Orange Conference 2024 – Main Session Notes

Below you will find a collection of all the notes I took while at Orange Conference 2024. The purpose of sharing these notes are primarily for other conference attendees, as I have not provided any additional significant context for those not there. I hope they are helpful to those of you who missed something during the conference.

For others who did not attend the conference and are looking for a summary and more context, please stand by, as I will be posting a recap post very soon.

Also please note that many of the notes are direct quotes. My apologies for not indicating each with quotation marks.

Main Session 1

Jon Acuff

• Daughter recently told him: “Dad, you are fun size.”
  • Still hoping for a late in life growth spurt.
  • Hair still gets grayer and grayer, though.
  • “But every year, you know I’m here for it.”
• Here means present and rooted to the moment.
  • Kids are asking if we’ll still be here when they’re not good, funny, etc.
  • Jon’s youth leader was here for it, even when Jon was being a pain.
  • Will we be the person that will still be there for them?
• For means support.
  • Here for it, not here to fix it.
  • People aren’t projects.
  • We’re definitely not here for the money, fame, convenience.
• It is messy and unpredictable.
  • Often, we don’t want that, because we want to know every step.
  • “I’m not a control freak. I’m just a fan of certainty.”
  • Every day, kids have to watch a highlight reel of things they weren’t invited to.
  • And all of it’s out of our control.
  • “For most of my life, I was a high functioning athiest.” If you looked at my worries, they didn’t look any different than someone who didn’t believe in God.
  • God’s got it!
    • Jesus’ words on the cross: IT is finished!
    • We should rest in that!
  • There will be things we didn’t see coming, but our God did.
• So we don’t have to worry. All we have to do is be here for it!

Hebrews 13:7

• Remember your leaders.
• Consider the outcome of their way of life.
• Imitate them.

Danielle Strickland

• “I was trying to explain to my son the hunger crisis in the world.”
  • Son: I didn’t choose to be born here.
  • Yes, but you’re still here. And there’s a responsibility attached to that.
• There are moments we can choose, and there are others when the moments choose us.
• Hebrews 12
  • “Everything that can be shaken will be shaken until what can’t be shaken is revealed.”
  • Danielle: “We’re all here for that.” The church is being shaken right now.
  • We didn’t choose to be here, but here we are.
  • Shaking is happening everywhere. We are living in a time of existential crisis.
• Our location really matters. When we’re using a map that doesn’t say, “You are here,” is really hard.
• We’re living in a time when structures are being exposed and things are seemingly out of control and people wondering, “Where is God?”
• The early church had a theology called the perichoresis (the divine dance).
  • How they explained what God is like.
  • God is always present and working within community.
  • We see it first in Genesis 1:1-3
    • In the chaos, the Spirit is here for it, not coming to it.
    • The Father is speaking into it. 
    • The Son is revealed. John 1:4-5.
  • The invitation is to step into it with God.
    • Let’s not miss what God is inviting us into!
  • “The light is here! Let it come.”
• Mark 4:35-36 — The disciples went, but so often we don’t.
• 4 temptations we face:
  • Deny and reject it.
    • Outright denying.
    • Normalize it.
  • Avoid it.
    • Blindness: Don’t want to see it.
    • We often believe the truth we want to be true.
    • Also done through distraction.
  • Cover it.
    • Maybe the most on display within the modern church.
    • Hiding it is not cleaning it.
  • Run from it.
    • Cut and run because we can’t take it.
• 1 invitation: Be here for it.
  • In order to, we have to know Jesus’ power for ourselves!
  • We need to choose to go with Jesus and go where He goes.
• Mark 4:37-38 — The storm roles in and the disciples question.
  • “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?”
  • If we take the invitation, it’s filled with peril, resistance, and could be harmful for us.
  • Jesus tells us this is what the invitation is all about. It will be difficult and seem impossible.
  • Disciples’ biggest question: Does Jesus even care? Maybe that’s what this generation is really asking?
  • Those questions pop up when we get in the boat and go with Jesus to the other side.
  • We need to realize He is real. We need to go to the place where we are most afraid of, where He has asked us to go to.
• Mark 4:39-40 — Jesus rebukes the wind and waves.
  • Jesus: “Why are you so afraid?” 
  • Why are we afraid? Because we lack abilities, we may mess up, we may fail… 
  • Yes, we can’t do it! That’s correct! Where is your faith?
  • Maybe Jesus’ question is genuine, rather than sarcastic. “Why are you afraid when I’m right here?”
  • Maybe the opportunity is for us to relocate our faith and put it in the right place.
  • Jesus is here for it! 
• Mark 4:40 — Disciples regain their faith.
  • Who is this man?
  • They found their faith and put it in Jesus.
  • That’s the only way to the other side.
  • God is with us and God can save us.
  • This is the news we need to know and that the next generation needs to hear and know.
• Danielle: “May we know His power and His presence in our chaos.”

