On this episode, we are talking about Swine Flu, Wellness Policies, Orange 2009 Highlights and One Prayer.

Hosts for this episode: Henry Zonio, Kenny Conley, and Gina McClain.

Listen now

Or you can download it.

Episode Table of Contents (approximate times to go to)
0 minute – Intro (including a plug for One Prayer)
7 minute – In the News: Influenza H1N1 (Swine Flu) and Wellness Policies
16 minute – Highlights from Orange 2009
46 minute – Resource picks for the month

Come back after you listen and leave your comments!!

“We are most like Christ when we are rescuing.” – Francis Chan

This is a statement Francis Chan (Crazy Love) said a couple of weeks ago at the Orange Conference. It is perhaps one of the truest things I’ve ever heard with regards to living like Jesus.

His talk focused on the difference between content and practice. He compared the uneducated apostles in Acts with the educated Christians of today. He called us out on the carpet saying that these uneducated men and women in Acts perform and speak amazing things in the power of the Holy Spirit when the educated Christians of today don’t even walk across their street to share Jesus with their neighbors.

Ouch.

His discussion landed on several questions and statements that have been keeping me awake at night.

Have we lost that first love we had when we knew nothing about Jesus except the joy of what he’s done for us?

Are we slowly trying to get our folks to become “normal” by giving them more and more knowledge rather than spurring them to live out radical faith?

Sure educate people, but DON’T stifle their heart for the world around them!

Don’t talk people out of living for eternity.

Wow.

What is our goal in family ministries? When we talk with children and students about Jesus what are we REALLY teaching them? Hopefully we are encouraging them to become rescuers.

We all need to face the reality that the question might not be, “WHAT are you teaching?”

More likely, the question is, “HOW are we teaching our kids to use what we are teaching?”

Ultimately content is only content if there is no drive and practical way to put that into practice.

Now I maybe preaching to the choir, but even I have to think about how much time I put into programming and packaging our content. What are we sacrificing for the show? I’ve been pondering about what our ministry might look like if I put that same amount of time and effort into creating small (or large) service projects to support all of that programming. And as a result, I get excited while thinking about what would happen in the lives of our kids, families, and communities.

I really think that we need to give our kids opportunities to practice rescuing. After all, who said this all had to wait until they grow older?

Just for kicks, here are some ideas we’ve done in the past:

We support an amazing man and his home for kids in Kenya Africa: Charles Mulli and the Mully Children’s Family. Last Christmas our kids raised money to help build this library for the kids there. I saw this first hand and marveled at the fact that kids shoveled and raked and worked themselves to make education possible for 800 kids in Kenya, Africa. Rescuing.

We’ve started in the past few years to write in some small group activities that allow kids to participate in service. We budget for about one project every three months or so. These are pictures from our projects for Kid’s Food Basket, a local organization that provides sack dinners and snacks for kids on the free lunch program, most of whom would only get one meal a day without KFB. Rescuing.

Literally almost a TON of trail mix for snack bags.

Bags the kids decorated. They will pack the dinners in these bags. Now seriously, how fun would it be to get one of these?

We also partnered with a local crisis pregnancy center and had the small groups create blankets for kids and mothers. This was a great activity that ended up being a great catalyst for conversation as boys and girls were “mindlessly” tying knots. Rescuing.

We have by no means figured this whole thing out. We’re on a journey to help even kids become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.

We need more ideas of how to make this happen. What are YOU doing?!

I really like Orange.

I like the color, I like the fruit, and I liked the conference Orange that we attended last week.  (We, being Blaine otherwise known as Senior Pastor, and Joel, who would be the Children’s guy.)

But I have to say after reflection that the one word I am using to describe to people who ask how our week in the greater ATL went:  Unremarkable.

There were lots of things that I liked.  The check-in procedure was incredibly smooth.  (All macs!)

The stage audio/video was first rate.

Everything had pop, pizzaz, and was done in a fun, yet worshipful way, from the singing to Lanny Donaho, who I saw for the first time in over a decade.

I even like the Orange concept, although it is not the only model, nor do they claim to be, I think.  (It is hard to know, because everything was orange.)  I would even recommend it if someone is looking for a model of ministry.  It has research, and application to back it up.

It was just unremarkable.

Francis Chan was incredible, as always.  Reggie Joiner (the man of Orange) was good in talking about our pictures of family.  I really liked the discussion with Andy Stanley and Perry Noble.  My breakouts has good information.  Nancy Beach tackled the role of women in ministry in a thoughtful way.

