Growing Kids Ministry

All posts tagged Think Orange

Putting “Thinking Orange” into Practice

By Lindsey | March 20, 2010 | My Thoughts, Reviews | 4 Comments

Talking with a Parent

I’ve been thinking about praying a lot about this “Think Orange” book. I’ve often tried to include parents in the ministry, but only if they came to the church already. Sure if guest parents showed up for a special function I would make my way over (often with high anxiety) to say hi and thank them for coming. However, I never really sought them out in any other way. We’re starting an Appleseeds program (mentoring group for preteen girls) and one church member encouraged me to call the parents of one of the girls. She comes regularly to our Wednesday night program, but her parents have never attended. I called and talked with her dad about the program and said we’d love to have her. It was a very pleasant conversation, leaving me to wonder why I had been putting it off so long. What is it about “outside” parents that leaves me shaking in my shoes? Why have I become so accustomed to taking the easy way out? Where is my heart for outreach, for SEEKING and saving the lost. I’d rather just wait for the lost to wander into the church first, and then I’d be happy to help save them! Somehow, I just don’t think that’s what Christ had in mind. I hope this book will help change my perspective, my motivation, and cause me not to be content to wait around for the lost to find me.

More in this series:
Putting It Into Practice
The Church’s Responsibility
The Family’s Job
More for the Family
When to Talk to Your Kids about God
Get Others to Help
Think Orange Book Review

Think Orange by Reggie Joiner: Book Review

By Lindsey | March 19, 2010 | Parents, Reviews | 4 Comments

I recently started reading the book “Think Orange” by Reggie Joiner. It talked about the power of combining church (yellow) and family (red) to produce a more powerful force (orange) than either could be alone. After a funny and offbeat introduction, Reggie begins his dicussions with some “Orange-ology”. He explains that “The premise of this book is simple: As long as churches do only what they are doing, they will get only results they are presently getting.” The same goes for the family. There are failures in both homes and churches — churches are losing influence and families are disintegrating — so what is the solution? Step up the force on both sides? Or how about combining forces for a whole new way of thinking? This is Thinking Orange. This is not another “family based ministry” approach. This is a way of thinking that could lead to radical and controversial changes. Many churches and families are already working on the same thing — trying to raise good and Christ-centered kids. But, as Reggie explains “working on the same thing at the same time is not as effective as working on the same thing at the same time with the same strategy” (p26). Join me as I continue to work through this book, review my current methods, hopefully make some more effective changes and see kids come to Christ!