The Best Children’s Ministry Curriculum and Why We Use It #kidmin #thinkorange

November 9, 2010 in CCC, Children's Ministry, Orange, Strategy with 0 Comments

At Community Christian Church we have used Orange curriculum in children’s ministry since before we officially launched the church on March 5, 2006. I was familiar with their strategy, philosophy and values and loved everything about it. One of the things I love about them is their commitment to acknowledging that parents are the primary spiritual leaders for their kids and how they go about helping parents through their curriculum.

First Look is their curriculum for preschool and is based on the 3 Basic Truths that God made me, God loves me and Jesus wants to be my friend forever. We hope all our preschoolers will know and believe that by the time they head into kindergarten.

252 Basics is their curriculum for elementary and is based on a different set of 3 Basic Truths:

  • I need to make the wise choice
  • I can trust God no matter what
  • I should treat others the way I want to be treated

Those basic truths are taught using the context of monthly virtues. There are 36 in all, so kids coming at kindergarten age will experience each virtue twice before they head into 6th grade.

Here are a few other things I love about Orange:

  • They are committed to serving the local church and they do an amazing job of it.
  • They are a learning organization, constantly growing, changing and adapting as they improve. It’s mind boggling how far they have come as an organization in such a short time.
  • They serve in churches. Their team is made up of people who serve in local churches implementing what they create.

If you’re a church ministry leader you’ll be interested in getting FREE curriculum from Orange. Click the image below:

Children’s Ministry Live #kidmin

October 13, 2010 in Children's Ministry with 0 Comments

I believe leaders must be constant learners, and as such I’m always looking for great resources. For those of you serving in Children’s Ministry, ChildrensMinistryLive.com is a good new resource, that’s FREE. Brandon Maddux created the site to be a collection of advice, thoughts, and ideas related to Children’s Ministry that Brandon gathers from Children’s Ministry leaders everywhere.

Children’s Ministry Live also has a podcast that’s worth subscribing to.

The Cost of Debt Is a Hidden Killer

October 11, 2010 in Finances with 0 Comments

This infographic from the Mint.com blog gives a good picture of what debt really costs. Most people probably don’t realize it up front when financing something. Click on the image to see the original to enlarge it.

Orange Week 2.0: Top 10 Reasons You Should Go to Orange 2011 #thinkorange

October 5, 2010 in CCC, Children's Ministry, Leadership, Orange with 0 Comments

I’m wrapping up my series of Orange Week 2.0 posts with my top 10 reasons you should attend the Orange Conference this coming April. One disclaimer though, my decision to attend conference is based largely on 3 things: our church staff’s decision, finances/budget, and variety. The first 2 factors aren’t known yet, so I won’t know if I’m attending for a little while. I normally won’t push something I’m not participating in but I’ve been twice and would recommend it to anyone in family ministry (including pastors).

Top 10 Reasons You Should Go to Orange 2011

#10 – Because you need time to be poured into after pouring out every week.

#9 – To hear a great Canadian accent…while in Atlanta.

#8 – Because you haven’t asked the hard question of why you do what you do in ministry.

#7 – Because Lanny Donoho will be there, and it’s good to laugh until it hurts.

#6 – Because most of these great leaders, and more, can help challenge and encourage you.

#5 – To learn new ways of doing ministry you haven’t heard of yet.

#4 – To be inspired to think of new ways of doing ministry nobody has heard of yet.

#3 – To take your team, which will exponentially increase their vision buy-in.

#2 – To connect with other ministry leaders.

#1 – Because you volunteer in children’s ministry at Community Christian Church!

Registration opened today. Click below to register:

Orange Week 2.0: Orange Conference Takeaways #thinkorange

October 4, 2010 in Children's Ministry, Leadership, Orange with 2 Comments

I attended the first Orange Conference in 2007 and went again this year. There were a ton of things I took from each of those experiences and I’ll share some of that here. Overall though, one of my favorite things about any ministry conference is connecting with other leaders.

