Think Orange: Imagine the Impact When Church and Family Collide... [Hardcover]

Reggie Joiner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2009

Founder of the Orange Conference, Reggie Joiner looks at what would happen if the church and families combined their efforts to create a revolutionary strategy to affect the lives of children.

Families and churches are each working hard to build faith in kids, but imagine the potential results when the two environments synchronize, maximizing their individual efforts. What can the church do to empower the family? How can the family emphasize the work of the church? They can Think Orange. Former family ministry director Reggie Joiner looks at what would happen if churches and families decided they could no longer do business as usual, but instead combined their efforts and began to work off the same page for the sake of the kids. Think Orange shows church leaders how to make radical changes so they can:

• Engage parents in an integrated strategy
• Synchronize the home and church around a clear message
• Provoke parents and kids to fight for their relationships with each other
• Recruit mentors to become partners with the family
• Mobilize the next generation to be the church

With a transparent, authentic approach that gives every family and church hope for being more effective in their common mission, Think Orange rethinks the approach to children’s, youth, and family ministry.
 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Reggie Joiner is the founder and Chief Creative Officer of The reThink Group, a non-profit organization providing resources and training for churches. He is also the architect of the Orange Conference and one of the founders of North Point Community Church. He and his wife live in Cumming, Georgia, and have four grown children.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: David C. Cook; New edition (June 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1434764834
• ISBN-13: 978-1434764836
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 7.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #117,750 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Reggie Joiner is the founder and CEO of Orange, a nonprofit organization providing resources and training to help churches maximize their influence on the spiritual growth of the next generation. Orange (www.WhatIsOrange.org) provides innovative curriculum resources and training for leaders who work with preschoolers, children, families, and students. They have partners throughout the United States and eight other countries. Orange is also the architect of the Orange Conference (www.TheOrangeConference.com) and the Orange Tour (www.OrangeTour.org) which provide national training opportunities for senior pastors, church leaders, and ministry volunteers.

Reggie is also one of the founding pastors, along with Andy Stanley, of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia. In his role as the executive director of Family Ministry, Reggie developed the concepts of ministry for preschoolers, children, students, and married adults over the course of his eleven years with the church. During his time with North Point Ministries, Reggie created KidStuf, a weekly environment where kids bring their parents to learn about God, as well as Grow Up, an international conference to encourage and equip churches to create relevant, effective environments for children, families, and teenagers.

Reggie is the co-author of Seven Practices of Effective Ministries (Multnomah, with Lane Jones and Andy Stanley) and the author of Think Orange: Imagine the Impact When Church and Family Collide (David C. Cook, June 2009). Think Orange encapsulates Joiner's philosophy and practice of family ministry, combining the strengths of family and church to capture the hearts and minds of the next generation.

Reggie is a graduate of Georgia Southwestern College. Reggie and Debbie Joiner live in Cumming, Georgia, and have four grown children: Reggie Paul, Hannah, Sarah, and Rebekah.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 41 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A Resource for Discussion, but Not the Latest and Greatest Hot Item April 19, 2010

By Randall Brandt

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Maybe I'm the odd one out: it looks like I'm the first to not give Joiner's book 5 out of 5 stars on Amazon reviews. Although written well enough to be easily accessible and readable, with many good insights and some inspiring stories, there are other books now available which have deeper theological and Biblical grounding for inviting a transformational understanding of children, youth and family ministry for the 21st century.

Joiner mostly uses a traditional, didactic, pedagogic model of youth ministry while citing some creative divergences from traditional archetypes. But, he seems to hesitate in fully partnering with families so that the church's FIRST call is the spiritual development of ADULTS, moms and dads, so that parents have the spiritual maturity, resources and life skills to be the primary faith mentors and companions for their children. For example, his section on "Elevating Community" (p185ff) is written in reference to other significant, committed, adults (beyond parents) that are "used to influence youth" within traditional age-segregated peer group programming in the church. This is a good thing, but Joiner does not take the next step, calling for a cultural-shift model of full, inclusive, intergenerational community, where the WHOLE FAMILY is uplifted, engaged holistically in the life of the church and equipped to be the faith mentors in the home. When Reggie Joiner does write about equipping parents it comes across primarily that the church is the educator for effective parenting versus enabling parents to effectively live in authentic discipleship and embracing children into their daily faithful lives of loving God and others in Christ's name.

As I see it, the full power of FAMILY ministry is when the whole church has ownership to include and embrace youth and children in the full life of the congregation; and parents fully engage their lives in living the Christ-life authentically with their children from day to day. In this sense, Reggie Joiner does not talk about an incarnational walk along side youth as Jesus Christ does with us. Adults are called to be the presence of Jesus alongside their children and the youth of the church: loving, honoring, respecting, and caring for them for Christ's sake and not just as a means to make sure they are influenced to have faith some day.

An incarnational ministry of adults with children is scriptural and powerful. How about even one reference of the church community being the body of Christ for children and families? Where is one reference of the concept or term "mentor"? Was that an intentional omission? How about referring to service as being faithful to the call of Jesus to love one another as I have loved you, and not referring to service as a something to use for the purpose of producing faith?

"Thinking Orange" is a book with creative phrases and gimmicky terms, but I think there is much depth and challenge left out for those who use it as their main reference book for transforming church ministry with children, youth and families.

If interested, check out books and cutting edge insights by Andrew Root and Kenda Creasy Dean!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Presenting the source for churches who want the BEST engaging approach for volunteers,children and families August 7, 2009

By M. Phillips

Format:Hardcover

Articulated in a clear,empassioned way, Reggie Joiner and his staff at REThink Group have share their strategy that hleps local churches evaluate what's really important in ministry to kids, parents and students. While churches lose 80% of their 18 year olds (barna research) Think Orange vision casts a proven concept/model of what a churches can do to realign their ministry to youth/kids/volunteers/families to be ON TARGET with lifestyle of families today. Less is more. Empower your church to be impactful and engaged and experience growth.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "Orange" ya glad this book was written. July 10, 2009

By Todd Mckeever

Format:Hardcover

We have come to expect when anything that comes from Reggie Joiner is done it is going to be done with excellence, and this book was no different.

Orange is sweeping the country, family ministry has become one the great buzz words moving around as well, and yet, there seems to not really be a clear definition of what "Family ministry" is or looks like.

Until now!

Reggie does a great job going into a very articulate description of how he views family ministry and definitely helps set up up some guide post along the way to achieving what has become known as "Family Ministry".

Orange has become a staple book in my arsenal of books. I enjoyed reading it as it created and help lead to many great questions for myself as to the effectiveness of what and how we have been doing in the children's ministry world.

"As leaders and parents, our primary calling is not to keep our children in the church, but to lead them to become the church." - Think Orange.

So go ahead and pick up this book, kids depend on it, parents depend on it, families depend on it. "The most powerful thing you can do for parents is to provide kids in your ministry with another adult who will say the same things in their kids lives that they're trying to say as a parent." - Think Orange.