Tag Archives: orange

Why Orange?

As we kick off Orange Blogger Week for September 2011, I’d like to address a simple question of “Why Orange?” For those of you who have been in ministry situations for a while, or just starting, I know a new idea like this could be confusing as to why to change it up.

For me, it is all about the heart of the Orange philosophy. The idea of Orange is combining the heart of the family (red) with the light of the church (yellow). These two institutions were began by God, and it is important that they are brought together. Too often in churches today, we are fragmenting our ministries. The student ministry, children’s ministry, worship ministry, etc. have no clue what is going on in each others’ area. On top of that, parents often have the mindset that the church is the primary spiritual influence for their kids, instead of themselves. The Orange philosophy is about dismissing these two concepts. Instead, the idea is to get all ministries on the same page, partnering together in support of families being the primary source of spiritual influence. The church should partner with parents and families to make this happen.

This is why I have chosen to support Orange, this is and why our church has adopted this philosophy. Specifically, for student ministry, this means that I am working with parents more and championing the family. In the end, it seems like a “why not?” decision for me. Why not partner with families in helping them serve Christ? That’s why orange.

For more about Orange, check out http://whatisorange.org.

Register for the Orange Conference 2012

Today official kicks off Orange Blogger Week for September 2011, To start with, I just want to let you know about The Orange Conference, especially since registration opens this week! Below is a TON of information about the conference straight from the ones who put the event together.

What is The Orange Conference?
OC is premiere gathering for church leaders in family ministry (preschool, children’s, student and senior leadership). There were nearly 5,000 people at OC11 from all over the world.

When is The Orange Conference 2012?
April 25-27, 2012

Where is OC12?
The Gwinnett Center in Duluth, GA (a suburb of Atlanta)

Where can I get more information?
www.TheOrangeConference.com

When does registration open?
Thursday, September 22, 2011

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Jeff Manion Describes The Land Between (Orange 2011)

Photo from whatisorange.org

What is “The Land Between?” It is when a girl gets dumped when she is expecting a proposal. It is when parents have a miscarriage after celebrating the pregnancy. It is when parents have kids in the middle of teenage angst. It is when you get a call in the middle of the night when your father has a heart attack.

Jeff Manion knows what it means to live in “The Land Between.” His mother died in an accident when he was young. His father moved the family to an affluent area, where he did not feel like he fit in. His father married another woman soon after, and she happened to be much younger. His father moved the family again.

The Israelites spent time in “The Land Between” while waiting to enter The Promised Land. In Exodus 3:7-8a, God says that He has seen, He has heard, and He is concerned. Further, He states that He has come to rescue. He is going to take them OUT OF and INTO… Nothing was said about “The Land Between.” While God is concerned, He will not always rescue you from that land.

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You are Important, According to Andy Stanley (Orange 2011)

The 2011 Orange Conference officially began tonight with the first main session. After some music and a video presentation, we were able to hear from Andy Stanley. His purpose for the night, according to him, was to tell us how important we are. In order to do that, he walked through the history of the church, showing us how important the church was all along.

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How to: Mobilize Kids & Youth to Lead (Orange 2011)

Many of us in ministry know the typical way things go. Parents expect to drop their kids off at their respective ministry and go on their way. Going deeper, many churches take this approach. They view the ministers as the only ones in charge of the ministry. While many have tried to change this, which has created healthier churches, ministers are not always the best at delegating. Further, many youth ministers are guilty of this very issue. Even further, they do not always empower students to lead. Joy Bowen led a pre-conference workshop on this very issue – Mobilizing Kids and Students to Lead. She urged that we need to stop basing our success on the number of kids in our ministry. Instead, we need to focus on the number of kids serving.

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Orange Conference 2011 – What to Expect from Me

I thought I would just give everyone a heads-up on what Workshops/Breakouts I would be attending at the Orange Conference this year. All of them are related to ministry to students/teens. A couple of the ones I am very excited about attending and sharing are the Breakouts concerning reaching special needs children and teens. I know that is an area in which many of our churches could improve.

