My Favorite #OC15 Tweets

Orange Conference 2015

I was not able to attend this year’s Orange Conference but I stayed plugged in through their live feed and social media posts.  Here are my favorite tweets from the conference:

Leadership

“You can only lead someone as far as you have gone yourself.”

“Time management hack: Look at your week and ask yourself “What 3 things have to happen for this week to be successful?”

“Saying yes to the wrong things is a momentum killer. Be willing to say no.”

“Language should be: • Relevant • Memorable • Repeatable • Effective.”

The first time you do something should be the worst time. Every other time you should be getting better at it.

“Never fight the battle of the “how to” until you have fought the battle of the value of why.”

“Courage is creating a stop doing list to do something better. Be intentional.”

“There’s an inexorable correlation between leadership and change.”

“You need 2 people in your life: 10 yrs ahead of you to show you potholes. 10 yrs behind to show you where the culture is heading.”

“You can’t fall in love with your method, you have to fall in love with your mission if you’re going to be an effective leader.”

“Change the world by investing in one life.”

“Celebrate what you want repeated.”

“Never apologize for having high standards for your leaders!”

“A healthy team culture, creates healthy church, which creates a healthy community.”

Volunteers

Church: we have the most important mission on the planet. Don’t apologize when asking 4 volunteers.”

“Few things are more demotivating to a volunteer than discovering staff didn’t set them up to succeed. Be organized.”

“Non-financial currencies to pay your volunteers: Gratitude, Attention, Trust, Empowerment, Respect.”

“Remind your volunteers often that even if they can’t always see it – they are making a difference.”

“Do we treat our volunteers well enough that they would recruit others to volunteer in our ministry?”

Taking Care of You

“If your only common ground with your spouse is your kids…they’re going to leave 1 day…then what?”

“Hustle is an act of FOCUS, not FRENZY.”

“Burnout doesn’t happen overnight. Passion fades. Your heart grows hard. Rest isn’t refuelling. Learn self-care, not self-medication.”

Family Ministry

“Parents don’t need something else to do. Give them an activity to do during times they all ready have with their kids.”

“For a blended family, attending church together 26 weeks a year is perfect attendance.”

“Reaching and keeping families at your church demands you plan and create systems so families can take next steps!”

“How to reach & keep families: Visitors will make a decision whether or not they will return within 7 sec of parking.”

“Only 18% of unchurched population fit into “traditional family” category. How does your strategy reach all families?”

“The church should be the BEST place that all parents can go to coached and equipped on becoming better parents.”

“One of the best gifts a church can give a kid or teen is to help parents have a thriving marriage.”

Connecting with Kids

“Kids will forget what you say, they will forget what you did, but kids will never forget how you made them feel.”

Next Gen Ministry

“Teenagers will never believe they are significant until you give them something significant to do.”

“The sooner you get students involved in ministry the more solid their relationship with Jesus becomes.”

You can find more tweets by searching the following hashtags: #OC15, #justaphase, #thinkorange.

Keep the conversation going!  Did you follow the conference online or attend the conference in person?  What were some of your favorite tweets or quotes?

Join Me For A Virtual Bus Trip!

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I absolutely love touring Children’s Ministry facilities when I visit churches.  I snap pictures (with permission of course), pick up literature, peek into every nook and cranny, and ask the CM staff lots of questions.

There are many fabulous churches around the country that I would love to see in person but doing that would cost a pretty penny.  But because of ingenious kidmin friends, we can visit 10 churches around the U.S. without leaving our homes (or offices).  How?

My friend Ryan Frank is putting together a virtual bus tour next month.  On May 27th and May 28th, you can get on a virtual bus, meet 10 kidmin leaders doing big things for the Kingdom of God through their ministry to children and families, hear their hearts, see their facilities and ask them questions.

And guess what?  I’ve been invited to be one of the 10 leaders participating in this event!  I am still pinching myself that I get to do something like this…it’s crazy!

I’d love to have you join me for this event.  You can check out all the details here.

Hope to ‘see’ you there!

“LET IT BE JESUS” Review & Giveaway

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The first time I heard of Christy Nockels was during the weeks and months leading up to the 2014 KidMin Conference.  Christy was slated to lead worship during portions of the conference, so I was definitely looking forward to hearing her.
I was not disappointed!  Christy’s voice was phenomenal.  Her stage presence spoke confidence.  Her personal stories in between songs were ones I connected to.  She was able to usher thousands of kidmin leaders into worship in a very special, personal way.
When I was presented the opportunity to review Christy’s new CD, “Let It Be Jesus”, I jumped at the opportunity and once again she didn’t disappoint.
The CD has a mix of slow and upbeat songs, all of which are worshipful.  I envision that many of the songs will become favorites of church worship leaders and contemporary Christian music lovers everywhere.  My absolute favorites are tracks 2, 5 and 6.
You will love this CD in church, in the car, at home, and everywhere.  Be sure to grab it when it releases on April 28th…OR…you could enter to win a digital copy!
About Christy:
As a worship leader for many years, she has been an integral part of Passion Conferences from its inception in 1997.  She’s seen first hand music sweep people into the presence of God in a powerful way. A pastor’s kid, who was born in Fort Worth and raised in Oklahoma, she grew up singing in church. She met her husband, Nathan, in 1993 at the Christian Artists Seminar in Estes Park, Co. They recorded an independent record with fellow worship leader Charlie Hall under the name Sons & Daughters that led to an invitation from Louie Giglio to participate in the first Passion conference in Austin. Christy’s voice gained a national platform when she and Nathan formed the duo Watermark, recording four acclaimed albums before that musical season ended, paving the way for Christy’s solo career. In 2008, the couple moved to Atlanta to become part of Passion City Church where she serves on the worship team with sixstepsrecords labelmates Chris Tomlin and Kristian Stanfill. The following year, Nockels released her acclaimed solo debut, Life Light Up and spent much of the next two years touring with Tomlin and Passion.
 
S O C I A L • C O R N E R
 
 
 
 
#LetItBeJesus
 Enter to win a digital copy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway.  If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win.  Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”

Taking Time to Savor

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My family and I are enjoying some much-needed time away this week.  Life keeps all of us quite busy, so it feels great to be away together as a family.  Sometimes I wish I could freeze time.  It already seems like the week is flying by and we’ll be back to the grind before we know it!

Yesterday, while enjoying my morning coffee, I saw another family packing up their car, looking like they were headed home.  I couldn’t help but wonder what they were going home to.  I don’t know their family’s story but I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them – their vacation looked over.

It made me extremely grateful that we had a little more time left to savor.

Savor a cup of hot coffee on a crisp spring morning.

Savor staying up late and sleeping in the next morning.

Savor an afternoon nap.

Savor sharing a hearty laugh with my children.

Savor a mid-afternoon walk with my husband.

Savor sharing a meal together around the table.

Savor precious memories with the people I love the most in the world.

With that said, I’ll go back and savor some more…

What about you? What are you savoring today?