Looking to take your Sunday morning Large Group worship experience to the next level? Well, it’s as easy as one, two, three.

First off, I assume two things. One, you have a computer that you use in your Large Group worship experience. Any computer will do. Secondly, I also assume that you have some sort of projector you use as well. Doesn’t have to be fancy. Any projector will do. If you don’t have access to a projector then a television will work fine.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s proceed.

STEP ONE. Let’s talk about platforms. By platforms I mean the presentation program that you use to present your material during your Large Group worship experience (slides, music, videos, lyrics). The good news is that there are a ton of platforms out there for you to choose from depending on your needs and budget. For times sake though, let me mention the three most popular.

1. MediaShout, MediaShout.com – Happens to also be the most expensive
2. Pro Presenter, ProPresenter.com – In my opinion, the best of the best
3. Power Point, MicrosoftStore.com – Just about every computer on the planet already has this installed on it.

Each of these platforms are designed for volunteers and professionals alike. At the church I serve, we have used all three of these platforms at one point or another. All three will do the job for you. All three are user friendly. You just have to decide which one fits your needs and budget the best.

STEP TWO. I present to you—AmberSkyRecords.com

Amber Sky Records contains all sorts of goodness that will take your Large Group worship experience to the next level. Seriously folks, it rocks. With an Amber Sky subscription you have access to:

Full-mix Songs – All kinds of great music is available on Amber Sky—worship songs/virtue songs/fun, get-out-of-your-seat-and-dance songs. You can purchase these songs individually or you can buy the entire album.

Performance Tracks – If you use live singers during your worship experience you can also purchase performance tracks. You receive two track versions, with BGV (background vocals) and w/o BGV, as well as a lyric sheet.

Chord Charts – If you use a live band during your worship experience, you can also purchase a chord chart for your musicians to use to play the songs live.

Music Videos – A music video of a song often with dance and dramatic performance of the song’s message (think music video on MTV or VH1 but with Christian themes). These videos are so good!

Live Lyric Videos – Tired of manually running the words to worship songs via PowerPoint? Live Lyric Videos contain motion graphic backgrounds with song lyrics that match the music and theme of the song. These songs are ready for you to play in your services to enhance your live worship experience.

Dance Moves – These are demonstration videos to teach the Dance Moves for the song to your dance team or worship leader. (Dance Moves are only available with the annual subscription.)

Finally, STEP THREE. Feature Presentation videos. Feature Presentation is an entire morning on one DVD designed to help enhance your Large Group experience. The DVD contains two different versions of a fully dramatized Bible story every week. You get to choose which version of the Bible story is most appropriate for your ministry audience. Each week there are also optional intro and outro videos with a character Host. The intro videos set up the Bible story and virtue, while the outro videos smoothly transition from Large Group to small group. Intro and outro scripts are also provided if you choose to do those segments live.

At the church where I serve, we use these three steps each week to enhance and maximize our Large Group worship experiences. These resources help us take what is cultural to communicate the timeless message of Jesus Christ to our children and families. I know they will do the same for you.

After a week off, we’re picking back up this month’s Book Review on Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. If you’re just joining us, make sure to check out the first introduction post and you can buy it here. They share “why some ideas survive and others die”. The template or outline that we’re using here is the same one that we use in our premium YouLead content for the 2 book reviews we share there each month.

The Secret Sauce (that makes this book good)
• Wide Audience—The ideas in this book appeal to not only to your typical business leaders with something to sell or present, but also to parents looking for ways to make important lessons last and storytellers with a message of truth up on a stage every Sunday.

• Distilled Down—The authors have years of research and experience to share, but they wisely narrow it all down to just 6 key principles and even create an acronym to help these key traits stick in our minds so we can try to apply them. (For a sneak preview of what they are, check out the philosophy section below.)

• Real Life—Reading this list of principles, no matter how much we resonate with them usually isn’t enough to really affect how we think and act. But the great thing about these authors is that they’ve collected not only information, but stories. They take time to show and not just tell us, how this has played out in the past and even currently with clear examples of real-life success stories and even failures for us to learn and be inspired by.

Thinking Orange (how it overlaps with our core philosophy)
When we talk about our Message—what we have to say to kids, parents and teenagers—we spend hours crafting just the right words and thinking about the best environment to tell the whole story so it has the best chance to impact and influence the next generation.