Main Session 2

Leslie Mac

• We grew up in a different cultural context than the next generation.
• Every generation has to kick the tires on their beliefs, values, etc.
• If we want to be here for them, we have to seek to understand what it means to show up for them!
• GenZ and GenAlpha are by far the largest amount of people in the world. So whether we choose to understand or invite them along, they are standing at a new threshold and are ready!

Kara Powell

• The pandemic has changed the way we think about sitting.
  • Standing desks
  • Treadmills in working space
  • “Sitting is the new smoking” (Mayo Clinic)
    • It’s actually worse than we thought.
• How much do we see people sitting in the church?
• No institution that works well with young people has them sitting most of the time.
• Sitting could be killing the faith of our young people.
• Sending out the disciples 2 by 2 in Mark.
  • Moved from sitting to sending: Following Jesus is less about sitting and more about serving.
  • Disciples were probably somewhere between the ages of 15 and 20.
• Build a “Faith Beyond Youth Group”
  • Sparked when we move from sitting to sending.
    • Jesus gave the disciples authority over casting out evil spirits.
    • Yes, we need to create safe places, but we still give them the emotional scaffoldings to support the visions that God is giving them.
    • Sent out 2 by 2 to support one another.
    • Don’t want to be consumers; want to be contributors and creators.
  • How do we actually do this?
    • Pay attention to how God is already working and send people one step forward.
    • When we move this generation from sitting to sending, all generations will benefit.
    • This generation is here for it; let’s be here for them.

Crystal Chiang

• Suicide rates rise considerably at 6th grade and peak at 10th grade.
  • So if we can just get them through 10th grade, we’ve set them up so much!
• Phase Project: Leverage distinct opportunities at each developmental phase
• Understand child psychology enough to help make theology make sense.

Dr. Dharius Daniels

• Jeremiah: “You deceived me, and I was deceived… Everyone mocks me.”
  • Makes an accusation to God of deception. Not saying God didn’t tell him the truth, but saying God didn’t tell him everything that was true.
  • There are some things that you didn’t tell me in chapter 1 when you called me that I’m now experiencing here in chapter 20. Made me say “I’m here for it” in chapter 1, but I didn’t know what I was saying I was here for.
  • The God who knows all things will sometimes refuse to share all He knows.
  • There will often be situations and seasons we cannot be fully prepared. So how can we handle the things we didn’t see coming?
• Things will rarely go as you planned! “Life be lifin.”
• So how do we handle what we didn’t see coming? We need to ask and answer: What do we do when we’re faced with what we didn’t predict and what we can’t control?
• Obsess over what we don’t know OR be anchored by what we do know!
• Axiom 1: Realize that just because you’re surprised doesn’t mean you’re unprepared.
  • Lion and bear, for David, felt like agitation, but when He faced Goliath, it felt like preparation.
  • Similar to what Mordachi told Esther: “For such a time as this”
• Axiom 2: Remember that God’s timing is an expression of God’s kindness.
  • About a friend who became a Christian and then faced crisis: Maybe a crisis was always coming, and could you imagine handling it without Christ? 
  • This revelation can lead to a minimization of our expectation for a explanation.
• Axiom 3: Remember that God is a good steward, and a good steward wastes nothing.
  • God is constantly repurposing things.
  • “What you meant it for evil, but God used it for good.”
  • Paul in Romans 8:28 — All things work together for good…
• God gives us information on a need to know basis, not a want to know basis.
• God picked you, is using your past, and is preparing you.