But I didn’t really come back with a wow or aha! moment.  And that is what I missed.

Upon further review, no one opened up the Word, and really brought anything out to me that said, Wow! here is something new or fresh from God’s Word.

Reggie looked at Deut 6, and used that as a jumping off point.  His comment about there not being any normal families in scripture was good.

Don’t get me wrong.  Everything was Biblical.  It just wasn’t Bible.  And maybe it didn’t need to be.

But maybe that is why I feel it was unremarkable…

So I’m in Atlanta for this thing teaching us how to get parents involved with the spiratual growth of their kids and working with the church. So far it’s been good. Hear from one really good speaker, a pastor named Francis Chan. He was very interesting. Other than that I’ve gone to two breakouts one on connecting with parents as a small group leader and one on connecting to the next generation. The were ok and I got some out of them but not too much. Most of it was stuff I had heard before but some of it got me thinking. What could we as a church or me do to connect better with the parents of kids in my small group.

I’m all geeked up about going to Orange! It is one of the premier conferences for family ministry and just so happens to be in my back yard at Gwinnet Arena. There is already a buzz out there in twitterland and I know the tweets are going to blow up in the next few days.

What I’m looking forward to…

Connection: It will be awesome to connect with new, like-minded friends and making newer ones. I plan on being at this Tweet-up tomorrow night. Here I will connect face-to-face with this guy and this guy and many others. At Orange I also plan on reconnecting with this guy and this guy. Connection is good!

Team-building: We’ve got a great team from our church going (8 total). Orange will give me a chance to build on the relationships within our team and learn what drives their passion for family ministry.

Insight: With a plethora of workshops, I know we will come back with many new ideas and plans to implement at our church to make us more effective. Practical application will not be lacking!

Inspiration: The worship and general session speakers are going to be awesome! I’ve already posted that I’m a Phil Wickham fan here and here. I’m also a Francis Chan fan (evidenced here and here). I’m praying not only for our team, but that all family ministry leaders in attendance will be inspired to dream BIG!

Orange is in the Horizon… and I LIKE it! Hope to see you there!

If I had a magic wand that would work out all the minor details for me (like provide the $500 plus bucks it would take, set up the frequent flier ticket, watch my children for me, etc.), I would LOVE to be at the Orange Conference in Atlanta next week. First hearing about this 252Basics thing from a blogger friend of mine a few years back, I have been intrigued by reThink ever since. It’s expensive, but I enjoy tooling around their site & “picking their brain” for ideas. I think this is their second year of conferencing & some of the breakout sessions sound awesome.

Here’s a sample of one of the sessions synopsis:

“How to Awaken Spiritual Parenting in Today’s Families – Parents are being awakened to their God-Given roles to be the spiritual nurturers of their children. But most parents feel inferior and ill-equipped for such a role. How does the church effectively come alongside their parents and both inspire and equip them to spiritually guide and grow their children, instead of merely taking on this role directly.”

It’s neat to see a curriculum produce some of the things we are trying to do in our family & what we feel very strongly about: family worship, sharing your faith in a real way, strengthening families to raise godly children, trying to help them see that as their role & not the church’s, etc. The church is here to encourage, support, equip, not take over the spiritual responsibility of church-goers’ kids. Here are a few quotes that especially excite me…
“…equipping parents with kids at every age level to become the primary spiritual leader for their kids – to partner with them so that the one hour the church has with kids each week is multiplied at home.”
“…creating opportunities for families to invite their neighbors to a relevant and engaging environment at your church – to see what happens to their own faith when they begin investing in those around them.”

WHAT IS ORANGE-OLOGY?

Orange-ology: Is the belief that two combined influences will make a greater impact than just two influences.

RED = Church YELLOW= Parents

RED + YELLOW > RED or YELLOW

RED + YELLOW = Orange-ology!

Orange is a color that symbolizes INTEGRATION and CHANGE. When you take the two traditional colors of red & yellow, blend them together & you have a whole new color, symbolizing what happens when you merge the church & family. It kicks it up to a whole new level when those two work together. *YES!!* “Every innovative idea and creative program will ultimately grow old. Styles and methods need to change more frequently than we are willing to allow. That’s because the idea of change makes comfortable Christian leaders nervous, and it keeps the Church lagging behind culture. As a result, we give a generation the perception that the Church and maybe even God are irrelevant.” Another *YES!*

Anyone have a magic wand I could borrow next week? Can’t seem to find mine. I wonder if they put their stuff on youtube or something for those who can’t attend the conference? I’ll look into that one of these days coming up & let you know if I find it.