In the book Think Orange, there’s a whole section on things to consider when you’re planning your message. Reggie Joiner encourages communicators to consider:
• Say Less—Simplify so you’re communicating only the biggest concept. P.138
• Say What Matters—Prioritize based on relevance or applicability to your audience. P. 140
• Say It Clearer- Craft a phrase that’s memorable so the main idea isn’t easily forgotten. P. 142
• Don’t Say It- Create an experience instead so the message is processed holistically. P. 144
• Say It Louder- Leverage every possible way and environment to reinforce this concept. P. 147

Look at how this overlaps with the SUCCES principles in Made to Stick:
• Simplicity- strip an idea to its’ core
• Unexpectedness—capture people’s attention and hold it
• Concreteness- help people understand and remember
• Credibility- get people to believe you and your ideas
• Emotional—get people to care about your idea in the first place
• Stories—and finally, get people to act on your idea

Can you think of an organization or leader that’s really good at making their ideas stick and getting people to act on them? What’s their secret?

Did you know that the need to belong can feel almost as strong as a need for food or rest? We all need a “base”— a group of people who care about us, so that we can feel safe and refuel before going back out to make a difference in the world. If you work at it, a consistent meeting could provide this base.

You can provide this safe place and connection for the key people on your team, paid and unpaid, regularly enough that they count on and look forward to this time. Parents can provide this home base for their children and in the Orange strategy, small group leaders can provide this for the same group of kids each Sunday. What a win all the way around!

The role you play in ministry- the way you intentionally connect with others is crucial. Whether you are connecting with kids, teens, parents, volunteers or other staff members, you have a chance to offset any negative experiences from their week with positive ones. By connecting with others intentionally and regularly, you are saying, “You matter to me.” What an opportunity! And there’s no cost other than focus so you can really be 100% present– listening, clarifying and following through on what you say.

Successful Boeing CEO, Alan Mulally says, “Many of the strongest emotions we feel are influenced by the degree to which we feel connected to others. People seem to need frequent positive interactions with the same individual and they need these interactions to occur in a framework of long term, stable caring and concern.”

This isn’t true just for kids– it’s true for adults like you and me too if we’re honest! Gallup research has found that the single most important factor in whether or not people choose to stay in a job is the quality of their relationship with the person who seems to be in charge. Do your meetings build up relationships as much as they troubleshoot problems?

Think about someone in your life- past or present- that did a great job of making you feel like you belonged. You felt very connected to them and maybe even a particular group too. What words would you use to describe that person? What did they do- what specific actions (big or small) did they take- to make you feel so connected? What’s one way you can be more like that this week?

Use the comments below to write a special public thanks to that person with some of these answers so we can all be encouraged!

Since we are talking about the importance of meetings this month, I thought it only appropriate to write about how to leverage technology for this.

I’m a big fan of face to face (short) meetings, but not all meetings can be this way. At Orange, we have an all staff meeting that happens every week. But some of our people don’t live locally. Sometimes people are scattered all over the nation and sometimes the world. Then technology steps in and we are able to conference with each other and keep each other up to speed. What happens though when you want more than a conference call and most of your people are not in the same office? Video conferencing steps in like a champ.

There are many options that have come around the last couple of years that do video conferencing but my favorites still are Skype and Tokbox.

*I really like to use Skype to do video conferences when it comes to 10 people or less. Why 10 people or less? Skype has put that limit as 10 at this point. Skype group calling also cost a monthly fee. It’s not that much, but still it isn’t free.

*This is why I use Tokbox more and more. Tokbox gives you the ability to bring up to 20 people into a video conference for free. There is no download like Skype and it is very easy to use.

Now don’t get me wrong. I think Skype does a better job overall but it’s hard to beat the price and ease of use of TokBox.

The next time that you want to have a “face to face” meeting, but can’t get everyone in the same room then look into Tokbox. It’s a creative way to use technology and bring people into the conversation better than traditional conference calls.

We want to show you how this works and how easy it is to use, so we are setting up a Tokbox conversation for the end of the month. We will be taking questions and giving answers. Stay tuned for more information.

So we had 3 great responses to our Most Original Place that you’ve ever had a Meeting Contest. Help us by voting for your favorite today. Put your top pick as a comment below. The winner gets a free copy of the Orange Revolution, a book we’re reviewing here on the blog and in our premium, You Lead content this month. Good luck to all and happy voting!

#1- VICKI- We like to get off site to get the creative juice flowing some times. For our 2011 planning day we went away to Look Up Lodge, a great christian camp that offers free meeting space for churches during the week. What makes it so original is that we always try to put some fun into our meetings and because we had a whole day did some team building during the day and sat down after dinner to plan out our year. As we began to dream big God sized dreams (without the looming budget in mind) and think outside the box, we heard the winds picking up outside. Within 10 minutes, the director came in and said we were under a tornado warning and to seek shelter in the adjoining room if it picked up. Within 5 minutes the wind sounded like a freight train, the lights flickered and went out, and the door began to pull itself open. TORNADO – so off we go to the adjoining room where we sat it out for 1/2 hour. No one was hurt and the damage down to the facility was not significant. Team building to the extreme with the some great planning thrown in. Original – I think so.

