Pruning in Ministry

One of the sessions that I went to at the Orange Conference was called Orange Fruit. For you to get fruit, you must prune. Pruning is difficult and time-consuming.

Listed below are some of the notes that I took and the points that I highlighted and think will be beneficial for myself and hopefully you if you are in a season of pruning.

1. If you don't prune - you will never experience an abundance of fruit.

Danger: An unpruned ministry looks impressive.

2. There is tremendous skill involved in pruning. Here are some guidelines:

- programs robbing resources
- programs accomplishing identical ministry
- old versions when new versions are released
- people who are not on board
- prune quickly, plan slowly

3. The gardener does not expect to see fruit immediately after cuts are made.

Note: It takes time to see fruit. Do not abandon strategy too early. You must
allow time for strategy to take lace.

4. You must not only prune the unhealthy but the healthy ministries as well.

Scripture Foundation: John 15:2 - Every branch that DOES bear fruit gets pruned.

5. Pruning is Cutting and Cutting Hurts

Word of Caution: You can add without attracting attention; but you can not
subtract without attracting attention.

Closing Thought:

Before you prune, you must find out the following:

- whose idea was it originally ?
- who currently considers this their baby ?

Creating Community

Creating Community: 5 Keys to Building a Small Group Culture was written by Andy Stanley and Bill Willits. The books title is self-explanatory on what the book is about. There is "no hidden agenda". The book does an excellent job on explaining their reasons for having 'small groups" be their driving force.

The book was prompted to me after attending the Orange Conference. Our senior pastor encouraged myself and the children's director to take a look at the book and for us to give discussion on the book. We talked about the book in depth this past week and more discussion is going to occur on the book during staff meetings, I am sure.

There were numerous things in the book that stood out to me. I will share a few of them with you below. If you are wanting/hoping to have individuals in your church involved in community, I suggest that you take a look at this book.

The book comes to be because they asked three questions as they were beginning to develop their church. The three questions are the following:

- what do we want people to become?
- what do we want people to do?
- where do we want people to go?

For them, their answer as that we want people to go and be part of a community group. Thus, they developed steps within their church to connect individuals with each other and their community groups are essential. They believe they are a relational church and the groups are the driving force. With groups being their driving force, this book is a natural overflow.

In the book (pages 65-67), they describe spiritual maturity and they do it in the following manner:

Spiritual maturity as a continual progress in three vital relationships: a person's relationship with God, with other believers, and with unbelievers. The breakdown looks like the following:

- intimacy with God
- community with insiders
- influence with outsiders

I think that it is absolutely vital that we challenge individuals to live in the context of these three relationships for their health and the health of the church.

At times, the book is not 'earth-shattering" but the nuggets of truth that they give you are very helpful and re mindful. For example, these simple but profound words on page 78:

Becoming crystal clear on what you are trying to do is critical for any group or organization. Without clarity an organization becomes pointless. Getting clear begins when we answer three important questions:

- what do we want people to become?
- what do we want people to do?
- where do we want people to go?

** the reminder **

On pages 93 - 98, they describe their strategy and why their strategy was small groups. Here is their thought on strategy and the reasons their strategy was small groups:

A great strategy is simple to understand and easy to implement.

Why Groups for us (North Point) ?

1. Groups Support Our Evangelism Strategy
2. Groups Decentralizes Church Leadership and Care
3. Groups Enable More People to Serve
4. Groups Help Develop Authentic Community
5. Groups Offer Maximum Flexibility
6. Groups Allow Us to Be Better Stewards
7. Groups Remove the Primary Limits to Growth

There is much more in the book, but I will wrap it up with the following (pages 164-167) statements. They believe that for groups to succeed, they must be set up well and here are five things that you must do:

1. Make it Simple
2. Make them Visible
3. Value them
4. Give Them Resources
5. Leadership must Model

Now, they are not saying that small groups ministry is the way that every church should do ministry. What they are suggesting is that you need to answer the questions about what/how/the win and implement a strategy (steps) to accomplish it.

Great Book, Thanks !!!!!!

Orange Fruit: Orange Preconference Workshop # 3

This seminar/workshop was based on John 15 (the vine). The seminar was based on when/how to prune. One of the interesting statements that jump-kicked the seminar was the following:

An unpruned ministry looks impressive

This is such a true statement. A church could have something on the calendar every day of the month and cover every topic at hand. You could take out a pamphlet of their ministries and go ... wow, look at all they have. It looks impressive but there is no goal/strategy in place and the organization is running in 100 different directions ....... not good.

