I heard about some children's ministry leaders deciding to blog this week about Orange principles.  The idea started with Kenny Conley and I'm jumping in to share my thoughts as well.  If you're interested, you can follow the conversation through the twitter hashtag, #orangeweek.

If you haven't heard about Orange, you can read about Orange here

Like everyone else, I'll blog about the Orange Essentials each day.  You can read a much better description of them than I could ever write, here.  Today will be about Leveraging Influence.

Leverage Influence

Leveraging Influence is all about creating opportunities for kids and students to serve and experience personal ministry.  This essential is extremely important for students.  Anyone who has ever been on a service trip knows how powerful that experience can be.  There are many reasons for that, but one of them is that we get away and experience personal ministry in a way we probably had not experienced before.  We seem to inevitably connect with Jesus as we serve for Jesus.  For students this is critical because they are at a stage of life where their faith has to become their own, and not just their parent's.  They have to know they are the church as opposed to just attending or preparing for when they will be adults.  

Two of my most pivotal moments in my faith journey came while I was on service trips as a student.  For years I had attended church and learned a ton about the Bible.  But, until I served, I never really thought through what I believed or put it into practice that much.  I think those opportunities helped me see God's heart for people and that changed how I saw God and how I wanted to live.

We can't forget the importance of leveraging influence for children as well.  CCC Kids could probably get a lot better in this area, but right now the way we help elementary kids experience personal ministry is through:

• Simple applications of the teaching that challenge them to serve someone
• November focus on supporting a need through providing resources
• December focus on supporting a need through giving financially

Our curriculum provider, 252 Basics, provides ideas for the November & December focuses and we use those or do something similar.  

How are you helping children leverage their influence?