#OC12-Takeaways from Orange

If you have been reading my blog the last few days, you have seen my notes from workshops and general sessions.  Today, I wanted to share my takeaways from the Orange Conference in Atlanta from April 25-27.  I hope this is helpful to you. 

• What does our facility say to visitors within the first 30 seconds they arrive? (i.e. smells, cleanliness, parking, signage, colors).  I hope to process some changes that are needed to help make Hesston MB a more welcoming facility.
• What game changers in ministry or culture do we need to address? (i.e. busyness on Sundays, social media, intergenerational ministry, focus on Sunday morning, leadership, etc.)  We have already made some changes in some of these areas.  We could have a more organized plan for social media.
• What gaps are present between our children, youth and adult ministries?  Usually this has focused on curriculum, but one workshop challenged me to think about the areas of service and worship. As pastors, we will be meeting in the month of May to address these gaps and come up with a plan moving forward.
• Is marriage ministry reactive focused or responsive focused?  This means do we wait until couples are in crisis or do we have a plan to help marriages now?  Lowe shared some great ideas about simple ways to encourage couples to go on dates, give curriculum in small groups, and create excitement through big events.  We are already moving in this direction with marriage mentoring and Marriage 911 as well as Date Night Hesston and other large group events.
• Many publishers are creating God-centered or gospel centered curriculum.  This is exciting to me because I have been led in this direction over the last year.  Now, I will have some choices.
• Developing leaders from children and youth ministry for church.  Groeschel challenged us to call out the gifts in our kids and youth.  He posed this statement, "What 11 year old believes they can be a mentor to a younger child?  Those that have been told they can."  I look forward to working with committees at Hesston MB to provide opportunities for children and youth to serve on Sunday mornings.
• Sharing Orange vision with parents. We do not use Orange curriculum at Hesston MB.  We do not plan to use it in the future because it does not fit us because of cost and format.  However, I was challenged about the importance of giving parents easy wins and also repeating what it means for church and home to work together often.

How about you?  What takeaways do you have from Orange?

I plan to share some thoughts from LEAD One event at First MB in the days ahead.  Check back for ideas regarding vision, navigating change, generosity, and momentum.