#2 AJACK- My team and I started off the year with a meeting at one of Chicago’s finest improv comedy clubs. I gave all my volunteers a list of the “rules” to improv and then asked them to watch for them throughout the evening. The purpose was to brainstorm how the rules of an improv team translate to leading a small group. You’ve got to know how to improv when leading 12 middle school boys through a Bible study.

#3 JC- I’m a meeting location nerd. Here goes:

Bridal Room. If you’ve never had a meeting in a room full of wall-sized mirrors…

Entry Foyer into Church. (That room before you actually get into the carpeted foyer space.) It had windows. I needed sunshine for the meeting, and it’s all I could find.

Sanctuary Stage. It was fun to sit in an auditorium of 1,700 seats with nobody there on the stage with lights on.

Nursing Mother’s Room. This is my prefered seating place. It has TV’s, comfortable rocking chairs, and is dimly lighted. We ignore the changing table, and crib.

This month we’re talking about the importance of consistent meetings about crucial issues with the right people represented. So, where’s the most original place that you’ve had a ministry meeting? The leader with the best answer will win a copy of The Orange Revolution so that you can read along on Wednesdays this month as we talk about this best-selling book. (Be prepared to provide the email of someone that can confirm this story– I have a feeling we’re in for some funny stuff!) Go…

Be warned, the technology described below can become habit forming, and may possibly turn your church service into something so interactive that you may never be the same again.

What’s with all the doodling?

I grew up taking my little brother to church with me but without my parents. Thankfully our church wasn’t a long walk from home, because we’d clip on our ties, dress up and walk a block and a half to church. The frustrating part of going to church without my parents wasn’t that they may be destined to a place I didn’t want to talk about. No, the real downside was that when we hit that age when we had to go to “big” church, there was no one there with the distracting coloring books and other toys that other parents had for their kids. Skip a few decades forward and there are still days when I’m sitting in church watching folks my age doodle on bulletins. Maybe it’s because they learned the habit years ago. Or maybe it’s because they’re bored.

I’m not suggesting that your church is boring. But I am suggesting that in these days when people are updating their Facebook status multiple times an hour, sitting in a church service with little to no interactivity can lead to a lot of doodlers.

Who are we hearing from?

These days anyone with a twitter account can make sure they have a voice. The bigger question is whether they’re having a voice in church. If your church is anything like mine, there are people who come in and slip out on a Sunday morning and never have an interaction with anyone. Those are the folks that we rarely hear from. And the stats are suggesting that the younger this crowd gets the more they’re walking out of churches across the country.

What if you could PollEverywhere?

If you visit www.polleverywhere.com you’ll notice that it’s an audience response system for this generation. It’s really simple:

1. Create an account (collecting up to 30 responses is FREE).
2. Create a poll (survey question).
3. Save the powerpoint slide for use in church.
4. Let your congregation answer using text messaging.

That slide gives people all the text messaging codes needed to answer your survey. And even better, the answers are tabulated as they come in, and are presented on the slide – in an interactive and completely compelling way.

You’ll be able to ask multiple choice questions like, “What delights you most w/ our children’s ministry?” and put 4 answers down that will help give you instant feedback: a. security, b. volunteers/staff, c. curriculum, and d. parenting tools.

Watch as the bars start shifting, as votes come in, because people are excited to share their voice.

Interaction leads to Deeper Engagement

Social media researchers are slowly learning what churches have known for years. They noticed that people who created accounts didn’t immediately start participating. Sound familiar? They noticed that people began participating by logging in and watching. We see the same thing in church. And finally, they noticed that once people start participating (as in clicking the “like” button on facebook) they were far more likely to then start contributing (as in posting on their wall). I’d bet the same is true for your church – your contributors are those who are actively participating.

So look at PollEverywhere as a simple way to let people begin their participation and engagement journey without a big commitment (like that “like” button). It’s a much lower bar than joining a 6 week Bible study but can lead to the same destination: deeper engagement.

It’s that time of year again- everyone in ministry is on the hunt for the perfect (and cheap and easy) way to appreciate their amazing volunteers! A few years ago, we took pictures of our kids and their leaders, had them printed in sepia and then put them in holiday photo cards. That was a hit, but Northpoint -like usual- has come up with even more ways to take loving on those that serve so faithfully to new levels. Not only did they take the picture with every child in the room wearing a Christmas hat, they’ve even put Christmas socks on the babies’ feet!