On this episode, we are sharing some “Easter wins” as well as some thoughts on what to do about Mothers’ Day.

Hosts for this episode: Henry Zonio, Kenny Conley, Sam Luce, and Anthony Prince.

Listen now

Or you can download it.

Episode Table of Contents (approximate times to go to)
0 minute – Intro
3 minute – In the News: talking about Susan Boyle from Britain’s Got Talent
11 minute – Chatting about looking forward to Orange
15 minute – Sharing about “Easter Wins”
30 minute – Discussion on what to do about Mothers’ Day
44 minute – Resource picks for the month

Come back after you listen and leave you comments!!

Once again we are heading to the Orange Conference in Atlanta with the Family Ministry staff and a great team of volunteer leaders from Cross Point Nashville and Dickson.  I’m really excited about this years conference and the team of leaders that will be joining us.  All in all we have 17 people going that will come away fired up for Partnering with Parents and building healthy families.  Today I finally signed up for all the breakouts, here is my list…

Pre-Conference… Random Learnings from Thinking Orange… I know this one is going to be good, because Reggie has no description as to what this means.  Which actually means he is going to talk about what is on his heart in that moment.  I love it and can’t wait to learn from him.

BreakOut #1 Creating Large Group Environment… alright this was not my first choice, but I’m excited as to what I’m going to learn from Sunny Williams.  My first choice was Partnering with Parents to Build Faith Skills, however, I was slow in making my decision and this one filled up.  Our large group environments can use some tweaking, so this one is going to be good.

BO #2 The Father Factor… as a father I can’t wait to hear what Craig Jutila has to say about how to invest in and encourage fathers in their spiritual leadership.  Personally, I’ve never heard Craig speak, but what I have heard from many people is how great of leader and communicator he is, can’t wait to hear him

BO #3 Communicating the Family Ministry Strategy to Your Church… Carey Nieuwhof is a dynamic communicator that leads a Family Ministry driven church in Canada.  I’ve been listening to his podcasts and learning so much and can’t wait to sit in his session.  Casting vision to parents, volunteers, and church leaders is absolutely essential and something I can always improve on.

BO#4 How to Awaken Spiritual Parenting in Today’s Families… Personally, I really need to hear this one and I’m going to be a better parent after hearing what Michelle Anthony has to say about Partnering with Parents.

I’m also looking forward to the opportunity to connect with a number of great and influential leaders for meals and for coffee.  Conferences are a great place to network and meet other leaders that you can learn so much from.  For example, last year I met Michael Bayne, of Grace Community Church in Clarksville.  We just happen to sit down in the booth next to each other at Five Guys Burgers, and we’ve had the chance over the last year to learn from each other’s ministry and build a friendship.  If you are going to be at the Pre-Conference or Conference let me know because I would love to meet you.

Also, this year what I’m most excited about is having my incredible wife, Mandy, attending the conference as part of our team.  Not only does her presence make me look better, but she also is so smart in processing and dreaming about Family Ministry.  I can’t wait to learn along side of her this year.

So I have been asked to be a part of the Blogger’s Lounge at the Orange Conference this year in Atlanta, GA. I went last year with our Children’s Staff at Brookwood and it was incredible. Besides all the stuff you will see everywhere else, there is an extremely important reason for you to go. It’s called connection.

You can connect with people from all over the world who are in similar situations with similar experiences. God has given us an opportunity to tap into one another in more ways than possible. This is a way that you can take advantage of: This year there will be a Blogger’s Lounge. It’s going to be an incredibly awesome way to meet and greet some people that are making a big difference where they are: Here’s the latest list of everyone that will be there.

