Once you hear it, the Orange Strategy makes a lot of sense. However, if you’ve never heard of it before, it can be strange. Whether you are just starting to explore the Orange Strategy, or have been living Orange for years, the people on your team need to know what this is all about. Here are four tips for explaining Orange to your ministry volunteers.
(1) Keep it simple.
The Orange Strategy is easy to understand, but can be complex to live out. So, whether talking about it for the first time, or for what feels like the millionth time, keep it simple. Remember, the goal is for your church to partner with parents to have a greater impact in the lives of children than either can have on their own. It’s really that simple. You can talk about the specifics of how your church is going to do that after they’ve gotten ahold of this part.
(2) Make it visual.
If you’ve never been to The Orange conference, or Orange Tour, then first let me say you really need to do what you can to get there. If you have, then you’ve seen that Reggie Joiner is a master at making his messages visual. When we teach children, we often understand the value of teaching to visual learners. That’s why object lessons exist. But, when we teach adults we sometimes forget that those visual kids grow up. The result is that we often fail to teach to visual learning adults. Consider ways to make the message visual so that your visual learners can get it.
[bctt tweet=”We teach children visually but when we teach adults we sometimes forget that those visual kids grow up. #ThinkOrange” username=”orangeleaders”]
(3) Crank up the reps.
Reps are not just for those circuit training junkies. Repetition is also a powerful tool for vision casting. In fact, I’ve heard it said that when you’ve repeated the vision to the point that YOU are tired of hearing it that SOME of your people are starting to get it. Even then, you need to keep repeating it. If you believe that this strategy is going to help children come to know Jesus and grow in that relationship, then it is far too important to be lax in vision-casting. Keep saying it till it’s stuck in their heads like the music from the Small World ride at Disney . . . okay, maybe a little less annoying.
(4) Make it personal.
Perhaps the best way to help people understand and buy into the Orange Strategy is to make it personal. As you prepare to talk about it, consider kids that are already in your church. Mention them and their parents by name. Ask your volunteers to think of children that they know, maybe even their own, and to imagine what it would be like to partner with their parents or caregivers in order to have a greater impact on that child. Help your volunteers to envision what it would be like to do this by putting a name and a face to it.
Bottom line. If you are working with children in church, then your goal is obviously to have an impact on their lives. This being true, I’m sure that you want to have as much impact as possible. The Orange Strategy can help you do that.
READ MORE:
https://orangeblogs.org/orangeleaders/2017/02/28/makes-orange-strategy-unique/
https://orangeblogs.org/orangeleaders/2016/03/01/orange-strategy-a-primer-on-where-to-start/