May 1st through 3rd are three of my favorite leadership days of the year. Each year, INJOY Stewardship Solutions allows me to live-blog the Orange and ReThink Leadership Conferences. No event stretches my thinking more and make me a smarter and better-equipped leader than this event.
If you are unfamiliar with ReThink and Orange, let me give you an overview. Hosted by Carey Nieuwhof, ReThink is a series of Ted Talk-stlyle lessons from some of the most innovative minds in business and leadership. Orange is simply the nation’s preeminent organization on children’s ministry.
As part of my time here, INJOY Stewardship is offering a FREE Capital Campaign Calculator for your church. If your church needs to raise significant capital in the next two years, this will be a wonderful source of information for you.
The afternoon’s next speaker was Kara Powell, PhD. Kara is the Executive Director of the Fuller Youth Institute (FYI) and a faculty member at Fuller Theological Seminary. Named by Christianity Today as one of “50 Women to Watch”, Kara serves as a Youth and Family Strategist for Orange.
The following are 17 leadership lessons and quotes from her conversation with Carey Nieuwhof and Brad Lomenick:
- I had this fear that as our family grew old we would grow apart.
- I have honored the relationship of growing with them (children).
- As senior leaders, we think we can hire someone on our church staff who will pay attention to our children. We can’t outsource it.
- The journey for young people is really, really different.
- 14 is the new 24… 28 is the new 18. We need a new strategy for young people.
- It is a two-decade adolescence. – Carey Nieuwhof
- You can no longer afford to have a toxic culture. – CN
- Millennials would rather be unemployed and getting checks from mom and dad than working for a toxic boss. – CN
- A great culture is where you have self-awareness pervasive throughout the organization. – Brad Lomenick
- The leader who is beyond reproach has got to die… You have to be approachable. – CN
- You have to pay well. If you pay peanuts you’ll get monkeys. – CN
- Don’t believe the lie that young people don’t want to be challenged.
- Gender Identity. Mental Health. The three issues churches need to face to remain relevant.
- Young people want a place that is warm. For young people, warm is the new cool.
- Appropriate vulnerability. There is an inappropriate vulnerability. – CN
- The bigger your platform is the less comfortable you will be sharing that (vulnerable) voice. – CN
- Young people are the hope for me…. When young people do well in a church, the whole church does better.
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