I just got back from The Orange Conference where I had a great time seeing meeting so many old friends, and making many new ones. If you haven’t been before, trust me when I say; they do it big…!
Sure they have top-notch lights, sounds, visuals, etc; but what I mean by “Orange does it big” is that they challenge people to dream big things for the cause of Christ. They are passionate about churches partnering with parents, and to me that is big…!
I’l elaborate on this more next week when things slow down for me, but for now enjoy these images from #Orange10
I’m in Atlanta this week at The Orange Conference, and while I’m in town my friends Jared and Eryn (both who work for Orange) offered to let me stay at their place. Since they are both working CRAZY hours at the conference, they are staying in a hotel across the street from the arena where the conference is located. Which means we (a cool guy by the name of Kyle is staying here as well) have their house to ourself…!
I’m sure they wouldn’t want me to brag on them, but I was excited to find out they have a HUGE bathtub. (For those who don’t know, I’m a “bath” taker. So what, I”m not afraid to admit it.) Not to mention their entire place is awesome! (dual shower heads + dual sinks = AWESOME!) Kyle and I got to their place around midnight tonight, and take a look what we came home to…! Thanks Eryn and Jared, it’s going to be a great week!
Please excuse the low quality of this video, I’m going on about five hours of sleep in the last three days so I’m a little out of it. Now on to the important stuff! Tomorrow is the start of the one conference I look forward to all year – The Orange Conference.
If you are attending, please be sure to make the short journey to the top of the arena to The Orange Leaders Lounge. I’ll be hanging out there pretty much the entire conference, and you won’t want to miss some of the cool things we’re going to be doing! During the conference you’ll have a chance to come up and meet Donald Miller, Rev Run, Reggie Miller, John & Nancy Ortberg, just to name a few…! In other words, we’re going to be having a GREAT time up there…and rumor has it you’ll be able to come up with your team and great a FREE picture taken in front of some awesome masterpieces created by Hannah Joiner! We’ll also be giving out some prizes, and running contests throughout the conference, so stay tuned..! (You can follow me on twitter for the real-time updates from The Orange Leaders Lounge. @Rick_Smith )
If you aren’t able to attend the conference I am very excited to announce that we are doing something super cool this year at Orange – a live video stream from backstage. You can click this link, and get your fill of “Orange” for the next three days – FOR FREE!!!! This is a great chance for you to get a “sneak peek” at some of the cool things going on backstage at Orange. You’ll also be able to hear some great insight from people who are passionate about helping the church partner with parents and students! (And if your around your computer at 1:10 on Thursday you’ll be able to see, and hear from me! I’m excited to be a part of this, and I think it is super cool that we are able to do this totally free for all of you out in “internet land”!!!)
Again, if you’re at Orange, come up and say hi. If not, check out the link above and enjoy the FREE, live stream…! See you, or tweet you, soon….
p.s. – if you have an iphone, or iPad be sure to download the official Orange iPhone App..!
Brad Lomenick describes his role as director of Catalyst as equipping, inspiring, and releasing the next generation of young Christian leaders. Catalyst does this through events, resources, consulting, and connecting leaders. One thing that I really appreciate about Brad is that you will rarely find him on stage at a Catalyst event, because he is working hard behind the scene making sure everyone else is enjoying, worshipping, connecting, growing, and learning. Continue Reading…
After a nice few days hanging out in Atlanta, I’m back home in good, ‘ol Dallas, Tx. I had a GREAT time meeting so many awesome people – I only wish I had time to mention them all! {by the way – I broke a “cool rule” this week – I actually asked a few folks I meet if I could snap a few pictures – that’s a no-no when your sitting backstage at an event like this – talk about looking lame! – oh well!}
I must say, Reggie, and his team, know how to do things right! The entire conference was done with such excellence! (you wouldn’t believe how well they treated all the people who were apart of it – I had LOTS of great food!) I was very excited (and honored) they asked me to be a part of The Orange Conference. I am POSITIVE that I learned WAY more then I was able to “teach” anyone. I have much to say about all I learned the last few days – but not now! This week is going to be spent finishing up the last week of my many seminary projects, exams, readings, etc – not a very fun week I might add!
I have added some pictures from the third day at Orange ’09 – hope you enjoy!
{oh, and “one more thing” – I just wanted to add that I”m really digging the design of Reggie’s new book! Ok, maybe I’m a little biased since the designer of my website, and my good friend, Jared – did the artwork for the book! – check out the credits in the front of the book! – Jared is the man!}
Wow – what a great day! Things are in full swing here at The Orange Conference! I Had a great day connecting with so many awesome people talking about creative ways to use social media to connect with the students we minster to – among many other things!
Since I am about to fall asleep on my laptop, and I’m not sure drool is covered under my warranty; I’m going to keep this post rather short. However, I did want to share one thing I heard today that really today that really impacted me.
It was from Francis Chan’s (who is a CRAZY cool guy, by the way – and author of the book “Crazy Love” ) talk this morning. In his talk he said the book of Acts was his least favorite book of the Bible because he “never reads it, and says ‘Wow – that looks allot like my church!” He went on to talk about how we act like the things in the Book of Acts were just “for back then.” How we act like God doesn’t move like that today; or that we shouldn’t expect God, or The Holy Spirit, to work like He did in Acts. I’m going to talk about this in more detail later in a video post because it really got me thinking – so stay tuned!
Question : Do we REALLY trust God to move like they did in Acts? Do we REALLY believe He can move in such powerful ways TODAY? Do we REALLY believe in the power, and work, of The Holy Spirit?
And one last question – Do we REALLY preach as BODLY as we see the people in Acts preaching? (If your answer is no – why don’t we?)
That’s it for now – but I have much more to say. Soon, very soon. But in the mean time take a look at a few images from today!
I wanted to share some pictures from the first night of Orange ’09.
I also wanted to share a little bit of what Reggie Joiner from ReThink talked about as well. He spoke on how as student ministers we must equip parents to “do” ministry with their kids.
His entire talk was great – but one fact that really stood out to me was this. We get to spend an average of 40 hours a year ministering to one student. That’s it. Each student will be around the ministry around 40 hours. However they will be with their parents around 3000 hours a year! What we have to do is find ways to equip parents to use that 3000 hours well!
Also - there are no picture perfect families. (The Cosby show was scripted by the way – it was NOT a real family.) We need to let families know that there are no PERFECT family. It’s OK to be NOT perfect. God is not interested in PERFECT families – He is interested in life change. He is interested in His story. His story in the life of that family. This is huge!
Anyway, there is more to come – and that is just 1/100 of what Reggie shared, but think on that. How can we equip parents to “do” ministry “with” their student? Ideas? Thoughts? How are you doing this?
