Gordon MacDonald, and Doug Fields speak in the Main General Sessions were life changing.  I was recapping some of what they had to say to a friend this morning, and I realize that the words from those brothers in Christ were just what I needed to hear.  Love the time I have to experience the teaching of God’s Word when in the company of like-minded people!
  4. The Breakouts: Breakouts are a tricky thing.  Will you get some great content, but a bad presenter?  Or will you get some great humorous person with great delivery that doesn’t really say anything of value?  It’s sort of a crapshoot.  This year I batted about .900 in picking breakouts; and it may be the best year yet for me.  Easily the most inspiring one was from Chap Clark on turning a church Orange.  Listening to him give a church history lesson on the use of overhead projectors, was insightful and challenging.  This is the one breakout that I wish everyone in my team had been in on!
  5. The Sleep:  Oh wait, there wasn’t any.  Every year I go to Orange I tell myself that I’m going to sleep more than the previous year, and yet every year I stay up til 1am, and find myself waking up at 5am to head out to breakfast somewhere.

It was a great year at Orange, and if you were there would you do me a favor?  Leave me a comment and say hello.  I miss you already!

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When I Have Something to Say

May 2, 2011 — 3 Comments

I’m thrilled to have the opportunity every so often to speak in front of large crowds of people.  I’m also thrilled to speak to a group of 100 kids just as much, it’s all fun and it’s all different.  Recently, I spoke at the weekend services here at Trinity Church.  I spoke multiple times spreading from Saturday Night all the way to 11:30am on Sunday Morning.  I had a blast, and throughly enjoyed the opportunity afforded to me by my Senior Pastor.

This week, I’m going to share a little about how I prepare to speak in front of large crowds.  I say large crowds, but the size of the crowd really doesn’t matter.  It’s the importance of the message that matters, and whether or not God has it for me to deliver.  Along with all that it takes to prepare a message; I love reading and hearing how others do it.  I’ve always wondered how long out do my favorite speakers prepare, and who helps them come up with creative elements?  And the biggest question I always have for every-week speakers: How do you bring a fresh word every, single weekend?

I travel a few times a year to speak, teach in our Elementary environments once a month, and speak at Trinity about once (or sometimes twice) a year.  I’m not a pro’s pro. I’m just Jonathan.  However, over this week I’m going to cover three things as it relates to public speaking:

1. How do I prepare to speak?  What are my methods and habits to get ready?

2. When talking in front of people, what do I try and always remember to get across?  This will be full of things I’ve picked up over the years from everything between Homiletics and Toastmasters.

3. Where I need to get better.  I’m going to take some time to share what I’m hoping I can get better at in the future.  I’m hoping you share some of these with me.

 

 

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Orange First Day

April 27, 2011 — Leave a comment

Spent a great morning, afternoon, and evening with my friends and church staff at the Orange Conference. I bounced around a little between pre-conference breakouts and other somesuch. Here is the Official Wednesday breakdown:

  • Had breakfast with friends Sam Luce, Kenny Conley, Gina McClain, and Matt McKee. My evening schedule is pretty packed, but it was great to get together over coffee, eggs, toast, bacon, and more coffee.
  • Pre-Conference Breakout #1: How to Mobilize Kids and Youth to Lead // The awesome Joy Bowen shared a vision for connecting into the lives of our teenagers by encouraging, trusting, equipping, coaching, and celebrating acts of service in our ministry areas. Joy has a passion for this, and it came across brilliantly. However, I was hoping it would cover more of how to use children as cheap and easy labor in my nursery areas. Maybe next year… :)
  • Pre-Conference Breakout #2: Leading a Family Ministry Meeting // Mike Clear from Discovery Church walked us through the Orange-O-Meter test in the Orange Leaders Handbook. It was quick, and full of content. Mike had some great ideas for how to use the Orange Leaders Handbook in staff ministry meetings. However, I was really excited to learn that Mike’s wife’s name is Crystal. This is all kinds of cool.
  • Pre-Conference Breakout #3: Get More Done in a Day // Jim Wideman taught some great life lessons. Jim leads from the front in the area’s of time management and organizing your day. He had some great things to say about How to get More from your 24. Personally, I would rename this breakout “How to make your day longer.” I’m not saying it works, I just think it’s funnier.
  • Pre-Conference Breakout #4: Social Networking Something or Another // I was the emergency text-question answerer for this breakout. Kenny and Matt brought the heat, and throughly confused those not on social networking sights; yet at the same time encouraged them to take that next step and engage our parents in this new arena and new way. I may have not answered the questions in a perfect way, but it was fun. Put those 120-word a minute typing skills to serious use. Yikes!
  • Opening General Session: After some great music, watching bad dancers in the audience dance, hearing great stories of people moving in God’s Direction towards a hurting world. Then Andy Stanley took the stage, and here are a few of his thoughts and words:
    • “Early Christians captured the imagination of the Romans because of their compassion and generosity.”
    • “Early Christians annoyed society, because they were benevolent!”
    • “Early Christians exposed the lack of government help in society.”
    • Our foundation of Christian faith has opened doors for us to shine this light in the world.
    • Sacrificing your marriage, forsaking your children, and dismissing your brother is paganism – chasing after those things is Christ
    • The church is more important than you will ever imagine.
    • The overflow of the church on mission is a force that nothing can stand against.
    • We are stewards of the message of eternal life…and we are stewards of the message of there is a better life.