Carlos Whittaker – Production Director, Buckhead Church, GA
Twitter: loswhit
Blog: ragamuffinsoul.com

Jon Acuff – Creative Writer, GA
Twitter: prodigaljohn
Blog: stuffchristianslike.net, prodigaljohn.com, 97secondswithGodcom

Ben Arment – Director, Catalyst West Coast, GA
Twitter: BenArment
Blog: benarment.com

Brad Lomenick – Executive Director, Catalyst, GA
Twitter: bradlomenick
Blog: bradlomenick.com

JC Thompson – Elem. Production Director, Brookwood Church, SC
Twitter: jcsonline
Blog: jcsonline.wordpress.com

Kenny Conley – Next Generation Pastor, Gateway Church, TX
Twitter: kennyconley
Blog: childrensministryonline.com

Matt Mckee – Pastor of Students and Children, Horizon Community Church, OH
Twitter: mattmckee
Blog: mckeelive.com

Jonathan Cliff – Children’s Pastor, Trinity Church, TX
Twitter: jonathancliff
Blog: jonathancliff.com

Sam Luce – Children’s Ministry Director Mt. Zion Ministries Church, NY
Twitter: samluce
Blog: samluce.com

Gina McLain – LifeKids Pastor, LifeChurch.tv, OK
Twitter: jabberfrog
Blog: jabberfrog.com

Chad Swanzy – Student Ministried Pastor, Gateway Church, TX
Twitter: theuprisinglive
Blog: chadswanzy.blogspot.com

Rick Smith – Youth Speaker, Seminary Student, TX
Twitter: Rick_Smith
Blog: rickwsmith.com

Anna Meadows – Associate Youth Pastor, LifeChurch.tv, OK
Twitter: anna_meadows
Blog: annameadows.com

John Saddington – Creative Web Director, North Point Ministries, GA
Twitter: human3rror
Blog: human3rror.com, churchcrunch.com

So, as a former intern at Bigstuf and enjoying all the information brought by Reggie and the laughs that Lanny would always create, I’m excited to see the ideas and new things that come out of Orange Conference this year. So, here are the break-outs I’ll be checking out and why:

Breakout A: Orange-ology: The Teen Years- Part 1… Why? I work with students who I’m helping to lead people in worship and I could use having some more insight on students
Breakout B: OrangeOlogy: The Teen years- Part 2… Why? Same reasons as above
Breakout C: INFLUENCE: Moblizing the Next Generation… Why? This is what I do and I want to know how to do it better. We have 26 students in various worship bands that lead worship for middle and high schoolers and have led worship for over 8,000 at our 15th year anniversary. I want them to be awesome at what they do!
Breakout D: MESSAGE: The Art of Producing a Sunday Experience… Why? Looking for ways to better connect our students during worship.

So there you go. I’m excited about meeting a lot of folks I have connected with in twitter in real life, and excited to see how God will bring the team I am a part of closer together.

A few months ago I wrote a post “Why I do what I do?” This is essence is a continuation of those thoughts.

I’ve been reading Ed Stetzer’s Lost and Found this past week and came across this great quote last night:

“More than 70 percent of the unchurched age thirty and over reported that they attended church weekly as a child compared the 60 percent of the younger group [20-29]. Exposure as a child was not a positive enough experience to encourage attendance as an adult. For many, they probably had negative experiences. Churches today must realize the responsibility God has given to provide sound training and positive experiences for children in their care. Poor attitudes toward the church that are established as child may be insurmountable, even with the natural curiosity about spirituality.”

I often think why do we make room environments and children’s ministry bling? Why do we invest so much money and time into volunteers? I think that quote nails it on the head.
We love kids. We want them to know God loves them. And if it takes this:

That’s what we will do from here until the other side of eternity. Too much is at stake not to be excellent for the next generation of Jesus’ followers. So thankful that my team feels the same way!

Hey everyone just wanted to let you know that something big is going down at the orange conference 2009 this year! It involves all the people that are twittering and blogging from the children’s world meeting at one place to hang out and chill.

For all the details read the post by Kenny Conley. Awesome CP that I recently added to the blogroll. Go check out his site for the details!

My first real trip as a Children’s Minister was coming up and I was stoked! The leaders at my church decided that I needed to go to the best conference available and after talking to my mentor, I decided that the Orange Conference was where I needed to go. I booked our flights, hotel and rental car three months in advance to save us a little bit of money. The leadership was also allowing me to bring my Children’s Ministry leader with me. We really didn’t know each other very well yet so I was really excited about the trip. I booked our flights around 1:00p.m. on a Sunday so we had to skip out of church a bit early. Once we arrived at the airport, my ministry leader bought me a vanilla bean frap from Starbucks and it was amazing! We then boarded the plain and headed to Atlanta. After we arrived, we got our rental car and cruised down to our hotel! We were so pumped. We kept saying “this week is going to change our lives.” Once we arrived to our hotel, we plopped our lugged down and I proceeded to jump up and down on the bed. I felt like Kevin McCallister on Home Alone when he checked into the Plaza Hotel. About the time I ran out of gas from jumping, my cell phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and noticed that it was my senior pastor calling. I thought he was being nice and checking in on us.

