Reggie Joiner's Blog, page 25

Four Ways to Engage Every Parent

We’ve been asking leaders lately, “What do you wish someone had done for your parent when you were growing up?” 

The answers have been fascinating, but every answer seems to come back to this one idea . . .

If you care about a kid’s future one day, it means you have to care about their family right now. 

If you want to take your ministry to the next level, it means engaging parents.

It also means engaging parents everywhere, not just parents who show up at church on a Sunday morning. But also th...

What God Wants to do In the Next Generation

“Why is it important for family ministry, kid’s ministry, or youth ministry to matter in your church?”

As leaders, you know the answer. You know the importance of connecting kids and teenagers with caring adults, partnering with parents, and helping kids and students develop an everyday faith. Chances are, it’s not just your job, but it’s also at least a part of your purpose. 

But sometimes it’s important to answer that question for your elders, lead pastor, deacons, or the decision-makers in yo...

The Most Important Part of Your Job

Let’s talk about one of the most important things you can do as a youth pastor or kid’s pastor, because if you get this right, it will change everything else. When I make this statement, I want you to think about what it looks like for your organization. 

The health of your entire church, not just your ministry, is actually linked to who volunteers in your kids or youth ministry. 

Here is what we know to be true. If you have the right volunteers showing up to work with kids and teenagers every w...

Creating Small Groups That Cultivate Connection

I’ve been a youth pastor, or next gen pastor, for 15 years. Usually, I or someone on my team are the ones hosting our student events. In that role, it’s my main priority to make sure that every student is having a good time, connecting with others, and feeling seen. 

Recently, though, I faced what many parents do when they drop off their kids at a student event. That day, I only cared about one kid. One kid that I hoped would make new friends, feel accepted, laugh until his belly hurt, and most ...

Structuring Your Small Groups: How to Organize to be more Organic

Leading a small group of eighth grade girls is no easy task. Add a global pandemic on top of already changing dynamics, and it gets more complicated.  

My small group of girls just recently graduated eighth grade and moved up to the high school ministry at our church.  

For the last six months of their eighth grade year, my girls stopped showing up to our small group gathering. One or two would show up occasionally, but it was never more than three at a time, and nothing was consistent. It was p...

What’s An Orange Specialist?

We do a lot here at Orange to help you and your ministry be it’s best, healthiest, and most effective. Things like Orange Conference, Orange Tour, resources, kids curriculum, student curriculum, ministry apps, music, podcasts, books, and at the risk of sounding like an infomercial…even more?!

But of all that Orange offers, there’s one thing that we definitely don’t want you to miss out on. 

It’s one thing that we hope could have a greater impact on your leadership and ministry than anything else...

How the Parent Cue App can Change How You Partner with Parents

If you’re a ministry leader today, chances are you are navigating the very real tension that exists between empathizing with overwhelmed parents and keeping them engaged in your programming. Everything has changed and you’re likely running out of ideas (and patience…and budget dollars) on how to best support families and not feel like a failure. Though parent partnership seems full of obstacles right now, we still believe this pandemic has produced some rare opportunities. Maybe like, giving eve...

One Idea that Changes How you Reach Every Parent

Over the past fifteen years, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the idea of partnering with parents, and every time I do, something interesting happens. As we move into Q and A, the first question that is always asked is this, 

“What about the _____________ parent?”

You can fill in that blank with whatever you want. What about the blank parent can mean…

What about the unchurched parent?

What about the divorced parent?

What about the parent struggling with addiction?

What about the parent who...

How Do I Empower Volunteers to Feel Qualified to Serve?

My first year in ministry I had five students and no volunteers. I had to resort to begging my husband to come to youth group and hang out. For a couple of weeks that worked, but finally my husband sat me down and said he really had no idea how to—get this—”hang out.” 

Now for those of us in ministry, “hanging out” with kids and students is second nature. But to a software engineer, there needed to be some guidance as to what role he was actually supposed to fill.

It became clear in that first y...

Partnering with Sundays at Home Parents

When I first started in ministry and I was volunteering, interning and working in a lot of churches I didn’t really prioritize partnering with parents. I was showing up to volunteer with teenagers because I liked teenagers. I liked their sarcasm and their optimistic outlook on life, but I missed the potential of partnering with parents. Then there was a defining moment for me in ministry when the teenagers I started working with as freshmen graduated high school. I began to realize that my influ...