ORANGE

theorangeconference.com

I attended the Orange Conference in Duluth, GA a few weeks ago. Click on the link above to find out more about what it is if you don’t know. It was amazing. The main sessions were the best. They featured speakers such as Andy Stanley, Francis Chan, Perry Noble, Lanny Donoho, Reggie Joyner and others. The praise and worship was amazing with talents such as Steve Fee, Phil Wickham, and Kristian Stanfill performing. If you get a chance to check out Francis Chan do so. He was amazing and his message was one of the best I have ever heard. Here is a link to a short clip of his (not from the conference, just something I randomly found) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITioPFM5GlY He has a book out called “Crazy Love” that I am going to read soon, and I will let you know about it after I read it.

Along with the main sessions, I went to 4 breakout sessions. Some were better than others, but here is what I got out of them.

ORANGE BREAKouts

1

What Happens When Volunteers Go Orange?

This was about getting parents involved with what goes on with their child/children at their church’s children’s ministry.

* Four things that would change in children’s ministry if parents got SERIOUS about their ROLE spiritually:

1. We would start connecting with parents EARLIER to clarify their ROLE right from the start.

o Help them to IMAGINE the end according to Deuteronomy 6: 4-6 (⁴ "Listen, Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. ⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. ⁶ These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart.) Encourage parents to focus their PRIORITIES on what MATTERS most. Share how the church can PARTNER with them in their ROLE.

2. After their child is BORN, recruiting PARENTS to serve in our ministry would be seen totally DIFFIRENT than it is now.

*Serving would be viewed as free TRAINING for their role at home. Serving would make it possible for parents to KNOW what was presented on SUNDAY so the LEARNING could go on all week long.

3. Ministry environments would be BETTER resourced as PARENTS saw the needs FIRST hand.

*RENTERS don’t paint, don’t decorate, don’t WORRY about how the carpet looks…but OWNERS do. If parents understand the SIGNIFICANCE of the Sunday morning experience as they see it first hand, they are going to start acting like OWNERS.

* This generation of CHILDREN is known as the CHOSEN children, due to the fact that they have many resources at their disposal (technology).

4. Huge WINS would occur as two INFLUENCES combine to make a BIGGER impact.

* VOLUNTEERS would be convinced of the IMPORTANCE of their ROLE. They would take it SERIOUSLY, yet feel RELIEVED that they are not responsible for these children spiritually.

* PARENTS would be convinced of the IMPORTANCE of their role, but would feel RELIEVED that they don’t have to parent alone.

HUGE win for the kids. Both the parent and the SMALL GROUP LEADER could be working on the same FAITH skills at the same time so the learning DOUBLES in impact. Kids would take spiritual matters more seriously, because mom and dad think it’s IMPORTANT too.

2

Death By Ministry

The title of this breakout was a little strange based on what the breakout was about. It should have been titled “emotional health” because that is what it was about.

Emotional Healthy Person – someone who has discovered the love of God and is recovering from any pain in their past.

*Emotional health is hard and takes time

Emotional Health is Hard (components)

• Requires looking inside
• Vulnerability and authenticity produce raw feelings
• Not many people celebrate this kind of work
• The results aren’t instant
• You’re human

Emotional health takes time

• Patience is a must
• Emotional health can be circular v. linear
• Old wounds may need to be dug up or healed
• You aren’t the only driver moving your life towards emotional health
• You’re human

The Promise

• Emotional Health is possible and leads us to freedom and wholeness.
• 2 Peter 1:3
• Growth in the Faith
• ³ For His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.

Roadsigns to Emotional Collapse

• Emotional Imposture – person who is fake, not compassionate, says ‘oh I’ve been there’ but really has no clue how you feel.
• Emotional Corpse – a person who does not feel anymore; emotionally desensitized.
• Emotional Faucet – people who have control issues; go from hot to cold; can turn emotions on/off at will.
• Emotional Toxin – a bipolar-like person; they are either really high or really low.
• Emotional Oblivion – a person who has a sense of confusion. They know they can feel, but they don’t know where the emotion is coming from. They are unable to locate the source.
• The speaker asked us to identify which one the previous we struggle with at times. I identify with the emotional corpse. Sometimes, with all the hate and bad things that happen in life and in the world, I just get numb to it all. If we don’t stay focused on Jesus and the ultimate goal, then we just stop feeling.

Good Health Roadsigns

• Discovery of the love of God again thru prayer, forgiveness and acceptance
• Recover from the pain of the past. Do this with a trusted guide/friend
• Embracing your story. Embrace the author, plot, unique characters and that you are the co-author.

Learning to Live with a Limp

• Living with a limp is fully embracing our unique limits. When we accept our humanity and become aware of our sinfulness, we can then live out of an authentic deep need for Jesus.