Senior Pastor: “Josh?”

Joshua: “Yes”

Senior Pastor: “You guys haven’t left yet have you?”

Joshua: in a very excited voice, “Yeah, we just got to the hotel”

Senior Pastor: “I don’t know how to tell you this but…Josh…you guys are a week early!

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So here I am in Atlanta with my ministry leader who has absolutely no idea what’s going on. Once I get off the phone he was like, “So what’s wrong?” I was like, “lets go find a place to get some ice cream” because in my mind I figured that it was impossible for anyone to be upset while eating ice cream.

Just a quick reminder: You just have a few more days to get “Really Early Bird” pricing for the Orange Conference. After January 29, the registration rates increase. So make sure that you get your registration in fast!

For the past two years, I have had the opportunity to head down to Atlanta and hang out with some of the coolest student and children’s ministry people on the planet! This year looks like it will not disappoint either.

If you have never heard of the Orange Conference check out the recap video from last year.

For just a quick overview of Orange strategy, here you go. Church family ministries have roughly 25-50 hours per year with kids. Parents have about 3000 hours per year with their kids. How is the church equipping parents to make the most of the 3000 hours they have every year? That is where Orange comes in.

Church (yellow) + Family (red) = ORANGE.
The idea is simple. Putting that idea into practice takes time and effort!

At the Orange Conference, family ministries staff and volunteers learn from orange-crazed leaders in the field about how to make the Orange strategy a reality in their local church. The sessions are practical, encouraging and FUN! Many of the breakouts are ministry specific (youth, kids, family, senior pastor, etc.) and the material will be perfect for where you’re at in your ministry. You’ll hear amazing stories of God’s movement in churches and families throughout North America and the World. No matter how much I already buy-in to this strategy for the church, each time I come away from time with Reggie and the gang, I’m more fired up and convinced that Family Ministries is where it’s at.

This year keynote and breakout speakers include: Reggie Joiner, Lanny Donoho, Perry Noble, Francis Chan, Sue Miller, Carey Nieuhoff, Greg Suratt, Stuart Hall, and Dave Kinnaman. Worship leaders include: Fee Band, Kristian Stanfill and Phil Wickham. Check out the full list here.

We’d LOVE to see you down in Atlanta in April. Head to the Orange registration page to get more info on how you can get yourself down there! Let me know if you’re coming!

1.      We’re number 5 on the waiting child list for Ethiopia. Looking at the waiting families ahead of us, we think that there’s a chance we may be third depending on what boys are ready for referrals. This is going fast again! I’m so thankful for the adoption community in Grand Rapids; you all are amazing! Thanks for supporting us through our wait time!

2.      I haven’t figured out why we write so much about ourselves on line; I know some people think we’re crazy for just throwing it all out there. Maybe it’s an outlet or a way to be transparent and share our lives with people who want to live in our “community.” We don’t write for the blessings we’ve received over the past week. You are amazing. We’ve received all sorts of love in the form of cards, emails, comments, checks (SERIOUSLY?!), and clothing donations for the big sale! I’m completely overwhelmed with thanks.

3.      The Fiction Family album finally dropped on Tuesday. Get it; it’s good, really good. I can’t stop listening to it. The Jon Foreman (Switchfoot) and Sean Watkins (Nickle Creek) collaboration was worth the wait. Here’s the video for “When She’s Near,” but my favorite track on the album is “Out of Order.”

4.      Ditto with the new Andrew Bird. (Though Andrew Bird probably has less universal appeal – but all you who love indie-art-rock have GOT to check it out.)

5.      We have a new president with new/reversed policies that are already causing quite a stir. It’s going to be a fun four years in American Evangelical circles to say the least. In the past three days, I’ve received about 10 forwards asking me to boycott or sign something. That will be a lot of e-mail forwards over the course of this presidency!

6.      Liam is totally getting that we have a new president. Last night at dinner someone was talking about a president of a company. He emphatically interrupts, “No, Obama is the president!” Gotta love it.