Here are 5 principles on pruning:

- if you don't prune, you will never experience an abundance of the ftuit.
- there is tremendous skill involved in pruning
- there is tremendous timing involved in pruning
- you must prune not only unhealthy ministries but healthy ones as well
- pruning is cutting and cutting hurts

Let us break these down a little further:

If you don't Prune .....

- an unprune ministry looks impressive
- there is tons of visible activity in an unpruned ministry but is there life change?

There is tremendous skill ....

Guidelines to Pruning

- programs robbing resources
- programs accomplishing identical ministry
- old version when new version is released
- people who are not on board
- prune quickly but plant slowly

Tremendous Timing ....

- the gardner does not expect to see fruit immediately after cuts are made
- it takes time to see fruit
- do not abandon strategy too early; allow time for strategy to work

Not only Unhealthy ....

- John 15: 2: Every branch that DOES bear fruit gets prunned
- reread, it is often overlooked

Prunning is Cutting ....

- pruning (cutting) will hurt
- You can add without attracting attention, but you cannot subtract without attention

I think the pruning guidelines were the ones that will effect me the most and the things that I will chew on. Over the next six months, there will be prunning, some subtraction and some adding. It should be an interesting time in the field.

Words of Wisdom

Before you prune anything, you must find out the following rwo things:

- whose idea was this originally
- who currently consider this their baby

So, what do you think ?

There was much more in the seminar but those broad strokes should give you a picture of the workshop.

Orange Roots: Preconference Workshop # 2

The second pre-conference workshop that I attended was called Orange Roots. This workshop was trying to lay the foundation that we need to have orange roots. This workshop was also an excellent workshop and I am glad that I picked this class.

Five Elements of Orange

- Integrate Strategy
- Refine Your Message
- Elevate Community
- Reactivate the Family
- Leverage Influence

With these being the "core elements" of Orange, I will break them down a little bit more. Here they are ...

Integrate Strategy

Leaders of the church and parents of the children and youth need to be leading with the same end in mind.

Refine Your Message

We need to craft core truths (values) that are engaging, relevant and remembering.

Elevate Community

Everyone in the church community is connected to one another

Reactivate the Family

Parents are actively participating in the spiritual formation of their kids

Leverage Influence

We need to create opportunities for individuals to influence the lives of those that they are in contact with.

If we want to place "family first", we need to make some family first investments. There were five investments that were given. Here are the investments:

1. Hiring Staff: Who you are determines where you will head. We must be orange internal if we ever expect to be orange eternally.

2. Financial Resources: Matthew 5. Where your treasure is where your heart will be also. Show me your budget. Where you spend the most money is where your heart is at -ministry value.

3. Weekend Scheduling: If you give your family programming the crappiest time slot; then family isn't first.

- does not compete
- family convient
- space

4. Ministry Programs: It's better to grow slowly in the same direction than quickly in many directions.

5. Teaching and Pracing: Grace and Truth and emphasizes core values

More On the Five Elements ......

Strategy

- Plan of Action with end in mind
- Ask: Where do we want them to end up ?
- Strategy is about steps to your answers

Refine

- what do we want them to know
- teaching = answer to that question
- we can't teach everything (core truths)

Community

- connect children and students to a leader and peers
- place another adult voice in their lives
- culture can't compete with church on community

Family

- rethink ministry
- more for family and less for individuals

Influence

- less teaching and more experience
- spectator to participant = growth
- volunteers: invite do not beg

A note from church leaders to church attendees:

We will give you what you need not what you want

Start Simple: Orange Preconference Workshop # 1

This workshop was excellent and this is a place where I have seen numerous church "fail" or not be all that they should be. Too often, we make ministry too difficult. One of the underlying themes of the workshop could be named in the following manner:

You can accomplish more if you do less

We, as churches, are very good in programmed based ministry and filling up the calendar. One of the things in the workshop that stood out was the following:

There is a gravitational pull in ministry that moves every community toward:

A Note: I think most churches do the first part and I think the last part is where we should be> Here they are:

1. Complexity when the wiser move is toward simplicity
2. More when the better default might be less
3. Yes when the more prudent answer is often no
4. Whatever when the better path is strategic

I am going to come back to "whatever" approach later because I believe that it is a vital concept to understand and grasp as we move individuals through a church enviorment.

How to Start and Stay Simple

Begin with the End in Mind

- where do you want people to end up
- how will you move them there
- what will you be doing and not doing

Think Steps not Programs

- make the things that you do easy, obvious and strategic
- move people along a spiritual journey toward an actual destination
- steps bting clarity to people
- do less not more

Get Great at Saying NO!!!

This has ro be one of the hardest thing to do, say no. I am getting better at it, but I still fail in this area. There was a great sentence that came out in the session. The sentence is the following:

Most of us are unconsciously willing to let our organizations suffer to avoid personal pain.

