Aligning Parents For a Vision of Family, Part Two
Friday April 9, 2010 | Orange LeadersHere’s the second part of a guest post by Andy Tilly, Orange Conference breakout speaker. From an inside standpoint, I will say that for many families the church for far too long has been the last resort for help instead of the first. Many times the church leaders end up being crisis counselors instead of […] Read more
Aligning Parents For a Vision of Family
Thursday April 8, 2010 | Orange LeadersToday we’re spotlighting another Orange 2010 Breakout Speaker— Andy Tilly. He is on staff at Cross Timbers Community Church, a multi-campus church based in Argyle, Texas, as the Director of United Students & CT Kids. Check out what he has to say both in this post and on his video. Perhaps one of the most […] Read more
Investing Big by Starting Small
Friday March 26, 2010 | Cara MartensI truly believe that prioritizing small groups for elementary-aged children and students is the smartest move you can make in your ministry for short-term stability AND to maximize future growth. One of the pictures my financial advisor drew when talking about money markets was a rectangle to represent a pool. Living in Texas, I can […] Read more
Helping Parents Embrace Spiritual Weirdness
Tuesday March 23, 2010 | Orange LeadersWhen it comes to parenting teenagers, I think “awkward” is one of the best descriptors. In fact, I think many parents give up on trying to engage spiritually with their teenager because of this exact feeling—it just feels weird. As parents, it can feel weird to pray with their teenager, unnatural to ask them what […] Read more
Required Reading for Creatives & Storytellers
Monday March 22, 2010 | Orange LeadersToday’s a guest post from Dan Scott. Click here to read others in his great series on storytelling. There are several books that I find myself continually going back to for different reasons. I would say that at this point, all of these should be required reading (or skimming) when it comes to creativity and […] Read more
Easing the Transition from preschool to elementary
Saturday March 6, 2010 | Nick BlevinsNick Blevins is another great blogger with a lot of insight– check out his guest post on a milestone in his ministry: One of the toughest transitions for a child is going from preschool to elementary school. Think about all the possible changes they have to deal with such as a full day of school, […] Read more
Don’t Waste Your Time Partnering With Parents
Monday March 1, 2010 | Orange LeadersWhen it comes to partnering with parents, as student ministries there are a number of ways we can end up wasting our time. We can waste our time in 1. how we communicate and 2. what we say to our parents. One of the things we’re learning is that information often gets tuned out, but […] Read more
Ways to be Old and Rad
Tuesday February 9, 2010 | Orange LeadersI was in a Compassion Trip meeting with a group of students and leaders this week when one student commented to the group, “Jeff’s rad … for his age.” For the record, I’m 34, “silver” haired (they call me the “Silver Fox”), and I’ve been doing student ministry for over 10 years full-time; by student […] Read more
When Church People Behave Like People
Monday February 1, 2010 | Carey NieuwhofYou and I lead imperfect organizations. And sometimes that disappoints us. As much as we think we’ll be part of the perfect church (or start the perfect church), eventually people’s flaws surface (including our own). Bottom line: Church people will always behave like people. If we think of the early church as idyllic, please read […] Read more
Do we stop to ask what happened next?
Thursday January 7, 2010 | Carey NieuwhofIn student and children's ministry, we say that what happens at home is more important than what happens at church. But do we evaluate our effectiveness through that lens? Read more
