Sam Luce

My first year of Jim Wideman’s mentoring programis over and the next year is starting. It has been a great experience. Spending time with and getting to know other kids pastors from all over the country has been amazing but for me the best part of Infuse is getting to know Brother Jim. I love brother Jim’s candor, his love for people is tangible and even though he’s a big shot he doesn’t care that he is one and you get the feeling if he was just a kids pastor in a local church he would be just as happy.  I like that.

• Kids ministry like all other ministry is about serving others not being a big shot. Jim lives this. He loves people.
• Our greatness is measured in our ability to love others and glorify Christ not by how many followers we have on twitter or how many comments on our blog.
• Building ministry that lasts consists of patience, pouring into other leaders, and loving kids.
• Priorities determine how you spend your time. Where you spend your time determines who you become.
• Ministry is a long distance challenge not a sprint.
• Burn out comes from being overwhelmed for a long period of time.
• Thankfulness is the best tool we have to fight burn out.
• Always hire people who have more loyalty than talent.
• Ministry is about making disciples not making money.

My first year of Jim Wideman’s mentoring programis over and the next year is starting. It has been a great experience. Spending time with and getting to know other kids pastors from all over the country has been amazing but for me the best part of Infuse is getting to know Brother Jim. I love brother Jim’s candor, his love for people is tangible and even though he’s a big shot he doesn’t care that he is one and you get the feeling if he was just a kids pastor in a local church he would be just as happy.  I like that.

The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive

The exceptional presenter -

The Forgotten God -

Formational Children’s Ministry -

Outliers -

Ok so I am thinking very orange today. I am very excited for The Orange Conference again this year. Can’t wait to hear from the John and Nancy and of course Andy. But one of the things I am most looking forward to is connecting up with you guys my fellow kids pastors and kids workers and meeting those of you I haven’t met yet. Which brings me to my orange thought for today.

I have been thinking about how we could leverage the orange tweet ups this year. That’s right more than one. Kenny and I were thinking that it would a blast to have more than one tweet up because more is always better right. Actually there quite a few people who couldn’t make it.

Here is what I am thinking and I would love to hear from you guys as well.

1. Do one every night of the conference -
2. Change locations each night -
3. Have some sort of a focus to each one. – Maybe have someone Like Jim or Kendra or Chanley facilitate a short dicussion on 1 topic/problem facing Kid’s ministry that we can tackle collaboratively. (They have not agreed to do this yet, btw. I’m just tossing ideas out there)
4. Have time to network and meet other kids workers.
5.  Maybe do a night owl tweet up for the hard core crazies.
6. Maybe come dressed up in Space Atire (ok maybe not, that one was just for Kenny Conley)

So those are my thoughts about a tweet up – If you can’t make it to the tweet up no worries we will be up in the bloggers lounge drinking coffee and kicking it with brother Jim.

Today I have a guest post on Orange Leaders, talking about milestones at our church. Head on over and check it out.