Here’s just a few of the fun and creative ideas they shared for our Friday Favs- to read them all, just click here.

*Do you have some talented musicians with a single or a CD you could give away and that your volunteers would know personally? (Or how about an artist in your church that might design you a special card front that you can send?)

*They invite their volunteers to a progressive dinner/potluck held in the hall or area of where they serve. Every volunteer team provides a certain type of food and sets up their room. Then all of the volunteers travel room to room to eat. They even eat at the little tables and chair.

*The favorite thing they do that everyone wants again and again is on the last Sunday before Christmas, each staff or key team person makes four or five batches of their favorite or signature homemade treat. Then they put them out at breakfast on Christmas plates with a little sign that says “From the Kitchen of…..” and what it is.

*They’ve brought in Cinnabons and set up a coffee “barista” station with a bunch of different creamers to mix it up. Or how about a gingerbread house-making competition?

*This year they are having a “date” night themed party. Northpoint staff will give volunteers a few questions to talk about (mostly about favorite Christmas memories) on the drive to the party. Once they get there, we will take their picture — because everyone is going to be dressed up as their favorite couple — Mr. and Mrs. Clause, Ketchup and Mustard, etc. They will be served popcorn and a soda,then watch Elf together.

So… what would you add to this list? Share your ideas or plans here.

Diana Garland in her book on Family Ministry talks a lot about the environment surrounding families. She stresses that rather than deciding what shape we like best and want to build from inside families– it would be much more effective to change the context around them. So what kind of conditions does it take to grow the families we’re trying to create or establish? In other words, we can’t “control” the home environment really- but we can regularly work to create more ideal environments in our ministry setting.
Diana also wisely points out that not all family stress is bad or to be avoided. Bad STRESS only occurs when the demand from the environment exceeds a family’s capacity to meet it. This makes me wonder, do we sometimes expect too much without providing the right setting or practical resources that families need to thrive? Are we creating more stress unintentionally? In the church, what if we could become known for creating supportive communities where families feel safe, known and loved unconditionally?

We know that you lead in several ways at any given time on any given day. You lead yourself, you lead volunteers or a team, you might lead your family and you often lead up. So this month here on Orange Leaders and also in our premium YouLead content we’re talking about the biggest questions to ask and answer for “frantic families” today.
*We’re reading a book from bestseller Patrick Lencioni and listening to a podcast with Michael Hyatt who’s not only the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers but just had a challenging personal experience as his family and others in his hometown ere affected by floods in Nashville, Tennessee.
*We’re watching a video of Shaun King, the Courageous pastor from a church in Atlanta who goes above and beyond to reach out to families in need by offering free breakfast every Sunday!
*And if all this wasn’t enough, we’re even checking out other leaders in organizations like Disney to see what we can learn from them about creating family experiences with WOW factor and how to maximize quality time with the kids in our own lives.

What questions do you have about creating family experiences in your culture, at church or home?

Here are some notes captured by Keith Tusing during the last tour. This week on Wednesday the 10th, Orange Tour touches down near the home offices in Atlanta. These notes can help us all get excited over what leaders will hear!

What’s the difference between a Small Group Leader and a Teacher of a Small Group of kids?
Success is defined differently.
Success for the SG Leader is building relationships with the kids– for the Teacher it is teaching information.

Organic Family Ministry on Campus after Sunday Service – CCV has done a phenomenal job of creating an atmosphere that encourages families to hand around after church on Sunday. Open field with grass and balls provide a place for kids to play. Outdoor BBQ area with tables and food available create a place for families to hang out for hours.

Baby Dedication is a great tool – everybody in the culture is speaking into the lives of the expecting parents. It has:
*Podcasts designed for expectant parents.
*Invite them into the Children’s Ministry for a tour
*Explanation the 3 main things
*Host a Lunch that includes a family writing card for the dreams for the babies life –
It’s a Celebration!

Start with small groups of families around the table and explain the strategy.

How we word things is critical – Parent Training – nobody wants to admit there is a problem so why would they commit to attend training?

How long before volunteers have “buy-in” to the small group model – 4 years!

Engage kids in open ended conversations. Avoid the simple yes and no questions.

Playing the Beach Ball Question game and M&M game was a great way to get people thinking outside the Sunday School box.

Let Volunteers know they MATTER!

God sees every one of those things done for kids on Sunday!
Vision – Information – Prayer! Do it every Sunday morning!

As Children’s Ministry Leaders we get to be part of who the loving Heavenly Father is to our kids when they are the most impressionable. Cast this Vision to potential volunteers and let them know they are making an eternal difference.