Orange Opening Session - Reggie Joiner

Reggie Joiner kicked off Orange sharing about the main theme - FOCUS.

Reggie talked about giving parents a jar of marbles. Each marble signified a week in a child's life. Between time child is born and graduates high school you have about 936 marbles. They were asked to take out a marble every week. What happened is they began to value their time together. Actually seeing the time they would spend made a difference. When you see the time you have left, you get serious about your time now.

Teach us to number our days,

that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:12

He encouraged us to make a list of the kids and teenagers inside our circle of influence that we’re thinking of and praying over. We should be processing everything we are talking through this week through the filter of real relationships that we’re involved in and the kids that we are ministering to.

At the end of the day you want your kids to love God.  You can't make a kid love God, but you can live with him in such a way that they know what it means to love God. You can life in such a way that they can understand that there is a redemption story.

We need adults who will hang with kids and make history with them. God chose to use time throughout history that we can see the love of God. He chose over time to reveal himself to us. If God used time to reveal himself, we can use time to reveal God to kids and make history.

Love over time gives worth. – We need to love them over time and, in doing so, we give them a sense of worth. We are living in a generation where the kids don’t think they are worth anything. Kids in this generation need adults who will show up and show them what God is like. We start at the beginning when we were made in the image of God and then God said it was very good. The story of the cross says you’re worth something. God pursued us to have a relationship with Him. We need a generation to rise up and remind our kids that they are worth something.

Words over time gives us direction. - When you and I are in a relationship, words have history that come with them. They mean something. Words are so powerful.

Stories over time gives us perspective. - We are shaping a generation to see how God is when we tell and retell Bible stories. That’s why Jesus told stories.

Fun over time gives you connection. - The greatest thing you can put in your home and church to attract kids is joy. Both should have an atmosphere of joy and fun.

A tribe over time gives a sense of belonging. – Tribes are a group of people that have something in common and give a place to belong. Shouldn’t we as the church want to provide our kids with a tribe? Everybody needs somebody who will show up when they know what they did. We need people who have history with us and still show up. You will never feel forgiven by people who don’t know you. They need to be known in such a way that they are welcomed by someone who knows them. Just like the prodigal son, we want them to know that they can come back. That no matter where they go and how far they go that they will always belong.

We are a tribe because of Jesus. Our mission is that each kid and teenager know that they have a place at the table. There will always be a chair at the table.

The way to leave a legacy is not to be famous with many people. The only people who are going to remember you are the ones that know you now.  Your legacy is going to be with the people you spend time with now. Invest in the people closest to you.

Reggie closed our time together with an invitation to the table as we shared communion together.

You can read more about the legacy marbles in Reggie's new books

Losing Your Marbles / Playing for Keeps

You can also get the Legacy Countdown app for iPhone here and Android here.