Wow, that was fun! I just returned from hanging out with hundreds of church leaders and volunteers at an Orange Tour stop in Pennsylvania. I had the opportunity to lead a breakout on volunteerism and present The Volunteer Project’s vision of volunteer retention trumping volunteer recruitment. Afterwards I was able to chat with John, a ministry leader who attended the breakout. John’s observations are threaded below in italics.

The breakout was focused around this bottom line: Volunteers who thrive, remain, and recruit other volunteers experience the leadership commitments of Significance, Support, Community, and Empowerment.

Significance: The power to produce a desired result or effect. The ability to bring about positive change for clients.

The win is hearing: “I’m making a difference!” or “I love making a difference!”

Stop recruiting and start retaining. Simple (to say, not in practice) and easy to remember and very powerful. As I’ve been reworking things at my church I’ve been trying to switch the language from Desperation to Privilege when it comes to serving. This seems to come from the same wheelhouse. Also fits with the significance point vs. duty point.

Support: To give help or assistance and to provide all that is needed to be successful in the role.

The win is hearing: “I’ve got what I need!” or “I’ve got what I need and I feel valued!”

Community: To experience the feeling of being accepted and valued to by other people. To develop new and meaningful friendships.

The win is hearing: “I belong here!” or “I’ve got friends here!”

I had never thought about the specifics you brought up on the importance of community. I know the importance of community of a team but I didn’t think about people joining for the purpose of having community and making friends. I feel like sometimes I have to convince my volunteers to be in community with each other.

Empowerment: To give power to an individual so they are free to make a difference.

The win is hearing: “I feel empowered to…” or “I’m trusted and have freedom to invest my best.”

Great thoughts on empowerment. I love the idea of having freedom within a strong and clear mission and vision. I was actually just dealing with some of this on Sunday with one of my stronger volunteers in kids ministry. A win I recently had in this category was having my Youth Min small group leaders write out 3 goals for themselves for this semester. There were only 3 rules: they couldn’t be too easy, they couldn’t be too hard, and they had to fit within the Family Ministry vision. As I’ve watched them this semester they have been more motivated to achieve the goals that they set for themselves. It’s given some of them new energy.

A big thank you to our friends at Orange for the opportunity to invest in those who lead volunteers, and to John for taking the time to stop and chat!

Last night we wrapped our training sessions with Family Ministries volunteers from Gateway Church. Over the week together we covered things like Orange philosophy, being present, establishing ongoing connections with kids and parents, and the role of the church in the life of a family.

For our final session, we played. All week we sensed that Gateway’s volunteers are good natured and full of fun, but they rose above and beyond our expectations! Eighty adults were running around the room, screaming with delight, escaping aliens, imagining monsters, and cramming twenty people on a 25 x 30 inch life raft.

After lots of laughter and nonsense, the group watched Reggie Joiner’s session on FUN from the Playing for Keeps training resource, in which he says, “It’s ok to have fun for fun’s sake. The best way to play for keeps is to actually play.”

Fun over time equals connection, and last night leaders focused on how fun could change their small groups, their sharing of Truth, and their families. Darren, Becky, Christine and I are thankful for the fun and love shown to us this week. We have laughed and cried as stories have been shared, and are grateful for our time spent with the wider Gateway family.

This blog post is part of a week-long series from an Orange Coaching team partnering with Gateway Church in Dubai. The team is comprised of the following church ministry specialists: Darren Kizer (Parker Hill Community Church, 1Semester) , Becky Kizer (Orange Specialist), Christine Kreisher (GT Church), and Stephanie Whitacre (Parker Hill Community Church, 1Semester).

Walking into the large group room of Blast Kids this morning felt like a familiar experience. Tons of laughter. Adult leaders in silly costumes. Colorful posters describing the monthly life app (Courage: Being brave enough to do what you should do, even when you are scared). As someone on staff at a church who thinks Orange and uses 252 Basics, these are things I see every Sunday morning. Only this morning something was a little different…

Today was Friday. Kids should be in school on Friday. And did James the storyteller have a British accent? And what about that miniature Pharoah – is he of Indian descent? Suddenly I remember I am not in Pennsylvania, but in Dubai at Gateway Church. What I love most is that the kids in this room right now, are hearing the very same Truth that kids will here in my home town on Sunday! A wiggly 8 year old Moses will be crossing the Red Sea while a miniature Pharoah chases him. In Dubai this morning, and in Pennsylvania on Sunday, children will learn they can be brave even when things seem impossible.

Before we left on this trip, friends would ask me what could possibly connect me to Dubai. The simple answer is this: The Church and Family. As children learned upstairs, their parents sat in Gateway’s weekly service and heard from Darren and Christine as they cast vision for families and church leaders to partner together. All week long, a mission has continually surfaced that Gateway become known as a church that loves and supports families. A mission like that is what connects me and our entire team to Dubai. That’s thinking Orange.

This blog post is part of a week-long series from an Orange Coaching team partnering with Gateway Church in Dubai. The team is comprised of the following church ministry specialists: Darren Kizer (Parker Hill Community Church, 1Semester) , Becky Kizer (Orange Specialist), Christine Kreisher (GT Church), and Stephanie Whitacre (Parker Hill Community Church, 1Semester).

The average unchurched parent doesn’t lie awake at night wondering what some senior pastor is going to talk about next…but they do lie awake some nights wondering whether their kids are going to be all right.” – Carey Nieuwhof (careynieuwhof.com)

Yesterday we had the opportunity to join the leadership and elders of Gateway Church in their morning staff meeting and a special dinner in the evening. Several in the room are fresh back from a trip to India, and had incredible stories to share of how God is working in Mumbai and the surrounding regions. The leaders at Gateway are excited about the diversity they experience each Sunday at Gateway, and how they are positioned to impact further than the Dubai city limits.

