(picture originally uploaded to Flickr by ePublicist)

At the end of August, the entire Family Life ministry team at MPPC (children’s, middle school and high school ministries staffs) went on a retreat–together–to talk about our shared vision for reaching kids and families. Never in my 20+ years of being involved in ministry have I ever heard of something like this happening anywhere! It’s amazing how those few days together built respect and trust across all of our teams.

Why doesn’t stuff like this happen more often? I’m sure there are varied legitimate answers to that question. I’d like to propose one reason for the chasm between the children’s ministry and student ministry worlds: each ministry acts as an island unto itself. As ministry to kids and families became more specialized with the dawn of youth and children’s ministries, church staffs began to build their ministries around their specific age demographic. They began to created their own languages, customs and values. In some churches this siloing of student and children’s ministries has even created animosity between the two.

I bet, by now, you’re wondering how this is ever going to be a post about Orange… Well, it’s this culture that Orange is trying to dismantle and redefine. Of all the conferences out there, the one thing that makes Orange stand out among the rest is the value of synchronized vision and strategy of ministry from birth through high school and beyond. Orange is the one conference where leaders from children’s ministry and youth ministry can come to learn a common language and come together to partner with families to help children develop a lifelong love and transformational relationship with God.

It’s not easy trying to forge a merger between children’s and student ministries. The momentum of ministry to families that you create, though, when it happens is well worth the effort. If you are truly serious about ministering to the families at your church and in your community and you realize the value of a common vision and strategy that spans birth through high school, then Orange is a great place to start that journey. Orange is also a great place to meet other churches on the same journey.

Registration started on September 22. Take advantage of the early bird registration. Don’t just come as a children’s ministry or as a student ministry. Come together and form a new culture of family ministry and your church.

It seems like I see more and more conferences pop up all the time. It’s not that I’m against conferences, but, really… do we need another one? It’s not like there is anything new or revolutionary being said at them. More and more, I find myself going to conferences to make connections and expand my network… which according to Seth Godin is a good thing (and, hey, if Seth Godin said it, then who am I to argue?). It would be nice, though to gather together with others in kidmin to discuss and explore new frontiers in children’s ministry. I may have watched too many episodes of Star Trek as a kid (The Next Generation is, by far, the best of the series!), but I have to believe that there are places in children’s ministry we can “boldly go where no one has gone before!”

A few months ago, my good friend Amy Dolan, told me about this guy, David Csinos, who was putting together a conference in 2012 that would explore the implications of emerging and missional thought in the church on children’s and youth ministry. I can’t tell you how excited I was. If you’ve followed Elemental CM for a while, you know that I am passionate about finding a missional approach to children’s ministry… something that goes beyond the educational/informational paradigm that has dominated children’s ministry for the past century. I’ve also found it disturbing that much has been done in the adult arena to address the seismic shifts happening in how we do church, yet very little has been done to effectively change how children’s ministry is done at those churches in the emerging and missional church worlds!

That brings me to my excitement about a new conference coming to Washington, D.C. May 7-10, 2012! Check this out from the official site for the conference:

“Something is happening in the church. A new kind of Christianity is taking root and growing across the globe. New forms of ministry, worship, and community are emerging. Questions are being asked. And change is happening.

But amidst these changes and shifts, children and youth are being left behind. Innovative approaches to ministry with adults are emerging around the world, but little critical reflection and attention has been given to how to nurture young people within a new kind of Christianity.

In May of 2012, leaders, ministers, volunteers, parents, and students will gather in Washington, DC, USA to spark conversations about youth and children within a new kind of Christianity. They will talk about innovative practices, critical issues, and controversial topics like violence, racism, interfaith dialogue, and sexuality. They will emark on a journey together to engage in life-giving ministry with young people. And they will blaze a new trail for the 21st-century church.”

Also take a look at this video from Brian McLaren about CYNC:

Check out the official CYNC site to keep up-to-date with what’s going on with the conference as well as ways to get involved and register! Also, be sure to check out and subscribe to David Csinos’ blog and follow him on Twitter. (He’s a pretty cool kidmin guy!) Lastly, if you haven’t already checked it out, be sure to pick up David’s new book, Children’s Ministry That Fits. This book should become required reading for everyone in children’s ministry or anyone who has an interest in helping children connect with God. If you can’t afford the book, do like I did and ask your public library to buy a copy

(picture originally uploaded to Flickr by teapics)

Up until the past month, I was planning on attending the Orange 2011 conference. Then the timing belt went out on our car! In getting that replaced, we found out that we needed to get the A/C compressor replaced… Lucky us! So… to make a long story short, we’ve had to put money aside for the past month or so to pay for the costly repair meaning my Orange flight fund was depleted. While I am sad not being able to reconnect with friends and meet new ones, I have chosen to be a conference stalker!

A couple of years ago, there were a number of conferences all happening close to each other. Since I couldn’t attend any of them, I tried my hand at following along online. I discovered that I was able to keep up with most of what was going on at most of them. In fact, with one of the conferences, some people on Twitter thought I was at the conference because of all the interacting I was doing… I even helped connected two people who were looking for tickets to that conference with ppl who had extra tickets! It was fun, but I have to admit that I didn’t get much work done those couple of days…

So, how do you become a conference stalker? I will share my secrets in this post that are specifically applied to the Orange 2011 conference.

Take advantage of online resources provided by the conference

• For the past couple of years, Orange has streamed the opening session from the conference, and this year is no different. You can watch this year’s opening session live at MakingOfOrange.com. It starts at 7:15 p.m. EST.
• On Thursday and Friday there will be live interviews on MakingOfOrange.com with people like Sue Miller, Jim Wideman, Doug Fields, Craig Jutila, Tom Shefchunas, Carey Nieuwhof, and many more! You can check out the schedule at MakingOfOrange.com. Remember that the times posted are EST.
• You can even download the Orange Leaders app for iPhone or Android and take a look at all the interactions and schedules and other goodies in the Orange Conference section. It’ll either depress you because you aren’t there, or you’ll feel like you are there.

Read the bloggers who are at the conference

Here is the list of official bloggers who will be chronicling the conference in their own ways:

There will be other bloggers at the conference as well. (If you are attending the conference and plan on blogging about it, leave a comment. I’ll add you to the list below.)

http://barbaragraves.net
http://savedsister7.blogspot.com
http://kidminjournal.wordpress.com
http://katiewetherbee.wordpress.com

You can even set up a folder for the blogs on your favorite newsreader. See the video below to see how to do it with Google Reader:

Twitter

I think Twitter is one of the best ways to experience the conference as it happens. It’s like being able to be a virtual fly on the wall of the conference. (If you don’t have a Twitter account, it’s easy to set one up. Go to Twitter.com and follow the directions to get your very own account.) The only thing about following a conference via Twitter is that you are dependent on the attendees tweeting what is going on and using a common hashtag. (I may have lost some of you already… don’t worry. Check out this post for a quick post about Twitter.) Luckily for us at home, many of the attendees at Orange are adept Tweeters. One advantage you have over the attendees is that you can sit for hours on end watching the Twitter feed for the official Orange Conference hashtag, which is #Orange11. If you do that, though, be prepared to get not work done.

Here’s a video on how to set up Twitter online to keep track of the #Orange11 hashtag:

Here’s a video on how to set up TweetDeck (may favorite Twitter client) to keep track of the #Orange11 hashtag:

Now, go forth and be an Orange Conference Stalker!