Search Results: 'think orange'

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-04

October 4, 2009 in Personal with 0 Comments

Orange Baby Steps -Part 2

August 7, 2009 in Ministry with 9 Comments

We’ve been making some minor changes in our Ministry philosophy at Trinity Church.  Yesterday I laid out the first step I took to help shift the thinking of those all around me. There is a great desire to move from creating programs for kids, into creating programs for parents and kids.  We are early in the process, and have taken some very small steps to make this happen.  These next three steps have been tiny, but huge all at the same time.  What did we do?

  1. The big programming change we made started this Summer, and in reality it wasn’t a huge change.  We simply changed the “drop-off your kids” events into “Family Time” events.  It was simple really.  That event that in the past would cost $20 a kid to go to the amusement park with the Children’s Ministry leaders, is now only $5 a person and the entire family in encouraged to attend.  We budgeted this year to eat some of the expense so the entire family could attend (I could totally make a comment about how eliminating VBS changed our budget for the better, but I won’t.)  We saw double attendance from year’s past, and have seen the families in our church soften towards our leaders.  This isn’t rocket science people.  We’re trying to open the door to our families to be together, and not just create events that compete against everything else happening inside and outside the church.  If this is all we do, I know it won’t be enough; but we’re taking baby steps here.
  2. We’ve also changed our cattle call of a Child Dedication service to more of a parent training event.  What happens on stage on a Sunday Morning will be about the same as it’s always been, but what parents have to do to get to that stage has changed.  I know that to some this might sound so simple, but we just asked that all parents desiring their child be dedicated attend a parenting class.  The class will be about 75 minutes in length, and include a few minutes of table discussion.  No dinner is served, no public speaking by those in attendance is needed, just their presence and a desire for them to be spiritual leaders in their home.  Simple really.  There is lots of room for improvement, and it will be tweaked to further benefit our parents as it grows.
  3. We taken away the drop your kid off Baptism training, and instead put tools in the hands of our parents.  We’re distributing information (online only) that will help parents discuss whether their child is ready to accept Jesus as their Lord, and help them introduce baptism to their children.  We’ll still do occasional large group altar calls, and I will always be available to help families that want their hand held during this journey; but we’re really surrendering the main responsibility to the parents on this one.  I should probably say that after mom/dad/grandparent/guardian use the tools to talk with their kid, I will be meeting individually with each family before an actual baptism takes place.

These are some of the simple steps that we’ve taken to reintroduce our families to spiritually leading their own families.  Simple, right?

Orange Baby Steps

August 6, 2009 in Ministry with 3 Comments

changeThose familiar with my journey will know that I’ve been helping our church to take more deliberate steps towards more Family Ministry.  And by Family Ministry I mean, a more ORANGE setup.  I believe we’re taking some baby steps towards interacting with our parents in a serious way.  Trinity Church is an older church, and comes with years of history that can be both good and bad. Things move a little slower here than they might at an adventurous church plant, if you know what I mean.  However, I really believe that our church has it within them to make positive ORANGE changes.

Here are some of the steps I’ve taken.  I hope that those much further along this path won’t think I’m super-lame, but instead I hope that those still learning to integrate parents within the Children’s Ministry will be inspired to keep pushing forward.

The first thing I did was educate myself on the principles of what I wanted to see at Trinity. I then started to plant the seeds of these principles in the hearts and minds of those working for me, and those that I work for. I’d do this in private conversations over lunch, voicing ideas in meetings, and quietly picking occasions where it would be accepted to share “What could be…”  It’s been almost 18 months of planting seeds of ORANGE principles in my leaders, and I’m finally starting to see some movement. In the book Think Orange, Reggie Joiner speaks specifically about the danger of instituting practices before you have the principles of “Why?” in place.

I’ve been careful in my situation to not push too aggressively for parent-friendly events, and instead have taken a baby step approach. There is a lot of confusion and fear when parents see the church trying something “new.” I’ve waited until there was a felt need, then jumped all over it. I’ve had certain options in place for over a year, and just waited until I saw that need come up then worked feverishly to meet that need with authority. For example, we’ve made some major changes to our Child Dedication process after hearing some parents express a desire for something more relevant. Every little thing matters, especially when you’ve got 45 years of doing things a certain way! Somebody say Amen, please!

Tomorrow I’ll address three very specific steps we’ve taken to reintroduce our families to the church.

