Reggie Joiner's Blog, page 61

Nehemiah’s Story, Your Challenge

Can you feel it? The anticipation has been mounting. The excitement has been rising. We’ve been holding our collective breath. Now it’s time to get to work. 

Over the last, few weeks, we’ve been using the lens of Nehemiah to see that when we work together, it can change how a generation sees God. (part 1, part 2) 

To recap: 

Nehemiah named the problem. He leveraged what he had to fix the problem. He went to see the problem for himself. 

The Unexpected Solution 

Now, he’s solving the problem. ...

How Success Changes When You Become a Leader

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself.
When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”
– Jack Welch 

As leaders, it’s easy to get caught in a trap of self-focus. We all want to win; no one sets out to fail. And in order to win, we know we have to do the hard work of improving our capacity to lead.  

But the urge to improve can lead us to focus more on ourselves than those around us. Though we would all admit that winning in ministry is not about ourse...

Leading Small for Big Results

Is your anxiety level rising on Saturday, because you are still recruiting volunteers for Sunday programming?

Are you frustrated by constant recruiting?

Is your ministry more activity based than relational?

Three years ago, when I stepped into my role as children’s director, I answered yes to all the above questions. We had a rotational style Sunday School with monthly volunteers.

The ask was small. Show up for a training once a year. Sign up for 1-2 monthly slots for the year. Get your lesso...

Nehemiah’s Story, Your Choice

What do you do when the world around you is in shambles? That’s the question most of us ask ourselves regularly, and the question Nehemiah must have asked himself as well. 

If you recall from last week, we were building on the idea that we can do more together than we can on our own. Despite our differences, the problems in our homes, our churches, our communities, and our world only become solvable when we as the Church work together. But before we start the process of rebuilding, we have to...

How to Incorporate Social Media into your Weekend Services

Today it is very rare for someone not to be on social media in some capacity. They may not have accounts on all of the most popular social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram or Pinterest) but they have at least one of these. Considering the amount of involvement and engagement on social media channels, it is important that you, as the church, use this to engage your attendees and encourage them to share. 

Considering the amount of involvement and engagement on social media chann...

The Power of a Dynamic Team

I have a lot of things I love about ministry. I love being a communicator. I love to write and speak, giving people tools to do what God has created them to do in new ways. I love to design new concepts, policies, and procedures. I truly believe policies protect people and thus are a direct reflection of how much we love and consider them. I love to mentor people and develop relationships that allow me to share things that I’ve learned over the years. Even with all of these, and there are mor...

Dream Big. Lead Small.

We all dream big. We all desire to do something big. To lead something big. But what if the best way to make a big difference is to lead small? To go deep with just a few people? To do for a few what you wish you could do for everyone?

That’s what your small group leaders chose to do when they signed up to lead a small group. And that’s what it means to lead small. In the Orange book, Lead Small, Reggie Joiner and Tom Shefchunas write: “When we lead small we simply make a choice to invest str...

Nehemiah’s Story, Your Context

If you have more than one child, you know how different they can be. The same background, values, and genes can produce a lot of different results. Variety is, after all, the spice of life. 

To illustrate, Orange’s founder, Reggie Joiner, tells a story about when his kids were young and building a sandcastle. In the process, everyone’s personality became clear. 

RP, his oldest and only son, dug trenches and did the methodical work of trying to figure out how the castle would be protected. Reb...

What is the Church’s Role in Teaching Teens About Social Media?

Much can be said about the way social media is used by young people today—and it’s not always favorable. From cyber bullying to catfishing, there is a lot to be wary of, for sure. But it’s not all bad! Especially when it’s used appropriately. So where does the church exist in all of this? How can we come alongside families to help teach teens about healthy social media usage?  

Offer a social media class. 

Pull together some resources and some experts in this field from those within your circ...

The Power of Words in a Digital Age

There is something ironic about how we use social media. We tend to follow people who affirm our beliefs and opinions. I’d wager the same goes for most of our followers, yet we can tweet and update as if we are looking for a fight. We are too easily caught in a riptide where our words’ primary function is to let our homogeneity of followers know what we are against. There are already so many boundaries drawn in our culture. What would it look like if we intentionally used our words to express...