This past year, our wonderful writers and bloggers for Orange Leaders shared some of their best leadership ideas with the Orange community. Below is a list of the top 10 blog posts from 2015. Thank you for reading and making this past year our best year yet! Onward to 2016!
10. 4 Tips For Training VBS Volunteers, by Holly Crawshaw – Finding volunteers is no simple task. Finding good volunteers? It’s like a treasure hunt. But finding good volunteers willing to serve in the summer? Now we’re talking about needles in a haystack! We’ve been there, and we know a ton of other people who have been there, too. And what we’ve found is that the most important thing you can do with a good volunteer willing to serve in the summer is train them well. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the four best tips for training VBS volunteers. . . . Read more here.
9. The Top 50 Quotes From Orange Tour 2015 – # 11: “Children’s leaders, you aren’t keeping kids so that adults can go to church. You’re discipling children who will be the Church,” Reggie Joiner. Relive Orange Tour with these top 50 quotes.
8. Charleston: Talking To Kids About Tragedy, by Nic Allen – What a blessing and honor that God has entrusted us with the lives of those who desperately need us to make sense out of the senseless. Read more about responding to tragedy.
7. 4 Tips For Leading VBS Worship, by Yancy Richmond – With many great summer outreaches on the horizon—like VBS, camps and more—we want to help you use music effectively. Music is a tool for you to connect with kids. It also reinforces the teachings and lessons they are learning and will help what they learn stick and last a lifetime. Here are a few things you can do to help the music and worship times at your VBS come alive after you press “Play.” Read more here.
6. Avoiding The Pitfalls Of Volunteer Recruitment, by Jim Wideman – “Hey there, I’m no photographer, but I can sure picture you as a part of our volunteer team.” Okay, so that line may not win you any volunteers. But the truth is that we all need more volunteers, and there’s something people need to hear from you to invite them on board. So, how do you craft your message to cut through all the white noise? Click here to discover how to avoid some of the pitfalls of recruitment.
5. What Does A Healthy Volunteer Culture Look Like? by Adam Duckworth – Volunteer cultures made up of owners, not renters, have volunteers who . . .
Pick up trash when they see it on the floor
Show up early for the pre-service meeting
Wear the T-shirt they are encouraged to wear
Didn’t sign up to serve because they were interested in meeting their future spouse
Believe deeply in what they are doing. Read more here.
4. 6 H’s Of Self-Evaluation, by Jim Wideman – Leadership is a privilege but it also has its challenges. If I can be honest with you, of all the challenges I have faced as a ministry leader, without a doubt my biggest challenge is to lead me. What about needing workers? No, it’s leading me. What about leading up or ministry and family balance? Those are important but it’s still leading me. And when you get right to it, I have found that to lead me I have to be intentional. It’s something that doesn’t happen by accident or as a by-product of another kind of leadership. Read more here.
3. 6 Ideas To Connect Parents With Small Group Leaders, by Elle Campbell – Here at Orange, we talk a lot about the two most important people in your church: parents and small group leaders (SGLs). These are the most important people in your church because they have the most influence with kids. And because parents and SGLs have the most influence with kids, it’s probably a good idea to . . .
get them on the same page.
make sure they know each other.
help them partner together.
get them connected.
But . . . how? How, as a church leader, can you do a better job of strategically connecting small group leaders with the parents of their few? We’ve got some ideas for you, from leaders like you. Read more here.
2. Why You Should Stop Recruiting Everyone To Volunteer, by Ryan Bicker – Volunteers in any organization want to contribute, but if asked to work outside their gifting for very long, they won’t be around in two months, let alone two years. Read more here.
1. Volunteer Structures: The Tension Between Quantity And Quality, by Nick Blevins – Every ministry has some sort of volunteer structure. It might be an intentional structure designed with specific things in mind, or it might have randomly come into existence without any previous thought. The frequency a volunteer serves is a big part of any volunteer structure, including yours. Nick Blevins shares his ideas about moving from a volunteer quantity structure to a volunteer quality structure. Read more here.