Main Session 3

Dr. Chinwé Williams

• How can you be here for it even when you don’t see eye to eye with someone? It’s all about clarity of purpose! What’s mission critical? But it’s really easy for the church to major in the minors. So how can we model for young people how to sit in the seat of discomfort and still focus on the bigger priorities?
• Anxiety and disagreement: Emotional distress plays a significant role. Part of our nervous system’s role is to identify a threat. But sometimes it’s set off even when there is a perceived threat. There’s a level of discomfort that comes from that, but it doesn’t mean we need to avoid it. But anxiety buried is still anxiety, and it will still show up in many ways as you try to ignore it and act like it doesn’t exist.
• How can we address this in our lives? When noticing any anxiety, consider it a messenger. Notice the quality of your thoughts. Then notice your emotions — what’s rising to the top. Then notice your breath (holding breath sends a message to brain to fear). Put hand to heart and breathe deeply. Then realign to a way that connects to your values. We can’t control the other person. But we can control our thoughts and our behaviors.

Rich Villados

• In order to reach this generation, we have to work toward unity.
• Philippians 2:1-11
• We divide over the smallest stuff, how much more do we divide over the big stuff?
• Our unity established through humility = Gospel credibility 
• Jesus’ prayer in John 17
• How do we honor our differences and still not disconnect from unity?
• Being united doesn’t mean we’ll see everything in the same way; doesn’t mean uniformity.
• Being united means we are of one mind about Christ Jesus.
• In his very diverse church, he addressed it directly: Do not see Jesus through your politics but you see politics through the lens of Jesus. Be curious about others who live differently. Live in prayerful humility.
• We’re often divided because we’ve centered ourselves so that everyone should see the world the way we see it.
• St. Francis of Assissi quote: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.”
• Humility = Seek the interests of others
• Gospel message is not just when you die you go to heaven. It’s that the kingdom of God has come near through Jesus, and there is a new humanity established in Jesus.
• We’re going to be in heaven together, so we might as well start practicing now!
• God reveals Himself to be a humble servant In Jesus. So if we’re going to preserve unity in the church, we must look to Jesus. He’s the one holding it together.
• Colossians 1:17 — Jesus is before all things; and in Him, all things hold together.
• The unity of the church is ultimately preserved because Jesus is at work holding all things together.
• Image of Atlas holding the world in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, but inside of the church, there’s a statue of child Jesus holding the world in His hands.
• What he is most hopeful about the church: Jesus Christ is building it and he’s holding it together.

Main Session 4

Shane Sanchez

• Do you ever feel alone in it?
• When life is difficult, where is God?
• We’re often tempted to rush past the pain to try to find purpose.
• A faith that’s absent of pain is parody, not authenticity.
• What if it’s when life hurts the most, we discover God is close?
• The Word became flesh… John 1:14 NIV …and moved into the neighborhood (Message)
• God is HERE.
• Now go and be there for others.
• We’re here for it so the next generation knows God is there for them.

John Onwuchekwa

• Most people like to avoid processing their grief for the same reasons they don’t like drinking their coffee black. They don’t like the bitterness. But if you lean into the bitterness, there are subtle sweetnesses on the back end that are there from the soil in which it was grown. Both are bitter, but both can be bitter-sweet.
• 1. Grief doesn’t have an expiration date.
  • Everything that you love, you will lose. This isn’t meant to be sad; it’s meant to be sobering. Enjoy it while you can.
• 2. It’s better to not think of grief as a journey but a language.
  • The goal of a language is not to finish but to become fluent. It’s about connecting with people who feel isolated. But it has multiple dialects.
    • Tangible grief (easy for people to notice and usually know they should respond)
    • Ambiguous grief (death of a dream, relationship, marriage, image of a hero; diagnosis of a family member; etc.)
  • Learn a language: Imitate someone who is fluent (Isaiah: Jesus was that man of sorrows fluent in grief)
  • “Peace is never found in the absence of pain; it’s found in the presence of God.”
  • “Shoulders catch tears better than your soliloquies.”
  • Here’s how you know when your community has grasped grief’s fluency: Look at the eyes of the people who are coming in and look at the floors. Tears flow freely but floors stay dry, because everyone has a shoulder to cry on.