Let us unwrap it by the following scenario:

How often do we say yes because:

- we want to please people
- we want to be liked
- we are afraid
- we are unclear on our strategy

There was so much more to gleam from this seminar but I will end it here. If comments flow, maybe I will unpack a little more from this class. I will be giving info from the other worhshops as I allow my mind to grasp them.

Loving Father: Opening Session

Monday was a very long day. We went to the pre conference classes. After the classes, we went out to eat (O'Charley's) as a staff and then headed back to the hotel. With it being a long day and a late night (8:00 - 11:00), I was the only one that went down to the General Session and it "rocked". the worship was fantastic but the message from Reggie was a great message and a message that I needed to be reminded of. I think that this is a message that we need to examine very closely.

He used the story pf the Prodical Son as the backdrop for his message. If you are not familiar with the story or you want a refresher on the story, click here.


One of the foundational aspects of the message is the following: We, as a church, need to treat every prodical in a way that a loving father would treat his own son.

During the message, a few comparisons came out. Here are the comparisons:

Comparison Number 1
Loving Father: Preoccupied with whoever is missing
Older Brother: Concerned about ourselves

Comparison Number 2

Loving Father: Responds from the context of forgiveness
Older Brother: Responds from the context of shame

Comparison Number 3

Loving Father: Throws Parties
Older Brother: Throws Fits

Comparison Number 4

Loving Father: Confronts older brother thinking
Older Brother: Criticizes the loving father

Comparison Number 5

Loving Father: Keeps light on
Older Brother: Turns lights off

I believe that it is vital for us to create a community in the church where we are living out of the loving father. However, I have seen and witnessed too many people and too many churches who operate out of the older brother mentality.

As a church, we must treat the "prodigal" as a loving father. This is the number one thing in our lives. Our generation needs a loving father. They do not need an older brother.

A word of caution. If you are going to adapt the loving father approach; you will need to develop a "strong hide" because you will be criticized. But, we need to hold firm and let the older brothers know the following:

Criticize all you want, we will continue to welcome and love the sinner.

Live out the principles of the loving father. I believe that they can be summed up in the following two words: forgiveness and joy.

So .....

which one are you ?

which church do you belong to ?

which one of the comparisons are the toughest for you to swallow ?

The Orange Conference

This past week, I went down to the Orange Conference in Atlanta. The conference was held in the NW section of the city (Duluth). The conference was held at the Gwinnett Conference Center and the Arena.

Over the next week or so, I am going to blog about the trip. The entries will cover the general sessions, the pre-conference academy classes and the breakout sessions. I will also be blogging about conversations while we we were there and the implications that they might have on us at Zion.

The trip began Sunday afternoon after church. After church, we drove up to Cleveland and waited for the plane to board. The trip to Cleveland was excellent and relaxing and getting through the airport was hassle free. We flew into Atlanta and "blitzed" through the airport. our baggage was already there when we got to baggage claim. We went over to Enterprise and picked up our vehicle and went to the hotel. We only had one small glitch getting there. We unpacked our bags into the very nice hotel (Wingate at the Mall of Georgia) and went up to register. The wait for registration was not bad at all. they did a fantastic job. The convention center is amazing place to have a convention. After we registered, we went out to eat at Mimi's Cafe. This is a fantastic place to eat. If you have one in your neck of the woods, go check it out.

We then went back to the hotel to rest up for the first day of the convention.

Convention Facts

- 4500 leaders attended
- 45 different states were represented
- 10 different countries were represented
- 46 different denominations gathered

Orange Philosophy

There are a lot of things they would probably never agree about, but there is one thing that they all emphatically believe .... 100 years from now the only thing that will matter in someone’s life is their relationship with God.

Orange From Carey

Carey had an interesting take on the Orange Conference. Here are some of his words:

Orange is about helping church leaders to work together with parents to raise our kids morally and spiritually. I also think it's a huge front door that God is opening into communities world wide. Think about it: the average parent who doesn't go to church rarely lies awake at night wondering what a lead pastor is going to speak about next, but the average parent who doesn't go to church lies awake at night wondering whether their kids are going to be okay. If we come alongside parents and simply say "we care about the same things you do", it opens conversations that might never happen otherwise.

Why Orange

Orange is about combining influences. We in the church need to do this. We can not do ministry in silos and we can not separate the family. Here are two examples:

Youth Ministry (Red) Children Ministry (Yellow)
The Family (Red) The Church (Yellow)

We need to combine these colors and make Orange, it will make a bigger impact. A lot more to come, the convention was AWESOME.