7.      The first round of our ministry goals for the 2009/2010 budget year was due on Thursday. Crazy to think that we’re only six months into the current budget year and are already planning the next one. But that’s the way it goes I guess. Always growing means always trying to stay ahead of growth. I’m also thrilled for what’s happening in family ministries at Ada. With that said, it’s true. Ministry continues to become more complex. This is exciting, but it’s also keeping me up later at night than I would prefer.

8.      I’ve been living in my new office configuration for a week. Without a doubt, I love it; I actually feel like being in there  for extended periods of time now.

9.      It’s official: I signed my contract for a breakout at the Orange Conference in Atlanta in April. I’m thrilled to work with some of the nicest and coolest ministry leaders on the planet. If you’re on staff in family ministries, you NEED to get yourself there. You will not be disappointed. And it’s be cool to hang out in the ATL. Also excited because it looks like I’ll be able to take Jenna with me!

10.   Between everyone on our family ministry staff who writes scripts, we wrote 5 of them this week. OOOH! And we decided that our family production this month needed a cool give away… so excited about it! That’s all I’ll say about that; you’ll just have to come and get one for yourself (or at least your kids!).

Just of a few of the thing I’m looking forward to in 2009… in a guesstimated chronological order (obviously not in order of importance!)

Starting my new Moleskine.

I’ve gotten into the habit of writing every day. (If don’t already, do it. It’s been one of the best disciplines for processing life as it happens.)  I splurged and bought a daily journal for 2009. It’s been sitting on my shelf at work for two months now and begging to be opened. FINALLY, I get to use it.

Reading through the Bible in a year via YouVersion.

First of all, if you’ve never heard of YouVersion, you should drop what you’re doing (after reading this post of course) and follow this link and get signed up and started. It is Bible study in the age of web2.0. You can highlight, add comments or pictures or videos to your study. The cool thing is that YouVersion allows you to comment and follow other people on the site ala social networking. Somehow through a conversation or two a few of my Twitter friends and me decided to read through the Bible together this year. I’m looking forward to the community and accountability for my daily readings. We made a fairly huge commitment to each other yesterday… I hope we finish it! I think it could be a really cool experience.

Getting an adoption referral and traveling to pick him up.

Jenna and I (as well as a very large number of you!) have been praying for our adoption process. We’re on a list and waiting for a referral to come through virtually at any moment. We are learning patience and trust throughout this whole process. We’re looking forward to its completion and getting our little boy HOME!

The Orange Conference.

My job has allowed me to meet and hang out with some of the coolest people in the family ministry world. I’m hoping that all will work out for me this year (the adoption could change LOTS of our plans) to head down to Atlanta at the end of April. And if all goes according to my plan, Jenna should be able to travel with me this year and experience the fun herself!

If you’re in youth or children’s ministry in any capacity, GET YOURSELF DOWN TO THE ORANGE CONFERENCE! You will not regret it! I’m not kidding; you need to go. You can register here: ORANGE REGISTRATION PAGE

Launching a community DV:FX.

We’ve had a great time with our family production, and we want to take it on the road! We’ve been working on the details, and we’re hoping to launch DV:FX (Discovery Village:Family Experience) in the community starting in May with a couple more events during the summer. God has really been leading us in this direction. We’re praying that He works out all of the details and connections to make this awesome.

Speaking at Scioto Hills in June: Enough Said (right Aaron?!)

Doing nothing in July and August.

We need some serious Scott Family time with a new little guy joining our ranks. We’d love to be at home or the cabin or vacation just ourselves. I’ll have work of course, but we need to be together a lot. July and August should afford lots of together time as a family of SIX!

Celebrating 10 years together.

In November, Jenna and I will turn 10 and that is something for which to jump up and down and scream from the top of our lungs! Hopefully, we’ll get our presents early: a trip to Ethiopia and a little boy that will come back home with us.

Not to mention all of the spontaneous little things we’ll experience together.
I’m thrilled for this coming year. I pray you are too.

How about you? What are you looking forward to in 2009?

I’m still living on pure adrenaline. I woke up at 6:45 this AM when I was trying to SLEEP IN until 7:30. But I could tell it wasn’t worth it to try and fall asleep again.

I was awake.

Orange Tour is finished.
Everything is ready for church this morning.
I should have been able to sleep.

But I’m still hopped up on my body’s own speed.

Putting on the big show energizes. Seeing leaders interact with key ministry concepts fills me with hope for our communities. I SO enjoy working along side our amazing Family Ministry staff. Everyone brought their A-game this weekend and created an incredible atmosphere for the tour stop.