Earlier this week during volunteer training, Christine paraphrased Carey Nieuwhof in saying the unchurched parent doesn’t lie awake at night wondering what the pastor down the road will preach this weekend; but they do lie awake wondering if their kid will be okay. This idea was brought up again in staff meeting by one of the elders who had been in attendance at the training, and was met as an “ah-ha” moment among the rest of the team.

As the thought settled in, one of the elders exclaimed, “That’s just like Jairus! He would not have come see Jesus on his own, but he would for his daughter!” Found in Mark 5, Jairus was constrained from following Jesus by his role as a synagogue ruler. But when his twelve year old daughter falls ill and dies, Jairus was motivated by the need within his family, and pursues Jesus even in a large crowd.

Last night at dinner, our team sat in an Arabic-style home, woven among the Gateway leadership, and talked about the church’s opportunity to become a place famous for loving broken families and making an invisible God visible. A day will come in the near future when parents in Dubai will say, “I don’t know what that church is preaching about this Sunday. But I know they love my kids, so I’m going to go find out.”

This blog post is part of a week-long series from an Orange Coaching team partnering with Gateway Church in Dubai. The team is comprised of the following church ministry specialists: Darren Kizer (Parker Hill Community Church, 1Semester) , Becky Kizer (Orange Specialist), Christine Kreisher (GT Church), and Stephanie Whitacre (Parker Hill Community Church, 1Semester).

The Burj Khalifa is the tallest man made structure in the world. At a vertigo-inducing 2,722 feet, it more than doubles the size of The Empire State Building. Located in the heart of Dubai, an observation deck 124 floors up was the perfect place for our team to begin the day. Dubai is a beautiful city – from a bird’s eye view to the intricate details. Food is eloquently prepared, the architecture is completed by skilled craftsmen, and even the metro system is immaculate (how many large cities can say THAT of their public transportation?).

For all that impresses us about Dubai, the people are what stand out the most. Polite and kind, we have been met with friendliness in every shop, every restaurant, and of course, every meeting with Family Ministries volunteers who serve at Gateway Church. The families in Dubai are unique because due to various government regulations, few actually plan to settle down and spend the rest of their lives in Dubai. Many come for a time, but know there will be a day when it is time for their family to move on to another home in a place like Canada, the UK, or Australia.

The transient nature of Dubai made tonight’s volunteer session paramount: time. When you see how muchtime you have left, you tend to do more with the time you have now. Christine wove this theme together with the FISH! philosophy of Being Present. 

“I’m pouring into this [preschool-aged] child right now because I believe that something will happen in their heart and in ten years they will be kind, considerate, and on fire for Jesus… All because I was fully present.” 

And because we know that what happens at home is more important than what happens at church, Darren introduced the concept of 40 vs. 3,000 and how to make the most of the time we have in our weekend gatherings to Incite Wonder, Provoke Discovery, and Fuel Passion in the heart of every child. One of the questions volunteers have been asking is, “How do we know if we are doing it right? How do we know it’s making a difference?” Alongside each idea, Darren introduced a word to look for that exemplifies what Wonder, Discovery, and Passion may sound like.

• Wonder may sound like “REALLY!? God made me!? God loves me!? Jesus wants to be my friend!?”
• Discovery may sound like “COOL! If I’m created and crafted by God, then I’m created and crafted by God to do something nobody else can do!”
• Passion may sound like “YES! I will be a part of ending that injustice. I will volunteer my time to help others. I will write a big story for my life.”

In a world where time moves quickly, our friends at Gateway Church are refreshing. Every weekend, they take the time to slow down and invest in the lives of children in a city where most families are “just staying a little while.” In a place where time is counting down, they know how to make the time count.

This blog post is part of a week-long series from an Orange Coaching team partnering with Gateway Church in Dubai. The team is comprised of the following church ministry specialists: Darren Kizer (Parker Hill Community Church, 1Semester) , Becky Kizer (Orange Specialist), Christine Kreisher (GT Church), and Stephanie Whitacre (Parker Hill Community Church, 1Semester).

Last night we had our first session with the Family Ministries volunteers of Gateway Church in Dubai. They packed a meeting room of the Dubai Community Theatre & Arts Center. A recent partner with Orange, they were excited to share their stories and discover more about how to make First Look and 252 Basics curriculum work better in their setting.

As a portable church, the leaders and volunteers at Gateway are rock stars at making their children’s environments engaging and fun each week! Families gather on Friday mornings (the weekend in Dubai is Friday and Saturday) in a hotel lobby to check their children into conference rooms that have been transformed into colorful places for kids to worship God, hang with their small groups and leaders, and do hands on activities that reinforce that week’s bottom line.

Going into last night’s session, our team knew we wanted to open the week together by saying YOU’RE AMAZING! A theme of affirmation was woven throughout the evening through the sharing of stories, overview of the FISH! Philosophy, and Orange-focused breakouts with small and large group leaders.

This morning, one of the volunteers who joined us last night, sent this e-mail to her team leader:

Thanks for organizing Orange. It really ties into Gateway’s vision and personally to me it is going to change my life forever.

I think doing family well is so important, but the amazing thing is that I think about impacting my workplace with what I have learned today!

So I just wanna say a BIG THANK YOU for your love, effort, organization and the execution of your vision to change and build a healthy community!

Great things are happening here in Dubai, and we’re excited to see how Orange is impacting churches and families across the globe!

This blog post is part of a week-long series from an Orange Coaching team partnering with Gateway Church in Dubai. The team is comprised of the following church ministry specialists: Darren Kizer (Parker Hill Community Church, 1Semester) , Becky Kizer (Orange Specialist), Christine Kreisher (GT Church), and Stephanie Whitacre (Parker Hill Community Church, 1Semester).