This Orange Families series has been great on so many levels! Our Barrie campus moves onto the High Drama Series next weekend, and Orillia wraps up Orange with Widen the Circle this weekend.
- The five parenting values (Imagine the End, Fight for the Heart, Make it Personal, Create a Rhtythm and Widen the Circle) are intended to be values that help parents win at home and at church. Together, they begin to form a strategy that will parents navigate the challenging, exciting and sometimes confusing journey of parenting.
- Remember, Connexus was built Orange from the ground up. We realized that our 40 hours of influence can't compete with the 3000 hours of influence every parent gets with their child every year. So we decided to use our 40 hours not just to help your kids, but to help your family win at home.
Here are some of the things that can help you win at home as we leave the series but continue to live out the strategy every single week at Connexus.
- Keep the parenting values in front of you as a parent. You can view the messages any time for free on our website. If you like podcasts (I do), then go to iTunes where you can get our audio podcast or video cast free any time. Or, pick up the boxed Orange Families CD set at our campuses this weekend. It's free. We give this stuff away because we're passionate about helping families win.
- Use the Parent Fuel to help you win at home. Parent Fuel is the name for the resources we make available to you as a parent to help you shape the faith and character of your child or teen at home. It looks different for every age, but the bottom line of Parent Fuel is the same in every form: to give practical resources to you as a parent to help you win at home. Check out the Parent Fuel page on our website. The info is kept current and is always there to help you. Watch for Parent Fuel packs in Waumba Land and Upstreet April 5th, and periodically in Xtreme and InsideOut.
- Watch for Parent Fuel podcasts coming soon to Connexus. Each month, we'll review one of the five parenting values in Orange Families from a fresh angle to help you as a parent stay focused on what matters most at home.
- Remember to watch for periodic events like Jump Start (and KidVenture or Parent Nights) that we host to help you as a parent make the most of your time with your kids. Don't miss the next Jump Start April 5th and 12th.
- Get to know your child's small group leader and encourage your child or teen to build healthy relationships with the friends in his or her group and with the group leader. This will mean there's always another voice in your child's live saying the same kind of things a good parent would say.
Best of all, this series opened a dialogue that piqued a lot of interest. Kids attendance jumped by almost 30% during Orange Families, and our growth in our adult environments accelerated accordingly. Orange Families is our highest attended series ever. Orders for CD sets of the series hit an all time high, and our online messages have been downloaded or viewed over 2,500 times since the series began. I think this one struck a chord. I hope it continues to help.
- What have you found helpful about this series?
- What surprised you?
- What would you like to hear more on?
- How else could we help you?
Families matter deeply to us. Your kids matters. So even as Orange Families winds down as a series, I promise you in a deeper sense, it's only just beginning. We get to live this out week after week and partner with you for years into the future on this one!