Widen The Circle

July 31, 2009 in Bible,Ministry,Personal with 3 Comments

Disclaimer: All these thoughts originated from my study of Orange.  They are specifically taken from the Essence of Family teaching given by Reggie Joiner, and can be found in his book, “Think Orange.” This is a fantastic book, and if you work with churches to reach kids then this should be your Manifesto!

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Five Essential Parenting Skills

5. Widen the Circle

Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel.

Let’s back up to Deuteronomy 6:4, for a second.  Have you ever noticed this?  Moses isn’t talking to just one family.  He’s talking to an entire nation of people.  He’s talking to families!  This is where the Children’s Pastor in me gets real excited.  It is clear in Moses’ language that he is challenging the entire nation with these principles.

Over time your little cute 3 year old will begin to listen to you less and less.  After only a few more years, that same child will begin to listen to others and give them more respect than they will their own parents.  It’s only natural.  While we want to continue to speak into our kid’s lives, we also need to prepare them to hear from others that support what we believe.

I’m constantly shocked at the amount of parents that come to me with teenage children and tell me how they struggle with them constantly to live Godly lives, then I find out that those same parents have done NOTHING to ensure that their teenagers have Godly influences in their lives.  What can you do?  Take in a Christ following college student to live in your home, make them attend youth services (of their choice if needed), introduce them to your spiritual mentors and encourage them to talk to people besides you about the things that puzzle them.

Parents need to become intentional about finding spiritual leaders and mentors for their kids.  We need to be intentional about finding the right spiritual influences for our children, where they are hearing what their parents tell them, but in a different way and from a different voice.

I choose to Widen the Circle and make sure my kids have additional influences to guide them.

Create a Rhythm

July 30, 2009 in Bible,Ministry,Personal with 0 Comments

Disclaimer: All these thoughts originated from my study of Orange.  They are specifically taken from the Essence of Family teaching given by Reggie Joiner, and can be found in his book, “Think Orange.” This is a fantastic book, and if you work with churches to reach kids then this should be your Manifesto!

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Five Essential Parenting Skills

4. Create a Rhythm

Deuteronomy 6:7 Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

As parents we need to be more conscious, more deliberate, and more innovative with our children.  I can’t drag them to occasional church services, pop in the random Veggie Tales video, and expect them to grow up to be spiritual champions.  It doesn’t work that way.  We know that, but we struggle to live it out.  Here is where the Five Essential Skills can become easily applicable.  (The ReThink Group has created some great resources for driving home these 4 Family Times along with their curriculum resources.)

It doesn’t get any more practical than these Four Family Times, as laid out in Deuteronomy 6:7:

  1. “When you sit at home.”  This is meal time. What a novel idea, huh?  Families eating together and interacting on a daily basis.  This is the time that we as parents can take an opportunity to be a teacher to our kids.  My family has tried some sort of a nightly devotional time before, but I’ve found it hard to be consistent.  But making meal times a priority, I’ve found it to be a super easy way to answer questions about God’s Word, and to rehash things our kids have learned at church.
  2. “When you walk along the road.” This is drive time. I know that DVD players in the car have revolutionized the way we travel as families.  I know that I would hate making the 8 hour trek from Lubbock to Tulsa a couple of times a year without one.  However, my family has turned them off permanently when driving around town.  Why miss the unique time to have my child’s full attention?  This is my opportunity to be my kids friend, and just talk.  We talk about school, soccer, girls (or boys), the lack of trees outside, how the wind always blows, and sometimes we’ve debated whether Sponge Bob is cooler than Patrick Starfish.
  3. “When you lie down.”  This is bedtime. When we enter our kid’s bedrooms, we are really entering their world.  We’re entering sacred space, and as our kids get older and older this space will become more sacred.  This is the time to be my kid’s counselor, and listener.  Bedtime gives me a unique chance to listen, and to pray for the things on my kid’s heart.
  4. “When you get up.”  This is morning time. Ok, time for me to be really, really honest.  This is the hard one for me.  I’m that guy that needs about 45 minutes alone to gather my thoughts, and fight off my weariness before diving into conversations of any kind.  However, morning is the time that I have the best opportunity to coach my kids.  I’ve reserved morning drive time as my coaching time.  It’s when waiting in line to drop off my 1st grader at school that I tell him, “Ryan, you were born for this day.  You were made for this time.  God created and made you to do the things that you are going to do today.  Ryan, you are more than just a somebody.  You are a child of the living God!”

I will choose to Create a Rhythm so time together as a family will nurture our everyday faith.

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