Orange 2007

  • This was the first Orange Conference and my second Orange experience. As an organization, Orange was growing and developing very quickly and it was amazing to see how fast they were putting out great resources. That  quick pace of growth still continues for them today.
  • While Orange seemed to have some specific thoughts in regards to strategy, the speakers brought a variety of perspectives.
  • Donald Miller talked about the power of story, which he has done numerous times in other settings and it’s always a great reminder. But, that was the first time I had heard it and realized the truth of it.
  • Francis Chan spoke about what he had been wrestling with in regards to what it means to be a Christian and part of the Church. He also has shared this in numerous other settings but this was the first time I heard him share it. He talked about forgoing a huge church building project to give money to missions. His heart was on his sleeves as we had a glimpse into the big tensions he was dealing with. This was challenging in many ways.
  • It’s always great to attend a conference with friends and volunteers, which we got to do at this conference.

Orange 2010

  • I was flying solo at this conference and that’s the first (and only) time I have ever done that. It forced me to network more with other leaders, many of which I know from our local network or blog/twitter world.
  • The highlight of the conference was definitely the time I spent connecting with other leaders. A bunch of those people are participating in Orange Week and others are part of our local children’s ministry network or took part in a luncheon I got to participate in.
  • Rev Run and Reggie had a conversation on stage and it was easy to see why Rev Run is so admired. He had a bunch of great one-liners.
  • Perry Noble’s talk was my favorite of the conference. He spoke about the importance of family ministry from a pastor’s perspective. It’s no wonder NewSpring is thriving, if his whole church has that mindset.
  • Sue Miller had a great breakout on the importance of Small Group Leaders. As I mentioned in my Yellow Initiatives post, we have worked hard this past year to elevate our small group strategy in our elementary environment. The bottom line is you must do everything you can to cultivate intentional relationships between small group leaders and a specific group of kids.

The Orange Conference 2011 registration opens tomorrow! Click below to check it out:

Orange Week 2.0: Yellow (Church) Initiatives #thinkorange

September 30, 2010 in CCC, Children's Ministry, Leadership, Orange with 2 Comments

Yesterday I wrote about the Red (family) side of Orange. Today I’ll write about the Yellow (Church) side of Orange. In the image I posted yesterday, you can see the initiatives we have for children at Community Christian Church. Those primarily include our children’s environments, Baby Bay, Kids Kove & Discovery Island.

The key to those environments is not what you might think, however. It’s not the programming, the decor, or the fun games. The key is the relationships with the leaders and other children. At the Orange Tour a couple weeks ago, Sue Miller made the important statement that children do not learn when they are afraid or nervous. Like people of all ages, they learn best when they are in community and feel welcomed, loved, and known. The fun games, the great looking environments, the amazing productions and all of that are a huge part of helping those kids feel welcomed and engaged. But all of that is done with the purpose of preparing kids to have a great small group experience.

It is in the context of small groups, or more generally the relationships between leaders and children, where children have the best shot at growing spiritually. As churches, we need to pour a ton of time, effort and resources into making community, or small groups (or however you do it) as successful as possible.

In our elementary environment (Discovery Island), we intentionally worked hard over a year ago to make our small groups better and it has paid off in big ways. Kids are connected more to the kids in their group and their leader. Leaders are investing in the families outside of Sunday morning. Relationships between parents and small group leaders are growing. Most importantly, children know they are loved by God and there is somebody else cheering for them in life.

It was interesting because when summer came, and volunteers had some time off, kids really missed seeing their regular small group leaders. This is nothing new. Relationships have always been, and will always be the most important thing. The child’s relationship with God, with their parents, with their friends and with adults who are investing in them saying the same things parents are saying.

Orange Week 2.0: Red (Family) Initiatives #thinkorange

September 29, 2010 in CCC, Children's Ministry, Leadership, Orange with 3 Comments

Yesterday I introduced Orange and Orange Week 2.0, and today I’ll write some thoughts about the Red (family) part of Orange. The simplest way to illustrate how Orange works in regards to Children’s Ministry at Community Christian Church is with the image below:

One the red side, everything depends on the parents. We believe parents are the one’s who are primarily responsible for their child’s spiritual growth and the Church’s job is to help them thrive in that role. We provide resources for parents that come with the Orange curriculums that we use (252 Basics & My First Look).

Below is a video of how one CCC parent uses resources at home with her kids as part of a rhythm they have created as a family:

At CCC we have a long way to go in terms of helping with the red side of Orange. If you’re a CCC parent, or any parent, how else could we help you?

