Well, I’m a tad behind with this recap. Last night I took my family for a quick camping trip. It was absolutely wonderful, but there wasn’t any way I was writing a recap from my tent. So, here’s a catch up from what was discussed on Day 3.

Michael Hyatt, the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers wrote a great post about the Orange Strategy. He defined for his many readers what the Orange Strategy is and why he plans to attend the conference this year. Great post!

Here’s a fantastic post from Carlos Whittaker, a self-declared “Orange Dad.” What a great perspective he offers, declaring that he needs all the help he can get and he relies on the Orange essentials to help him be a better dad.

Ron Edmondson shared his thoughts about Orange and parenting here. Although a pastor and leader of ideas, Ron writes this post as a parent who has raised children declaring that he was Orange before he knew there was a term. He’s got some great thoughts about the role of the church as well as the role of parents when it comes to passing faith along.

Michael Bayne continues his series of posts, this time focusing on Yellow initiatives… specifically teamwork. He communicates how his church most impacts families by serving families as a team. The Children’s Ministry, Student Ministry as well as the College Ministry mutually serve each other as they reach out to families. I love what they’re doing. If this doesn’t describe the ministry you’re a part of, you should read his post!

Chad Swanzy writes a very interesting post about parents connecting with their kids as well as ministries helping parents engage in what God is doing in that family. He equates it to a climb. We read in the scriptures that Jesus often when away to be with God, but sometimes these locations were treacherous. In the same way, the climb we must take with our families to discover what God is doing is difficult, but a trek worth taking.

On YouthLeaderStash, Chad posts a great resource for parents. It’s a questionnaire where parents can gauge where they are in respect to their relationship to their teenage kids. I think that it’s important to note that if you don’t know where you stand at this moment, it’s difficult to plot where you’re headed. So, this tool should help parents evaluate what needs to be done now before moving forward.

On Thursday I snuck in a handful of new posts for Orange week. My first post (technically written on Wednesday, but after I’d already written the recap was about Defining the Red. Parents need to know what a family is supposed to look like. Too often they get their definitions from the media or what they see around them. Secondly, I wrote a post Defining the Yellow. Even as someone who has been heavily engaged in the Orange Strategy, I’ve gotten distracted or have at times forgotten what it means for the church to be Yellow. I wrote yet another about deciding between Red and Yellow, personally how I’ve had to decide to not do really good things because it didn’t equip families. Last of all, I wrote a quick post of an idea I had to help pain the country orange, by using the new site imakidmin.com to display that you’re Orange. That way others in your community will know who else thinks like they do.

Jonathan Cliff writes a great post about how his church made the transition to using My First Look curriculum for the Early Childhood area. He shares about his space layout and room order so you get a picture of what he’s dealing with and how he uses the material to suit his needs. If you’re looking to use My First Look or tweak how you’re using it, this is a great post to grab ideas from.

Gina writes another stellar post. I caught myself nodding in agreement at several points. Either parens haven’t done any spiritual training in the lives of their kids or they’ve probably fumbled through it. Parents like anyone tend to not do things they’re not good at. Gina spoke on how to get parents to pick up the reigns… again. Here’s a fantastic idea she’s done for some time on helping parents engage in the most important thing they can do as parents.

Over on Kidmin1124, Jarred Massey (on of my favorite bi-vocational Children’s Pastors) talks about how they structured their Easter services to span multiple generations in a very Orange way. The service was a hit and probably responsible for the grow they saw weeks after Easter. Really great thoughts Jarred!

Nick Blevins builds on his previous post in talking about the importance of relationships. His church has specific environments designed to engage kids, but they put all their effort into creating a place where kids can have relationships with their leaders. This is the most important thing!

Anthony Prince gets my vote for favorite post of the day as he relates the Yellow part of the Orange strategy to yellow snow (reminds me while in college a few friends and I rewrote the entire song of “let the river flow” to “don’t eat yellow snow.” Thats all I could think of when reading this post. Ha!). It’s a great post, you should read it. Anthony continues with another post about calling something that’s Orange that isn’t really Orange. I loved the post and I think he’s got a great point. Don’t start a family service because it’s what Orange ministries do. Just because you hand out refrigerator cards or God-time cards doesn’t make you Orange either. You need to know and understand what it is you’re trying to do and carry out initiatives that help you find success in your context. Too bad the laser couldn’t shoot oranges.

Leave it to Dan Scott to knock another post out of the proverbial park. He interviews the coordinator of the special area at his church. It’s obvious that a special needs ministry MUST be orange. Great thoughts if you need help in better ministering to these families. Also, Dan also created a video of him and his son talking about CueBox. I love it and I need to get my hands on one of these!

JC wrote a very short post on Yellow initiatives. This will be short as well. What stuck with me was once line: “If the gospel is just a part of your ministry, you need to re-evaluate.” BAM!

Matt McKee writes another great post, basically about how bad the church is at being Yellow. Really, it’s a great post. It truly is the Grace of God and his desire to see people come to faith that we’ve made any traction this last 200o years. Good post Matt.

Henry Zonio echos so many other thoughts from this same day in being Yellow. The church needs to illuminate Christ, point people to the story of God. It’s about transformation! Good stuff Zonio.

Greg Baird brings a great point to light during this Week of Orange. In this whole effort of helping parents lead their kids, the goal is never for parents to become perfect or even more perfect than they are not. It is them allowing God to tell the story of restoration in their family which is what transforms. Beautiful and well said!

In this day’s post, Keith talks about parents owning up to their shortcomings and understanding that they’re not going to do everything right. When it comes to passing on faith, there is not a cookie cutter approach. He also provides some great and simple things parents can do to produce faith in their kids.

Okay, that does it for day 3’s recap. Looking forward to all the additional information to come!