Wednesday (Pre-Conference):

  1. HOW TO: MOBILIZE KIDS AND YOUTH TO LEAD
  2. HOW TO: BUILD A SUCCESSFUL AND SAFE SPECIAL NEEDS MINISTRY
  3. HOW TO: RECRUIT VOLUNTEERS
  4. HOW TO: CREATE A LOCAL NETWORK OF MINISTRY LEADERS
  5. HOW TO: “FREE” A VOLUNTEER

Thursday:

  1. THE NEW IN-BETWEENERS
  2. SPECIAL NEEDS: SUCCESSFULLY INCLUDING THE PRETEEN AND YOUTH AFFECTED BY AUTISM

Friday:

  1. T.B.D. WITH DOUG FIELDS
  2. RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

Head to the Orange 2011 Workshop/Breakout page for more details on these. I made sure to sign up for topics that I did not attend last year. If you want to read some thoughts about them, please check out my notes from Orange 2010.

If there is a specific Workshop or Breakout that you would like to hear about, please make sure to comment below or DM me on Twitter (@stevecullum), and I will see if I can switch things up.

What to Attend and Blog at the Orange Conference 2011?

Hey all you student/youth ministers out there. As a reminder, I’ll be attending the Orange Conference from April 26-29, 2011. Because I’ll be blogging even more this year, I want to make sure I attend the breakout workshops that you want to hear about. Check out the link below with all the breakouts, and leave a comment (or reply/DM me on Twitter) with the ones you want to hear about.

ORANGE CONFERENCE 2011 BREAKOUTS

Plans for Orange Conference 2011

If you haven’t realized it yet, I’m going to be heading down to Atlanta again for the Orange Conference this year. I just booked my flight, so it is official! My first time was last year, and this year, they have asked me to return and blog for them. I am pretty excited about this opportunity, to be honest. I don’t know what it will involve, but I anticipate a fun time, nonetheless. I am looking forward to meeting the reThink/XP3 people and others who are attending the conference.

Speaking of which, are you going to be heading to Orange this year? If so, please let me know. I would love to meet up. One of the things that excites me about Orange is connecting with others who are working hard for God’s Kingdom. I love to share ideas, hear stories, and realize that I am not alone in this. Let me know if you want to meet up. Leave a comment, send me an email, or DM me on Twitter.

In addition to my blog posts, you can follow me and my thoughts more closely on my Twitter page (@stevecullum).

Orange Brought Me Inspiration

Someone told me a while back that ministry is one of the loneliest careers. At the time, I am sure I had no idea what that person was talking about. I mean, I was surrounded with peers in Bible college who were studying and doing ministry, and it was some of the best times in my life. However, college does come to an end, people move on to begin their careers and families, and soon you realize that life is not the same anymore.

It had been five years since I had graduated college, and it had been about the same since I had attended any type of ministry conference when Amy (our Director of Family Ministries) told me she would like to take a group to the Orange Conference. To this point, I had heard about it, because we were using XP3 for our youth group curriculum, but that was it. However, I was excited at the possibilities.

From the moment I arrived, I was captivated. In fact, the biggest thing that I took away from the Orange Conference in 2010 was inspiration. It was amazing to be around that many ministry professionals who were going about the same thing, focused on the same mission, and shooting for the same ending — families turning to Christ. From the worship music to the main sessions to the breakout workshops to conversations with lots of awesome people, I was truly inspired. It helped me to get going again. It helped me to realize that we are not alone. God has an awesome team of individuals working for His Kingdom, and I was able to rub shoulders with those people for a few days last year. If that is not inspiring, I am not sure what is.

While the conference did help me tweak and change some practical areas of my ministry, the spiritual and mental changes inside me were far greater benefits. Since then, I have a renewed outlook on ministry. Sure, things get tough sometimes, but when it happens, I try to let God remind me of His presence. On top of that, it is not just me. I have an awesome team of youth workers at the church, and there are many others all around the world, who are just as passionate about this ministry, if not more. All that inspires me to be a better leader and a better minister, because I never know who God might use me to reach for Him… It might even be another youth worker.

To find out more about the Orange Conference, go to www.orangeconference.org.

Thanks Orange for Connecting Our Church’s Ministries

Last year, as you probably know, was our church’s first time heading to the Orange Conference. One thing that I want to thank Orange for is connecting our church’s ministries. While we were not the type of church who completely segregated our ministries, we sometimes did not know what was going on as much as we should.

Along these lines, our Director of Family Ministries and I are talking much more and working together more often. We both had a great experience at the conference, and we were inspired to take both children’s and student ministries to the next level. While this might have happened in time, I just wanted to thank Orange for pushing the process forward quicker. It is a great experience working with Amy, and I look forward to partnering even more in order to reach more families for Christ!