Orange Conference - Part 3 - General Session with Reggie

Great stuff. You can tell Reggie is very cool, very smart and has a huge heart! Lovin' it! I had to type fast so there are a few incomplete thoughts and a whole lot of bad grammer.


Orange Conference Session #1 – Reggie

100 years from now the only thing that matters is someone’s relationship with God.

You’re here for one of three reasons.
You know what you are doing is kinda working but you don’t want to miss out on something that’s kinda better.
You know what you are doing is not working.
We think what we’re doing is working, but it’s not and you need someone to come alongside you and tell you.

Reggie saw 11th and 12th graders “checking out,” they heard the same thing the same way for so long that they don’t hear it anymore.

Reggie brings out a sound/beat machine. When we realize no one is listening we have a tendency just to turn up the volume.

We think it’s working because it’s working for “us”. We’ve mastered the art of blending in order to make everyone happy. We think if we can keep people happy then we’re doing well. The problem is that no one really loves it, no passion, no excitement.

Sometimes we can convince ourselves that something is working and the reality is it’s not. Are we making it easier or harder to turn to God in our style of ministry?

Acts 15. There is a principle that should challenge us to rethink if we are engaging a generation. Acts 15 – Knock out dragged out business meeting that the Gentiles were not becoming Christians the right way. Brought Paul and Silas in from the mission field. It was all about circumcision. After much discussion, “why put on a yoke that neither me or our fathers can bear.” We believe that it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we are saved just as they are. Therefore we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles to turn to God.

REAL ISSUE: ARE WE MAKING IT EASIER OR HARDER FOR SOMEONE TO COME TO JESUS!

Five different issues to think about.
STRATEGY of the song (drum track). Framework for the rest of the song. A plan of action with the end in mind. Aligned working toward common goal and common end. What would it look like if we were all on the same page – newborns through graduates?
MESSAGE of the son (vocal track). What values, faith and character are they taking with them when they graduate. Leading and teaching with an end in mind. We need to reduce the message down to the most important components. Teach them the most important parts of the Bible, not the whole thing. Recycle it in a way to make sure they didn’t miss it. Synchronize the different age groups. Whatever irreducible core curriculum, teaching the same thing at the same time. If you learn how to play together, you have synergy that you’ve never had before.
COMMUNITY. Supports, gives feel (guitar track). They need a place to belong and people to believe in them. We’re living with a generation that is hurting, need to belong and know we believe in them. We can’t have the kinds of production that compete with society, but the thing we need more than anything else is the idea of community.
FAMILY. Highlights message (backup vocals). When you have a master plan where everyone is on the same page, you’ve enabled the parent to know a way to participate in the plan. Parents are saying, help me with a plan. I don’t know how to do this. Give me a plan. Also, tell me what to say. I want to collaborate with you on what you say. It’s in me as a parent to be a part of the spiritual formation of my child. The greatest gift you can give to a parent is a plan, a specific thing to say. You are putting another person in their lives that is saying the same thing as they are.
INFLUENCE. Passion and energy of song (bass track). There is a missing component. We think the best thing is going to church, maybe we have created the mind of “going and doing something” than “being” something. They have a mission of “being” something, they are called to be the church. When we make the decision that discipleship for a teenager is as much as going and doing, as reading and praying we will have a breakthrough. Watch the 11th and 12th graders, are they checking out because they’ve heard it all. I need to know that I was created for something else.

4 Strategies of Student Ministry
1. Keep them from going to Hell
2. We need to stop them from raising Hell.
3. We can scare the Hell out of them.
4. To somehow give teenagers the kind of weapons they need to engage their communities, to rescue people living in Hell, called to a mission.

If the church doesn’t turn the dials, intentionally and proactively, then who will? The reason you are here and the reason you’re a part of this, if you don’t do this, no one else will.

There is a story in the Old Testament of a man that got extremely burdened for his home town. Nehemiah. A man who had a strategy, a plan of action, took the initiative. The Israelite people were in disgrace, they had lost their meaning, they had lost their purpose. He rallied the families to rebuild the cities. Don’t be afraid of the enemies, remember the Lord, fight for your family. When the wall was rebuilt, it was an amazing thing. When the people of God experienced not just what God did at that moment and God did through them, they were never the same. Once the wall was rebuilt, three things happened.
Those outside the wall changed their opinion of who Israel’s God was. They lost confidence in themselves, because they knew the God of the Israelites helped them build it.
Within the walls, the people listened to their God and listened like never before. Ezra stood in the court and read the word and they listened INTENTLY.
Celebration like never before.

People will criticize from outside, complain on the inside, you need to decide the stakes are too high NOT to make the changes. People may decide to leave, it may be difficult, it may be hard. Can you imagine the children of the people who saw the wall go up, they were never the same. Our prayer is that something happens in your church in such a way that children and teenagers will never be the same. They will point back at the experiences they have had at the church as a reminder of who God is.