I wish I could have blogged the conference, but I was here, there and everywhere making sure everything was in place behind the scenes. I’m not sure I sat for more than 10 minutes at a time. But it was worth it.

I know that family ministries staff and volunteers are now becoming Orangified. In a few of my 10 minute “rests” I sat with some of our volunteers and listened as they shared their heart for kids connecting with Jesus and and for parents engaging their kids. I could have cried; being a part of that conversation was a highlight of my weekend. I anticipate great conversations to come. And great ministry.

I think this is why I was up so early this morning. I’m re-energized for the task that is ahead of us. I just hope we do that task justice.

This officially starts Orange Week at Ada Bible Church. One week from today, our friends from ReThink will show up and dec-out or space in everything Orange. I’m anticipating cool people and great conversations.

If you’re even remotely close to the Grand Rapids area and have a passion for families, kids and students, you need to be here! We’d love for you to bring your whole family ministry team, AND if you’re a senior pastor, your registration is on the house.

Hope to see you there!

We still have some open spots… You can register at the official Orange Tour site. CLICK HERE.

This past week the new Chris Tomlin album came out. There’s a track on the album that I heard on a Passion live album about eight months ago, “God of this City.” I remember thinking that the song was catchy, but I guess I questioned why it was written. God is not the God of my city or my nation – both of those are pretty secular if I take a good look at them.

Then I went to the Orange Conference.

Reggie with the help of a church near Scranton, PA told a story of churches that worked together for the greater good of the “city.” God was done with the redemptive story in the lives of dying churches. They all pulled together and are growing with leaps and bounds for the Kingdom of God. The story was amazing, especially since I have some friends who attend there and one who’s on staff.

Then the band came up and sang “God of this City.” And I got it. I broke down and realized that God’s not done with Grand Rapids either. I was encouraged to get back and get to work….

Here are some stats for you:
Grand Rapids Population is roughly 200,000.
About 75,000 families in Grand Rapids are unchurched
Meaning about 50,000 kids who basically have no idea who Jesus is.

God’s not done with Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I listened to the song again this week when I purchased the new album for walk-in music for our kid’s environments. I was sitting at my desk and got all filled up and realized something: This is why I put in 60 hours this week.

God’s not done with Grand Rapids, Michigan.

He’s not done with New York City, Williamsburg, Barrie, Seattle, Cedar Rapids…
Name your city: there is still work to do…

This week has been crazy. Work that was planned. Work that wasn’t. But all work that is leading up to this evening and tomorrow morning. Fall launch series are happening all over the world. Thousands of Christian leaders have put in long weeks because of the fact that there is something so much more at stake than just good programming. I’ve got 50,000 kids who need Jesus.

Here are the lyrics:

You’re the God of this city
You’re the King of these people
You’re the Lord of this nation
You Are

For there is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

Greater things have yet to come
Great things are still to be done
In this city
Greater things are still to come
And greater things are still to be done here

You’re the Lord of Creation
The Creator of all things
You’re the King above all Kings
You Are

You’re the strength in our weakness
You’re the love to the broken
You’re the joy in the sadness
You Are

Greater things have yet to come
Great things are still to be done
In this city
Where glory shines from hearts alive
With praise for you and love for you
In this city

Greater things have yet to come
Great things are still to be done
In this city
Greater things are still to come
And greater things are still to be done here

This will sound like I’m name dropping.  Not trying too – it’s just what happened today.  

Today I had lunch with Steve Fee who is a really good friend of mine. Because we are at BigStuf Camps in Daytona Beach – a couple of people happen to be at the same place to eat. Francis Chan and Reggie Joiner.

As we sat down we realized Francis and Reggie were across the restaurant. We then appropriately ordered 2 pounds of crab legs a piece and said to our waitress. “You see the guy in the black shirt (Reggie), go ahead and put this on his tab.” Of course we did it as a joke but being the nice guy Reggie is – he gladly picked it up. What’s was really funny was seeing their faces when the waitress walks past their table with our stacks of crab legs. Francis freaks out because he’d ordered a salad or something, and comes over and takes care of some of our clusters. So thank you Reggie for the great meal and good times.

Ok check out my photo here of Don at Orange:

Now check out the main site pic happening at The Orange Conference’s site!

That’s awesome, I just wish it had a link that brought you here to my blog