Moving Forward

1. be honest with God
2. be aware of yourself
3. be vulnerable with others

3

NERVE TO SERVE

This breakout was about getting the children in our children’s ministry to get out there and serve in the community and the world; to have the heart of a servant, just like Jesus. Nerve to Serve is a group that is a part of a church’s children’s ministry. The ladies who spoke broke it down like this:

WHERE THEY STARTED

• They asked this question: Do the children in our ministry really understand what it means to have a servant’s heart?

WHERE THEY WENT

• Matthew 20:28
• “That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage."

WHAT COULD KIDS DO IN THE COMMUNITY?

• The kids wanted to belong to a club that made a difference
• The staff talked to kids about what Jesus was about: meeting needs, healing, etc.
• They asked the kids “What does it mean to be Jesus with skin on?”
• Example: Kids decided to clean church. They filled the need of the church and cleaning staff (day off).
• The staff asked the kids how they felt when they were cleaning.
• The kids responded really well to it. No gripping, complaining. They realized what they were doing was serving others just like Jesus did and it made them feel good. They saw that they were serving and doing the right thing.

WHAT THE CHURCH STAFF SAW (DEBREIF)

• Kids came up with ideas to serve on their own. For example, starting a tutoring program.
• Kids saw first hand that not everyone was as blessed as they are.
• This promoted creative thinking in the kids about what could be.
• They saw an organic desire to make a difference originating from the children, not the staff.
• They saw excitement from the kids about meeting needs and understanding what that means.

4

HOW ORANGE ARE OUR SCHOOLS?

This breakout was about core essentials. It is a non-prof org started in 1998 by Reggie Joyner. Here is what it is about (coreessentials.org):

• Core Essentials is a character education program, designed for grades K-5, that provides simple, straight-forward tools allowing schools to quickly incorporate character education into the curriculum.
  
  The program provides a "value of the month" focus that encourages individual classrooms, the entire school, and every family to emphasize the same aspects of each value. Core Essentials is designed to synchronize the home and school by presenting values on which both can agree.
  
  We believe it takes an INWARD attitude to influence OUTWARD behavior. That's what we mean by values. A value is an inward belief or attitude that affects someone's outward behavior. The values that Core Essentials emphasizes are common attitudes that every parent and teacher wants children to learn and demonstrate.

Values affect behavior by helping you . . .

• treat others right
• make smart decisions
• maximize your potential

• Core Essentials® is a non-profit organization and was begun in 1998 by concerned parents and teachers who wanted to help kids by providing quality character building resources to schools.
  
  The first Core Essentials program was launched in partnership with Chick-fil-A® in about 24 elementary schools in the metro Atlanta area. Since that time, the number of participating schools has grown to over 1,000. By providing an affordable option to schools while delivering unparalleled quality, Core Essentials has established a strong network through local Chick-fil-A operators. Schools can order a version of the Core Essentials through local Chick-fil-A restaurants February through May 15 for the following school year. If there is not a Chick-fil-A store in your community, schools can order the Core Essentials Online program. Individuals and businesses can gift Core Essentials to a school through the Core Essentials Online Program Gift.
  
  Core Essentials, Inc., is the parent company that develops these resources and others that encourage character in our youth.

• What We Teach
  
  Core Essentials is a simple, affordable, nine-month, downloadable character education program designed for K-5. Core Essentials provides straight-forward tools allowing schools to quickly incorporate character education into the curriculum.

· Core Essentials is the result of the combined efforts of a dedicated group of teachers and parents. These materials are designed to inspire you and equip you to teach these values so that each student will . . .
• treat others right
• make smart decisions
• maximize their potential

· The program provides a "value of the month" focus that encourages individual classrooms, the entire school and every family to emphasize the same aspects of each value. Core Essentials believes that there is a foundation for values that can be shared regardless of ethnic, religious or cultural differences.

· Our goal is that time devoted to preparation for implementation of Core Essentials be 15 minutes or less. We present a “value of the month” program instead of a “word of the week” program because children need time and space to understand character issues.

· The Core Essentials program is structured around a three-year plan that emphasizes nine different values each year, based on a nine-month school year.

Highlights from the breakout:

· 34.8 million children spend 1080 hours at school per year

· Cost is $175, which seemed relatively inexpensive to me

· Another interesting topic an elementary art teacher brought up was bringing kidstuf into the school. She went to a church that did kidstuf and thought it would be great to use in the elementary school she taught at. She talked to the powers that be, and organized it with the church to start doing kidstuf performances at the school. Naturally, terms about God/Bible had to be omitted from the performance, but the core value/concept was kept, so students still learned the important virtue, just without using “church terms.” It was wildly successful, and many other churches/schools are doing it now.

· I would love to be able to do something like that in this area. I don’t know how probable it is that we could do it, but if we have enough people at church who know people in the schools, it is possible to do something like this.

· I think it’s a great way to show character education to kids. It presents it in a fun way that kids can relate to and learn from. And, once the kids find out where they can get more of it, it will help bring kids and parents into the local church that performs kidstuf.

· I have contacted a lady in Kokomo, IN where they do this to get some info from her.

· Just and idea….but I like it!