Danielle Strickland

• Mark 5:1-17
• What’s the worst that can happen? And then a demon-possessed man comes at them screaming!
• Lingering question: Why did Jesus want to go to the other side, though?
  • God hears and responds to the cry.
  • Maybe it’s possible that Jesus is willing to stop and suspend his big ministry for one man who is suffering and taken over by the darkness that all he can do is cry?
• God is here, because Jesus will leave a busy and thriving ministry, cross over a sea, endure a storm, to respond to the cry of one person on the other side who is crying.
  • “When we dehumanize people who suffer, God is not with us, because God is with those who cry.”
  • We are ALL called to help those who are suffering.
• God confronts, names, and exposes oppressive power.
  • While we think the result of this power of God on display is revival, but instead, the result of that power… People beg Him to leave.
  • Jesus has confronted a demonic power that is personal but also bigger than that. Name was Legion.
    • Large group of Roman military forces were also known as legions.
    • Symbol of the occupying Roman forces at the time of Jesus: A pig
    • Who eats pigs in Israel? Romans, the same people who were oppressing them.
  • When fears and lies direct our lives, this leads to oppression.
    • 2 midwives in story of Moses didn’t fear Pharoah because they feared God.
    • When God is hear with us, He confronts the evil and shatters fear, exposing the lies.
• God is here to liberate and set free.
  • Jesus doesn’t destroy the pigs, because he only destroys evil.
  • The demons drove the pigs into the sea, because Satan drives people to death. Jesus exposes that.
  • God heals, restores, and sets people free.
    • 1 John 3:8
    • Satan is to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus…
  • Worldly power possesses, but God’s power liberates.
    • If the best way to describe your power is drivenness, you may want to think about where that leads.
  • Guy in the end: Fully clothed (dignity), fully…
  • Why did Jesus want him to go home after, rather than following Jesus?
    • Could this man have been so conditioned to follow someone that he wanted to trade one master for another.
    • Jesus: I didn’t come to deliver you for what you could do for me. I came to deliver you because I love you. 
    • Jesus sends him home, because it’s a place he hasn’t been for years, to be with his family; it’s the best thing for him.
  • When we pray for revival like John 6, but we can’t get there without the confrontation and exposing of demonic forces in John 5. [Note: I am unsure if I got these Scripture references correct.]

Main Session 5

Coach John Mosley

• Was on a Netflix reality series
• What makes you want to be “here for it”? What Christ did for me makes me want to be there for it for the young men. Christ had compassion on me, so I have to return that favor to others.
• We want to give great sermons and devotions, but the biggest ministry we can have is the example we can set for others we lead. How are you handling the things that life throws at you?
• If I’m going to make an impact, I have to go to their home and see where they are living. Maybe not literally, but we need to go to the trenches and see where they are? Show up without a camera. Are we really committed to the burdens people have?
• “Rules without relationship leads to rebellion.”
• Don’t go after the group when we can’t go after the one!

Dan Scott

• Jesus: I will build my church and the powers of hell will not stand up against it.
• Jesus: Love has always been the goal.
• But sometimes the church feels everything except for loving.
• Humans are sometimes loving, but they are also sometimes really gross.
• Change is constant and increasing all around us.
• “Because the world keeps changing, so must the church.”
• Church is sometimes loving, sometimes messy, but it’s also full of hope!
• Is your church still a meaningful, loving presence in the world?
• The church isn’t going anywhere, but are you? Are we? Are we here for it in order to innovate because we believe we’re actually the church of tomorrow to be here for the long haul?
• “We are the church, and we are here to stay.”

Eugene Kim

• Innovation: It’s just a buzz word, but sometimes buzz words can be helpful to indicate what’s happening.
  • It’s simply about problem solving. When you see a problem and you care about that person, you innovate and create a solution for that problem for the sake of love. 
  • It’s not really about novelty; it’s about love and kindness.
  • If we walk alongside kids/students, we’ll begin to see their walks and their problems.
  • Empathy is a big start for innovation.
• If you want to do something different, don’t be surprised when God wants to do something different in you first. If you want to change something, often the first thing to change is yourself.
• Humble yourself and make yourself available to God, preparing ourselves for how He might want to use us to be a part of the solution.
• We need to acknowledge and remember we are not alone.
  • It’s critical that there be mutual trust among leadership. 
  • Maybe a whole system cannot change, but everyone can play a role in innovation.
  • The church needs innovators to chart the uncharted waters.
  • How do we create R&D labs for practicing at a small scale what we want to see at a large scale?
• Where do I begin?
  • Start with love so it puts us in the right mindset.
  • Humility because you don’t know everything.
  • Gather people to explore the problem together.

