Tag Archives: impress

I Don’t Get It

March 28, 2012

Confession time. Recently, I was sitting on the couch, watching TV, and this ad came on:

I looked over at Mary Kate (my wife); and said, “OK, this commercial makes no sense to me. I don’t get it.”

Then she explained that it was all about the movie “The Black Swan.” I didn’t even realize the girl was wearing a ballerina outfit. The commercial went from being kind of lame to pretty genius. I just didn’t get it in the first place.

I was thinking about that experience, about finally admitting that I might not know everything and chancing that my wife might know what was going on; and I realized that this is not normal for me.

If I don’t know something, I don’t like asking people. I don’t want to ask for help. I’ll keep quiet and Google it later. I’ll pretend like I know what people are talking about.

For some reason, I equate my coolness with being able to know everything about everything.

Here’s the problem with that: I can’t be an expert on everything.

I’m not an expert on parenting. That’s for sure. When Evie came into this world about five months ago, it was less of a “OK, you’ve crammed and know everything, right?” than a “Ready or not, here I come!”

I feel more “not” than “ready.”

Ready or not, this is what God calls His people to do when it comes to being a parent (extracted from Deuteronomy 6:5-7):

- Love God with all your intentions
- Love God with your deepest passions
- Love God with the most commitment you can possibly muster
- Internalize God’s Word
- Impress God’s Word on the hearts of your kids
- Talk about His Word all the time

Pretty intimidating, huh? But the stakes of not admitting that we need help are so much greater than if we fail to mention that we don’t understand a Mustang commercial. For one, this is a command from God. It’s the way things are supposed to be. Also, we’re talking about something so precious– our kids.

Which is more important to you, though, preserving your pride or taking help?

This is why I love Orange. At New Harvest, we’re walking with you, offering up ways to do what God is commanding us to do.

If you’ve got a baby, listen to Parent Link Live.

If you’ve got a toddler, those monthly Parent Cues that you can pick up at registration are vital (also…stay tuned for a pre-school parent blog!).

If you’ve got elementary kids, there are myriad ways, between the Parent Cues, Family Life Live, and (my favorite) the Parent Cue App.

If you’ve got middle school or high school kids, our parent cues are now taking video form and are available on our blog and our Facebook fan page.

Look, I had to ask what was going on with that commercial. Maybe we need to take the small steps to get us to start realizing the potential that we have as parents to impress God’s Word on our kids’ hearts.

It all starts with a question, “Hey, um, I’ve got a kid whose _______. What can I be doing to help her grow in her faith?”

Posted by Paul Mannino in orange leaders, orange parents, YouTube Tags: asking questions, black swan, commercial, create a rhythm, deuteronomy 6, expert, family life live, fatherhood, god, god's word, humility, impress, kids, love, make it personal, motherhood, mustang, new harvest, orange, parent cue app, parent cues, parent link live, parenting, pride, raising a baby, raising a toddler, raising children, raising teenagers, ready or not, spiritual conversations

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“You’re Not Alone. God Is With You.” #fpuforum

February 21, 2012

Last Thursday, I was able to go with my team mates to Fresno Pacific to their Ministry Forum to hear Francis Chan give a series of messages and answer questions about following God.

My orange ears were on the whole time; and I kept hearing references to how Chan raises his family. Here are some things that stuck out to me:

* We shouldn’t focus on the family; we should focus the family on God’s mission. He means this. He’s doing this. His daughters are growing up knowing that the Chans follow Jesus’ call to serve others. More on that later.

* It’s OUR responsibility as parents to make faith personal in our own homes– that way our kids don’t have a stagnant, boring (easily reject-able) faith modeled to them. Rather, they are blown away at the excitement of following God.

There are a few stories that follow those two points that caught my attention.

Chan had been a super-successful pastor/writer in Simi Valley (which I think it pretty affluent). He had it all (or at least my definition of “it all”): a loving wife, healthy daughters, a nice home, books, respect, a huge congregation, etc. About two years ago, he decided to leave his church to go wherever God wanted him to go. It was his wife’s idea to sell the house. She figured, “Hey, if we’re going to do this. We might as well leave no option to chicken out.” Burn the ships! What I love here is that, pregnant with their fifth child, the Chans decided that it was more worth it to follow Jesus than to pursue their own view of success.

Then after a year or so of touring Asia and seeing the church there, Chan realized that his time in the United States was not done. He wanted to reach the poor and voiceless in San Francisco (the “Tenderloin” area). Crazy idea for an amazing suburban “rock-star” pastor/writer to go reach poor people. But he knew that’s what God had called him (and his family) to do.

