Reggie Joiner's Blog, page 53

The Power of Prayer and Community

by Pastor Jason Noble

In the midst of a family’s greatest need, “we can do more together” became more than just a good tagline for our church—it became reality for the Smith family, our congregation, and the entire community.

John Smith fell through the ice in Lake St. Louise. John was under the water for 15 minutes before the first responders found him and pulled him out. He had no heartbeat or pulse. At the hospital they worked on John for another 45 minutes to no avail; at this point he ha...

Engaging Parents to do One Thing More

“If we add one more thing to our plates, we will implode,” they said as they looked at the board. Though Darren and Agnes desperately wanted to invest more into their family, they did not see how they could make the kid’s ministry strategy into their already hectic family rhythms.

To us, our ministry strategies may seem pretty simple and easy to execute. That is probably because we created it and understand how I all works together. Sometimes our strategy is not so easy for others to understa...

Leveraging Social Media to Reach Parents

It is well known that if you want to reach students these days, you have to have an active presence on social media. That is where students are and will be. But what about parents? How do you reach parents these days?

As hard as it may be to believe, social media is actually a great way to reach parents. Sure, they may like emails a lot and may not be on as much social media as their children are, but they are actively on one social media platform or another. That is why you can use social me...

Leading Volunteers Better—NEW from Orange!

By Adam Duckworth

I’ve been working with volunteers in ministry my entire career—in local churches and with Orange. Now, I’m excited to announce a brand, stinkin’, new online course on how to lead volunteers better called . . . drumroll . . . Leading Volunteers Better!

See, I love volunteers. In fact, I probably love volunteers so much because I started as a volunteer as a small group leader for kindergarten and first grade boys in the spring of 2001. Here I am, years later, still fired up an...

When Married Couples Serve Together

You could say that I grew up in a non-conventional family. Where a lot of families were going on family vacations to the beach, or the mountains, or Disneyland, my family went on mission trips. These weren’t necessarily the “glamorous” overseas mission trips to South America or a remote village in Africa. Often, these were the under-rated, off-the-beaten-path places that no one else wanted to go to. These were the small towns in the panhandle of Texas with a population less than my high schoo...

The Upside Down Kingdom of God

Not everyone is going to like you. Not everyone is going to like your ministry. Not everyone is going to like your church. You’re going to make strategic decisions that frustrate people coming to your church. From making modifications to the flow of traffic in your parking lot, to small groups curriculum, to the songs people wished you sang on Sundays, you’ll have critics in your church. The Jesus way of responding might feel strange, but so do most things in the upside down nature of the Kin...

The Benefits of Team Service

– Chelsea had no idea why the stream of tears flowed down Alex’s face. He seemed like the most put together man. But this day, Alex lost it. I mean, all she did was accidentally empty the shovel of dirt on his boots. But they are all the better for it.

– Baxter’s day was one of the best he could remember, until he really met Philip. Sure, he had met Philip several times, but this time Baxter would never forget. One high-five took coworkers and turned them into besties.

Discovery is all around...

Small Groups Will Change Your Church and Community

“I want to be a Sharon Battson for someone else.”

That’s how 7th-grade Ella answered the question: “Why do you want to be a small group leader in kid’s ministry?” Sharon had been leading Ella’s small group since they were in first grade, and Ella, who is now in 10th grade, has been leading her girls for the last three years. Sharon answered the call 10 years ago, when our church decided to start asking small group leaders to commit to leading groups every week and over several years. For many...

How the Church can Help Those in Recovery

In my opinion, there is no greater environment with the potential to impact the world of those in recovery than the church. The church is for broken people. The church is made of broken people. If we could all come together to work mutually on our brokenness using God’s power, then nothing would be unachievable. However, the church and the recovery community haven’t always made for a healthy combination. Here are a few suggestions both logistically and congregationally that I believe would he...

What Does it Mean to be Community-Focused?

A few years ago, at the very first Rethink Leadership, Jeff Henderson came on stage and talked about what his church was doing in the community. He called it being “for” his community. From this moment on, I began to hear what it was like for a church to really be “for” their community.

As compelling and amazing as Jeff’s vision for his community was, the reality is that there have been churches all over the world that have been “for” their community for a long, long time. It is actually what...