All week long we will be live streaming from backstage at The Orange Conference. This is totally cool, and totally FREE…!
Here is a sneak peak “behind the veil” before we get started. Enjoy..!
All week long we will be live streaming from backstage at The Orange Conference. This is totally cool, and totally FREE…!
Here is a sneak peak “behind the veil” before we get started. Enjoy..!
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..!
-Rick

I just got back from spending a week with Lakepointe church at Highland Lakes Camp in Austin, TX where I was the speaker for their Trek 2009 Camp – and I had a great time. I spoke around 15 times last week, so was wore out, but the staff (and students) at Lakepointe are GREAT! They really are super people to work with, and I consider them good friends! So thank you Lakepointe (and the students who listened to me all week), it was an honor.
As usual, God showed up and did his thing. Many students begin their life long journey with God, through Jesus Christ, this week. Many more said they learned “so much” about God this week. My prayer after any sort of “event” like this is that students would live their life after camp, the same way they lived it while they were at camp. That they would live a life just as excited about their relationship with God through Jesus Christ, as they did while they were at camp. But above all – I know God showed up and rocked some teenagers lives this week – and to that I say, Amen!
The Matt Wheeler Band played worship at this camp – and they ROCKED! If your looking for an incredible band to play at your camp or event, you have to contact these guys. They did a super job! The summer’s only half-way over, but so far, it’s been a great one! Here’s some pictures from the camp!
{p.s. – I will be uploading the messages from all of my talks very soon for anyone to download and listen.}

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?
{and enjoy the pictures!}