As stated in my previous post here, I attended a great breakout at Orange on college ministries.  I could share my notes but Kenny Conley has done a great job here.

If you agree ages 18-24 yrs is a pivotal stage in life, click over to Kenny’s blog, read the notes and show some comment love.  We need to hear your perspective.

I attended Chuck Bomar’s breakout about College Ministries at the Orange Conference.

I learned a lot and have many notes to digest.  Today I only want to focus on two statements that I’m still chewing on…

80% of young adults at 18 yrs old walk away from the church even after years of faithful attendance growing up.

80% of young adults 18-23 yrs old believe they have a personal responsibility to meet the needs of those less fortunate.

Interesting to me that people who feel such responsibility to clothe the naked and feed the hungry are walking away from the vehicle God intended for those actions.

Are you making a connection?

Here we are… The 5th and final faith skill to build into our kids… (cue drumroll)

Skill #5:  Give to God

It’s important for children and teens to know how to give back to God and serve Him in the way they live their everyday lives

Again, I don’t think we’re hearing anything new here.  It’s the simplicity of living a life focused on God and not ourselves.  Whether it’s worshiping through song, the tithe, serving others… the key is focusing on God and following His desires for us, not our own.

Now, here’s the kicker question that applies to every faith skill.

1. Navigate the Bible
2. Personalize Scripture
3. Dialogue with God
4. Articulate Faith
5. Give to God

Do these faith skills only apply to kids?  Or are these skills each of us need to develop/sharpen in our own lives?

We tend to plan out the things kids are taught to ensure the objectives are clear. Consider this ‘continuing education’ for adults.  Which faith skill needs sharpening in your life?

Talking about the 5 skills to establish faith in our kids.  Catch the first 4 here.

Faith Skill #4: Articulate Faith

Create a safe place to discuss and wrestle with what kids believe.  This is key for our kids to make their faith their own.

Not just as parents, but as individuals, we can fear doubt.  We are scared of questions.  Sometimes it freaks us out when people question their faith.  We think we might lose them forever.  They might go off the deep end.

“Just have more faith.  Have more faith!”

I’m not discounting faith.  It’s a vital component to your relationship with Jesus.  But in order to make something your own, sometimes you’ve got to wrestle it down yourself.   I appreciate a good sermon, but I value scripture more when I labor through, question and digest it myself.

Give people in your home the space and the safety to question.  Have less faith in your explanations of God… and have more faith in the work God is doing in the midst of the wrestle.

Some of the best parenting advise I’d ever heard came from a 23 year old single man.  He said…

Talk less.  Pray more.

Do questions make you uncomfortable?  Do you allow people to question and wrestle with their faith?

Check me out doing this all in sequence.  What’s up with that?!?  Usually I toss in a few random posts just to keep you guessing.  Not so, this time.  Let’s keep rolling.  If you missed the first two, you can catch up here.

Skill #3:  Dialogue with God

The environments created at home and at church will be one of the first places children and teenagers learn to pray

Talking with God is not a difficult thing to demonstrate.  Actually doing it is the secret.  Though mealtime prayers are a ritual in many homes; breakfast, lunch and dinner are not the only times to dialogue with God.  We don’t stop talking to our kids at breakfast, do we?

Here’s a fun idea to establish a habit of prayer with your kids:

Every time the bell rings at school, just say hello to God.

It draws them back to a focus on Him and encourages an opportunity to talk with Him.

As a Christ-follower, what could serve as a constant reminder to just say hello to God?

As a parent, ministry leader/volunteer, what ideas do you have that would teach a Christ-follower the habit of dialogue with God?

I’ll leave you with this little nugget.  Who could resist. 

All posts in this series can be found here.

Skill #2:  Personalize Scripture

Encourage children to memorize scripture so they can remember it and apply it in everyday situations

Knowing how critical the demonstration of parents and volunteers can be, it only makes sense that we lead the way in scripture memorization.  And yet I slack significantly here.

I’m inspired to 2 action steps:

• Lead my kids in memorization by doing it also rather than just expecting them to do it
• Lead my volunteers to memorization to increase their effectiveness/encouragement
  

As a parent/volunteer/mentor to kids… how would you rate yourself on personalizing scripture?

At the Orange Conference I attended a breakout session talking about 5 basic Faith Skills to build into kids to help them take ownership of their faith and make it theirs.  If you are a parent and/or serve in kids ministry, you don’t want to miss the next 5 posts.

Skill #1:  Navigate the Bible

• Children should know how the smaller stories within the Bible work together to tell God’s Big Story.  Many ministries are guilty of teaching the bible as a series of one-liners that support the main teaching point.  Yet kids fail to see the bigger picture in scripture.
  
• The Bible is a place they can go to find verses that will help them with specific questions.
  

God’s word is a source of Life to a believer.  Read in context, it reminds us that we are part of something bigger than ourselves.  Kids that learn a biblical worldview have a more solid foundation to build their life upon.  We can’t expect our kids to have a biblical worldview unless the Bible plays a prominent role in our lives.

Parents, how can we better equip you to teach your kids how to navigate the Bible?

Ministry leaders, how well does your curriculum teach kids to view the Bible as a continuous story of His Glory?

I  love social networking.

Why?  Some of the Orange Conference Twitter peeps met up at the Varsity in downtown Atlanta, GA.  My friends and I were an hour late.  We are NOT familiar with Atlanta and even with a map app on my iPhone… I stink at navigation.

We hung out with a bunch of people we’ve never met before… and yet we already know them through Twitter, blogs and Facebook.

If tonight was a glimpse of the kind of fun we’ll have at Orange… it’s going to be an outstanding week.

Here’s a list of Twitter peeps to follow for more Orange goodness:

• @jcisonline
• @mattmckee
• @theuprisinglive (Chad Swanzy)
• @samluce
• @ngable
• @jonathancliff
• @kennyconley