Orange Week Kicks Off Today #thinkorange

September 28, 2010 in CCC, Children's Ministry, Orange with 2 Comments

Orange {www.whatisorange.org} is an organization that supports churches in their effort to partner with parents in helping them raise their kids to be passionate Christ followers. The name Orange is important, as it represents the combination of two colors, yellow and red. Red represents the family, and the love they have for each other. Yellow represents the Church, and the light it should be to the world.

The bottom line is, it takes the Church and the family working together to impact the next generation. You can read more about the Orange Strategy here. The Orange Strategy is a foundational part of family ministry at Community Christian Church, where I am blessed to serve.

Orange Week (Sep 28 – Oct 5) was started last year and is a time when Orange Thinking bloggers all write about Orange topics according to a specific schedule. You can see all the contributing bloggers, who are much better at this than I am, here. This upcoming week was a great time to have one because registration for the Orange Conference opens on Tuesday, October 5.

During Orange Week myself and other bloggers will be sharing some thoughts about our church’s Red (family) intiatives, Yellow (church) initiatives, Orange ideas and our Orange Conference experiences. I hope you’ll contribute to the conversation by commenting and/or blogging your thoughts and questions. Check out the video below to learn more about “What is Orange?”

YouTube Preview Image

My NFL Picks

September 7, 2010 in Fun, NFL with 0 Comments

I’ve had an unplanned hiatus from blogging for the past 2 months. Blogging is one of the first things that gets neglected when time is tight. I decided to do something I’ve never done, and try to predict what teams will go to the playoffs and who will win the big one. It will be fun and will provide a good laugh when I check it again in February and see how ridiculously wrong I was.

For those of you that aren’t NFL fans, go ahead and skip reading this one :)

Here are my picks for each division, along with wild cards:

AFC North: Baltimore Ravens – Whenever the Ravens have a legitimate chance I’m totally going to be a homer and pick them to win. However, I do think the Bengals could win the division and the Steelers can’t be totally written off either, especially since they should have the easiest schedule of those 3 teams.

AFC South: Indianapolis Colts – How can you pick against the team that’s won 12+ games every year for the better part of a decade? The Texans will be good, the Titans will surprise but the Colts will still hold on.

AFC East: New York Jets – The Patriots and the Jets both have huge question marks in my mind, so I’m going with the team that should have the easier schedule.

AFC West: San Diego Chargers – The Chargers had been Super Bowl favorites for a few years but could never win in the playoffs. I think they’ll still hold on to their AFC West dominance though.

AFC Wild Cards: Bengals & Steelers – yup, it’s going to be an AFC North party in the playoffs.

NFC North: Green Bay Packers – Aaron Rodgers was great last year and will likely improve this year. The defense won’t be as solid, but should still play well enough to win a lot of games.

NFC South: New Orleans Saints – The champions will finally win their division in back-to-back years.

NFC East: Dallas Cowboys – This was probably the hardest one to pick as the NFC East seems to always be highly competitive. This year will probably be no different as the Redskins will surprise.

NFC West: San Francisco 49ers – Arizona will fall from their recent level of success, the Rams are rebuilding and Seattle will compete but I think the 49ers will win it, even with lackluster QB play.

NFC Wild Cards: Vikings & Giants – If Favre survives the season the Vikings should win enough for a Wild Card and I see the Giants playing better defense this year.

My Super Bowl pick: Ravens over Green Bay - The Ravens offense will have to live up to expectations in order to beat Green Bay but they’ll have to do that to even make it this far anyhow. From year to year, typically there’s 50% turnover in the playoff picture and I only have 25%, so I will likely be laughing at these picks in February.

What are your picks?

Where the Money is in America – Interesting Facts

July 22, 2010 in Finances with 0 Comments

The infographic below has some interesting facts to me, including:

  • Maryland has the 5th highest average-income in America
  • The top 5 states with the highest average income are all in the northeast. It’s no wonder that evangelism (telling people about Jesus) is seemingly more difficult in the northeast. Jesus said something about wealth and focus on material things making it hard to follow him.
  • The top 1% of people in terms of wealth own 40% of all stocks.
  • People who aren’t rich have more debt. The key thing though, is not to think they have debt because they aren’t rich. No, they aren’t rich because they have debt. In other words, if we could live at whatever level would allow us to be debt free now, we would be rich later….and we could use that money to plant new churches :)

Made by Online Schools for Mint.com

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