I’m now totally exhausted, yet I’m really looking forward to this entire week, and promise to update every evening…or very early each morning.

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Backstage at Orange

April 27, 2011 — Leave a comment

Once again, the Orange Conference 2011 is bringing you back-stage access all week long, and the entire Opening Session is available online as well!  They will be broadcasting LIVE from The Orange Conference throughout the entire event. You’ll get to watch the opening session, meet our speakers, see some odd things that happen backstage, AND you’ll get in on some pretty cool offerings-just by watching the live stream.

So this week, if you’re not able to be in Atlanta for the Orange Conference check it all out at www.orangeleaders.com to see the what’s what.

 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2011 (all times are Eastern Daylight Savings):
7:15 p.m. Welcome to The Orange Conference 2011 & Opening Session
THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2011 (all times are Eastern Daylight Savings):
11:00 a.m. Jeff Manion
11:15 a.m. To Be Announced
11:35 a.m. Taylor Royle
11:25 a.m. Yancy
12:00 p.m. Dan Webster
12:15 p.m. Jim Wideman
12:35 p.m. Joel Manby
12:45 p.m. Mark Matlock
1:00 p.m. Jeanne Stevens
1:15 p.m. Craig Jutila
1:35 p.m. Chuck Bomar
1:50 p.m. Ted Lowe
2:05 p.m. Adam Duckworth
2:20 p.m. Sue Miller
2:35 p.m. Greg Bradford
2:50 p.m. Gordon MacDonald
3:05 p.m. Jud Wilhite
3:20 p.m. Carey Nieuwhof
3:35 p.m. Christine Kreisher
3:50 p.m. Brian White
4:05 p.m. Nina Schmidgall
FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2011 (all times are Eastern Daylight Savings):
11:00 a.m. Kara Powell
11:15 a.m. Eric Draper
11:30 a.m. TBA
11:45 a.m. Tom Shefchunas
12:00 p.m. TBA
12:15 p.m. David Kinnaman
12:35 p.m. Julio Gonzolez
12:45 p.m. Amy Fenton Lee
1:00 p.m. Jeff Shinabarger
1:15 p.m. Bubba Thurman
1:35 p.m. Ronda Malin & Sarah Lee
1:50 p.m. Caz McCaslin
2:05 p.m. Doug Fields
2:20 p.m. Don Jacobson
2:35 p.m. Brad Lomenick
2:50 p.m. Scott Williams
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My Orange Story

April 25, 2011 — Leave a comment

All week long I’ll be blogging from The Orange Conference, and I thought it would be worthwhile to share some of my own Orange story.  This year it will be my 4th Orange Conference to attend, and boy have I come a long way baby!

In April of 2008 I attended my first Orange Conference.  I had been at Trinity Church for almost one year, and had picked the Orange Conference because it looked different than most of the Children’s Ministry conferences.  I took a key volunteer with me as a travel buddy, and the two of us putted around all week thinking…”This will never work!” and “How could this happen at Trinity?” and generally trying not to be discouraged about where I was at and where I wanted to be.

But sometime between that first conference experience at Orange and the next 12 months I got a vision for what could be.  I knew my limitations, and what may not work; but I was unwilling to throw in the towel.  We started taking teeny, tiny Orange baby steps to connect our families with our Children’s Ministry.  Then little by little it started to happen.  Things that had for so long been church-only (YELLOW) events started to look more like church & family (ORANGE) happenings.  I attended the 2009 Orange Conference all by myself; but was able to meet up with some friends that encouraged where we were headed at Trinity and shared some of their own stories of change.  In 2010, I attended the Orange Conference for the 3rd time; but this time brought along my boss and saw him catch a unique vision for our church.  It was happening.

Then in 2010, we started to gather some big momentum as we shifted the ministry at Trinity to our children into a more relational-based small group model.  And here’s the kicker, it actually worked.  In a church that has struggled to get volunteers to work with children, we started to turn it around.  In a church that has struggled to get parents involved in the key life-decisions of their children, we started to see large amounts of parents respond to our baptism and salvation conversations.  Parents turned out in large numbers for a special Child Dedication experience, and our Nursery and Early Childhood areas started to have a spirit of excellence that had not existed previously.  It was happening for us.  Parents (RED) were responding to us at the church (YELLOW) and we were seeing the first hints of an ORANGE atmosphere.

In January of this year, my role has shifted and changed to taking some of these things we’ve had success with in Children’s Ministry to our Student Ministries and College-Age Ministries; and I could not be more excited.  I’m in the position now of being able to cast vision, and hold accountable an entire Next Generations Ministry team to reach our city, families, and church with the single, greatest hope given to us in history.  That Jesus can save the world!

The journey I’ve been on in the past 4 years, is just that.  It’s a journey.  It’s not yet completed, as there is progress to be made while still maintaining the ability to be flexible to the needs of our growing church.  As I look at my 2011 goal sheets, it’s Orange in color; but still bright Yellow and bright Red in places.  It’s a great journey and adventure to make the brightest yellows and the shiniest reds work together in a beautiful Orange shade.

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