Leslie Mack

• For years, the church was so innovative in music, health, art, etc. But what about now? What happened? 
• Jesus promised that the church is here to last, but will your church be here if you don’t innovate.
• Two responses: We can be compelled to do something OR be we can complacent.
• Parable of the Talents
  • Man was not being harsh. 
  • If you don’t do something with it, that’s the wrong move.
• Better question: What hangs in the balance if we don’t innovate and take risks?
  • We become complacent in the widening gap between faith and the future.
  • We don’t have to choose between church and culture.
  • We need to help kids/students see how their faith and culture can mix.
• As we think about innovation in the church, here are 3 mindset shifts we can have in the form of 3 case studies.
  • Blockbuster and Netflix: Decentralized doesn’t mean disengaged.
  • Blackberry: Just because it worked once doesn’t mean it will work forever. (Message/Mission > Method)
  • Apple Newton Plus: Just because it didn’t work once doesn’t mean it won’t work one day.
• If you don’t ever experiment, you will never innovate.
• Innovation doesn’t have to be this huge scary idea.
• Innovation says someone dared to imagine something that didn’t exist at one point in order to make it exist today.
• Alleviate some stress: Realize that every innovation is temporary.
• When we dare to innovate, we have hope for the future.
• Innovation is really an act of resilience. 
• Innovation is the evidence of hope.

Main Session 6 

Ashley Bohinc

• That thing that happens when a kid accomplishes something…
• We don’t have to teach kids to feel proud when then do something.
• We don’t just prepare to transfer information. It matters so much more when the knowing is connecting to doing
• When they do good things that matter, they experience a life that matters. And that’s the goal — an every day faith.
• This is what Jesus did. 
• It’s not just about getting to heaven. It’s about making earth a little more like heaven.
• We get to do this for every kid/student we interact with.
• A kid may never know God until they know God working through them.
• Let’s not forget to help kids/students know what to do with the information we’re giving them.
• May we never take for granted the divine privilege we have to cheer on the next generation in helping them  achieve what God wants to do through them.

Geoff Banks

• Tried to learn to surf by Googling it and watching lots of YouTube videos. Bought a cheap surfboard and tried it. As soon as he started, all the stuff he’d learned went straight out the window. Similar to when he stepped into high school ministry when the student went through a hard time. All the Orange Conference notes now just sit on a shelf.
• What if we could actually take this burning in our hearts when we go back home?
• Parable in Matthew 13:33
• How to bring the conference back home:
  • Leave encouraged.
  • Start somewhere.
  • Share it with someone.
  • Build momentum into the future.
• 2 Corinthians 4

Joseph Sojourner

• When you move away, everyone shares the highlights of their lives.
  • You don’t hear the whole story.
  • I know you think you know what’s going on, but you aren’t here.
• As you get ready to go home and do something significant. Going rarely goes as according to plan. And yet we still need to go because a kid/teenager depends on it.
• Friends: Ross first shows the plan to move the couch, but when they picked the couch up… PIVOT! And they eventually drop the couch. What happened? It was all right there on the paper!
• It doesn’t always go the way we planned. And neither does it for the kids/students we lead.
• If we talk about go, we also need to talk about stay.
  • Staying is comfortable. Going is disruptive.
  • Staying is familiar. Going is foreign.
  • Staying is safe. Going is scary.
  • But what if each and every one of us are challenged to go? 
  • We are called to go and make disciples!
• 3 obstacles that can halt progress to go (Luke 5:1-7)
  • Failure (Simon knows they’ve been failing all night)
    • It can erode our confidence.
    • It can stop us from looking forward.
  • Frustration
    • It’s easy to work hard when everything’s working out, but it’s different when things aren’t.
    • Frustration leads to agitation, which leads us to abandon our assignments.
  • Fatigue (Simon says he’s been up all night)
    • Jesus still offers instruction even in their fatigue.
    • Not doing it because of our lack of energy, but we don’t realize that our obedience to the assignment can provide the energy.
• Bonus: Because of Peter’s obedience, John and James’ boat was gifted.
• Paul: “Your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
  • He held on to the fact that Jesus was here.
  • God has given each and every one of us a light. 
  • This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.
• We go because He came!