You can try two months of their curriculum, plus all the videos and music. You’ll also get the posters, giveaways, and social media package. And of course you’ll get a great explanation of the Orange strategy with a video series and an Orange Specialist who can answer all your questions. If you haven’t tried Orange before now is a great time.

Environments and 252 Basics Curriculum

Lisa Molite, our elementary director, has a gift for creating great environments. Our church has been Orange since inception, and some years ago the elementary curriculum (252 Basics) began to include a specific theme to go with the primary focus of the content for each month. Since then, our church, along with thousands of others, have re-designed our elementary environment each month to go with the theme.

We felt like it would be great to collaborate each month with churches using 252 Basics, as well as provide a resource site that any children’s ministry staff and volunteers would find helpful in creating environments.

Introducing ReadySetSunday.com

Ready Set Sunday is a new website Lisa Molite runs. You’ll find tools, tips, supplies, as well as monthly posts specific to how we design our environment each month for the 252 Basics theme. Our hope is that you’ll share your ideas, plan and pictures as well, and Ready Set Sunday can become a true collaborative site that will help all of our churches create the best environments possible.

Click the picture below to head over to Ready Set Sunday and check it out. Be sure to subscribe.

On Friday, May 17 from 12-2:30PM we’re inviting all pastors, student ministry staff/volunteers and children’s ministry staff/volunteers to a Family Ministry Q&A with Carey Nieuwhof at Community Christian Church.

Carey is the co-author of Parenting Beyond Your Capacity (with Reggie Joiner) and a contributing author on OrangeParents.org. Carey serves as Pastor of Connexus Community Church north of Toronto. I know Carey personally and he has a ton of wisdom for parents AND church leaders. Carey originally led 3 small congregations (at the same time), before transitioning them all into one rapidly growing church. The changes he ushered in are extremely rare in church world. His new book Leading Change Without Losing It is a great resource for pastors and shares what he learned over the years of leading change.

Few pastors value family ministry as much as Carey. This Q&A will be a great thing for you, your team and your pastor to attend.

I hope to see you on May 17!

Session 7

Perry Noble

• It’s our availability, not our ability, that matters to children and students.
• 1 Samuel 3
• God uses jacked up people.
• If someone thinks that children’s ministry and student ministry are dead, they’re obviously not serving there.
• Perry’s church pays the way for all students to go on trips. They are not required to raise money.
• Nobody is “just” a volunteer.
• Sometimes the next generation can’t see Jesus because of the environment we put them in. It should be clean, safe and fun.
• God’s voice always gets louder when he pursues us.
• If we’re available, God can use us to make a bigger difference than we can ever imagine.

Session 5

Sherry Surratt

Sherry is the CEO of MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) and recently released the book (coauthoried with Jenni Catron) Just lead! A No Whining, No Complaining, No Nonsense Practical Guide for Women Leaders in the Church.

• Sherry challenged men to utilize the incredible female leaders in their church. She pointed out that many men will step up into a leadership role where as most women need to be invited.
• Women are leading all over the place and the issue of women in leadership can unnecessarily hinder that from continuing.
• “A woman leader in her sweet spot of leading will change the world.”

Doug Fields

• Doug has seen a lot of things different since leaving full time vocational ministry.
• He felt like his ministry work was like running on a treadmill.
• A great student ministry makes the whole church better, more relevant.
• Children’s ministry and student ministry leaders need to be more bold in leading up to make sure students are thought about when preaching messages.
• Student ministry forces you to prioritize relationships.
• Don’t treat students as the “future”. Engage them to be the church now.
• The church should be a leadership factory, and student ministry sets the stage for that.
• Students fall away from church after high school because they’re committed to a program and a person. If they serve, they become committed to the church.

Session 4

Bob Goff

Kara Powell

Breakout: Successfully Partnering with Parents of Elementary Kids

Darren Kizer & Jessica McKee

• Intentionally partner with dads.
• Applaud parents for everything they do to lead their child, no matter how small.
• Deuteronomy 6:6-7
• Community is assumed – Pursue Community
  • Create a culture that embraces a wide and accepting view of family and parental partnerships.
  • Redefine “parent” to embrace biological parents, guardians, mentors, grandparents, godparents, adopted families, etc.
  • Family must be protected, valued, resourced and celebrated.
• Visualize, celebrate, measure and equip milestones.
• Partner with parents through Classes, Events and Priorities.
• Darren referred to their family map again - http://parkerhillfamily.org/
• Develop a rhythm for consistent conversation.

Breakout: Viruses, Riots and Velcro: What They Teach us About Getting and Keeping Volunteers

Craig Jutila

Virus – The Contagion

• We want vision to spread like a virus.
• The “r nought” of a virus is a measure of how many people would be infected by one person that had it.
• We want a high “r nought” with our vision “virus”.
• A virus spreads with close proximity.

Riot – The Confirmation

• Riots are confirmation that something is going on (good or bad).
• The first person is the visionary.
• The second person verifies it.
• The third person validates it.
• 4th+ people show it’s become a virus.

Velcro – The Connection

• Over 60 million yards of velcro sold each year.
• Volunteers need to feel connected.

Who can spread a vision virus for you?

Who can start the riot for you, that third person who can come on board and validate it?

Who is currently serving that you can thank for connecting with you?

Breakout: Defining the NextGen/Family Ministry Team

Darren Kizer

Downloadable resources here: http://www.1semester.com/freestuff/

•  Family Ministry or NextGen Ministry is pretty new in church world (less than a decade).
• It’s our job to lead people to where we’ve never been.
• Darren’s church, Parker Hill Community Church, created a family map to outline their plan for families: http://parkerhillfamily.org/family-map/
• Darren uses the map to create a plan for staffing, budget and calendar.

Best Practices in Family Ministry

• Smart Clusters – Define how you’ll group kids and students by age strategically.
• Right Seat – The Family Minister needs a seat at the decision making table.
• All Plays – They bring their team together to do specific things (appreciation parties, baptism, family map day).
• No Pets – Move the pet projects out (your favorites). The Family Minister should value all the age group ministries the same.
• Staffing Structure – Design roles of appropriate size and style.
  • Lead as many roles as possible.
  • Give away as many roles as possible.
  • Staff should know whether your conversations with them are from a position of influence or authority (think about this or do this).
  • Decide to staff based on vertical clusters (like age groups) or horizontal pursuits (like groups, production, events, etc).
• Champion unity and parent partnership.

Extras

• The oldest kids always wants what’s next. Don’t define clusters based on their opinion, or you’ll have too many.
• Every cluster creates another exit ramp (beware of that).
• Every cluster increases complexity.
• Every positive has a negative flipside.
• Multisite messes it all up.

Session 2 – Words over time give direction

Ken Coleman

Andy Stanley