God’s plan is not to make you happy, but to have an intimate relationship with you.

He never promised your life would be easy.

He did promise that He could use the circumstances of your life
to help you understand His love for you
and His love for those around you.

The leaders in the Bible were willing to collide …

with different cultures
with tough truths
with new ideas
with hard situations
with impossible odds

because they trusted that God was up to something in their personal lives
and in the world around them.

That’s why it made sense one day when Jesus stepped onto this planet to clarify our highest calling and said,

“Love the Lord your God
with all your heart
and with all your soul
and with all your mind
and love your neighbor as yourself.”

What if your mission as a leader is as simple as this?

To lead yourself and others to love God

What is your strategy for doing this?

[Strategy = a plan of action with an end in mind]

What are you doing to grow in your relationship with God?
What are you doing to help others grow?
How have you seen God use the unhappy circumstances in your life to help you understand His love?
Who do you know who is effectively leading others toward God’s love? What can you learn from that person about strategy?

To continue the conversation, comment here and download the “Wonder Discovery Passion” podcast on Orange Leaders.

We really do want to hear your story – send it in.

Every generation has two critical responsibilities:
1. To leverage the efforts and ideas of the generation that came before it
2. To fuel the innovations and faith of the generation that is coming behind it

In your ministry, how are you leveraging the previous generation? How are you fueling the next? Is one easier to do than the other?

Don’t worry, we’re not taking a stand in support of human cloning. But think about it: How much better would your ministry be if there were about five more ministry leaders, five more of you?

Believe it or not, there is a way to multiply yourself. We call them coaches. Rather than the pastor/director trying to lead all the volunteers, he or she looks for leaders who are already serving and begins to develop them as coaches. Rather than continuing to lead one small group of children, a coach leads a small group of volunteers who lead small groups of children.

You may begin with only one or two coaches, but when you find them, waste no time in pouring your heart into them. Begin training them on how to care for volunteers, how to build their teams, how to train other volunteers to serve … to begin multiplying you.

How have you seen coaches make Sunday mornings smoother and easier? What characteristics do you look for in a coach?

Autumn Ward

If you have a concept of ministry in which children and students are connected to different leaders and peers every time they show up, the connection your message will have and the connection your relationships will have can only go so far. Your leaders will more than likely disconnect from these children as soon as their hour of service is over.

However, when a leader is connected relationally to the same group of kids week after week, a funny thing starts to happen: the leader’s commitment level actually goes up. All of a sudden your leaders are connected to the kids, and the kids are dependent on them to show up, and the kids are showing up because they know their leaders are dependent on them to come – and something magical begins to happen in your ministry.

How have you seen the benefits of having consistent group leaders in your ministry?

Mike Clear

Andy Stanley shares three simple components of creating and sustaining momentum that are invaluable for churches looking to find or regain this powerful force.

The first component he talks about is new – anything new you introduce in your ministry automatically triggers momentum. Tweaking something old never generates momentum; it is only triggered by introducing something entirely new.

The second component Andy talks about is improved – that is, the new must be a significant improvement over the old. A slight adjustment won’t work – the improvement must be noticeably better.

To sustain long-term momentum we must keep improving – long-term momentum is sustained through continuous improvement. When you’ve got a great thing going, do not leave it alone. Constantly find ways to tweak it and improve it in order to sustain momentum.

How have you seen new, improved, and improving work in your ministry?

Mike Clear, Discovery Church

A day away – for the sake of preserving our ministry – is a nice idea. But a Sabbath, a day of rest that God commands us to take, can’t and shouldn’t be only for the purpose of professional longevity. As long as we see it that way, we will miss the point, and potentially miss God in the process. We must learn to rest rightly.

To rest rightly is to remember the reason and the motivation behind God’s command to slow down. Though we may notice its effects in our ministry lives more suddenly when we neglect the necessity of rest, more than that is at stake. Resting rightly keeps us in tune to a right relationship with our Father. It keeps us connected in a vital and vibrant way with God.

How do you spend your Sabbath? What refreshes you the most on your days off?

Rodney Anderson, Mountain Lake Church

When obstacles pop up that seem too big to overcome – a child becomes very ill in your small group, a facility challenge boggles your mind, or people just aren’t stepping up to volunteer – we start to worry. We have a tendency to think, “Oh no, all is lost. There is no way we are going to survive this!”

Why not try praying together as a team and asking for God’s power? Why not gather as a team and pray for God’s power to intervene? Matthew 19:26 promises that, “With men, this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” Stop focusing on your weaknesses and concentrate instead on His strength.

Sue Miller

Children need to have all their senses engaged in order to really connect the dots and learn truth. Some easy ways to make your environment more kid-friendly are to display eye-popping posters, provide toys or other learning media, or have leaders dress a little crazy to give kids something to think about. When children walk down a hallway with appealing media and engaging leaders that both entertain and communicate truth, the message is reinforced and children feel valued.

What’s your favorite way to engage children through creative environments?

Reggie Joiner

Narrow down your Orange Conference experience into the single most important sentence (or phrase) you’ve heard. What was it? Who said it? How do you see it changing your ministry?