Also, he told us about being at the airport in Asia, preparing to come home. In Asian Christianity, he observed that there is no such thing as a lukewarm Christian. With so much to lose, why would you not, once you had crossed the line into faith, center your life around the Gospel? He told his family that he was worried about slipping back into the American cultural comfort-mindset. They had a real time of prayer as a family together.

Finally, he told us about his teenage daughter. Daughter stories get me these days no matter what. I can’t help but see Evie in them. [As I write this, she's rocking back and forth in her little swing, chewing on her hand, and wiggling her feet. She's silly, and she's beautiful. But I want more than that. I imagine an end for her. I want her to be a strong woman of God. A woman who makes disciples of Jesus. A woman who loves her husband and children. A woman who knows who she is and doesn't have to accept any watered-down versions that society has to offer.] Anyway, my ears perked up when he talked about his teenage daughter. For one, Chan actually allowed his daughter to travel alone to go on a mission trip to Thailand. He talked about how he wrestled with this one. She felt that God had called her to do it, though. But…young pretty Asian girl going to one of the blackest holes of sex-trafficking in the world? I know parents who are afraid for their kids to go to Hume Lake. But he let her go. He knew she wasn’t his to keep. She was God’s. He made arrangements for her to go and meet a friend in the airport. And then…

Imagine the feeling of being in an interview and getting this text from your daughter:

“Daddy, I’m at the airport. I’ve walked up and down it twice. I’m alone, and I’m scared. What do I do?”

Chan describes having to “take this one,” and texting his daughter back, “You are not alone. God is with you.” And then, immediately after the text, getting the woman who was supposed to meet her on the phone and making sure the two could find one another. [They kept missing each other. She was at the airport.]

I’m still wrestling with this story. All I know is that, on that day, God’s provision was very real to Chan’s daughter. On that day, she began a trip where I’m sure she was used by God in the lives of young people in Thailand. Her passion for others was being fueled while she was growing in wonder of how amazing God can be. Oh, and in the process, I’m sure she was provoked to discover who she was as a young woman of God. A thousand sermons were planted in her heart. Do we allow for similar lessons to be impressed on the hearts of our kids?

I am thankful for the time that I had last Thursday. Like I said, I’m still wrestling with all of this. But it affects my prayers for my family, for my marriage, and for Evie’s life. She’s mine, but she’s not. She’ll always be my little girl, but she won’t.

More questions than answers on this one.

Posted by Paul Mannino in orange leaders, orange parents, paul Tags: affluence, american church culture, burning the ships, comfort, daddy's little girl, daughter, family prayer, fatherhood, focus on the family, following Jesus, francis chan, freaking out, fresno pacific, fuel passion, future dreams, god's provision, imagine the end, impress, incite wonder, living the life, lukewarm, make it personal, ministry forum, mission trip, provoke discovery, raising a family, reaching the poor, serving others, sex trafficking, teachable moments, teen girl, teenage daughter, thailand

An Inconvenient Truth

January 26, 2012

How can I convince anyone that the church needs to take raising up parents to raise up kids seriously? In other words, how can I convince anyone that we need to be “Orange”?

The only thing that I can liken to “being orange” is “being green.” By now, we all know (at least in some practical sense) what it means to be “green.” Once a Kermit the Frog song, now we know that it is important for us to take seriously the stewardship of this earth that God given us.

I remember when people who wanted to recycle or celebrate “Earth Day” were considered hippies and a joke. I think a transition happened after Al Gore’s movie, “An Inconvenient Truth.” All of a sudden, it was if the world sat up straight and started to listen to what may be a problem. In many ways, Al Gore’s work was prophetic to a world that wasn’t listening.

So…I’m wondering, if the idea “orange” isn’t sticking, and people are really just relegating it to gimmick or “stuff for kids” status, where’s the “inconvenient truth” that could capture our hearts?

Maybe there are more ideas than just this one, but I was stopped dead in my tracks this morning as I was reading the book of Judges:

7 And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had done for Israel. 8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him… 10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers.

I have to think about the way society was back in those times. You probably lived near your parents your whole life. They would be a great influence on you. This generation appears to be a busy generation. God had charged their fathers with fighting for the heart, imagining the end, making it personal, creating a rhythm, and widening the circle. And, quite honestly, it doesn’t seem like they did it. This generation gleaned some of what their parents may have taught them. But, look at what happened next. Midway through Judges 2:10, I was floored…

And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel.

What happened? A whole generation didn’t know the Lord! A whole generation didn’t even know what God had done for Israel! Moses had warned two generations ago about this! He basically told them to IMPRESS these things on the heart of the next generation because there will be a time when they’ll be asking questions about “why do we pray?” and “what’s the big idea with Passover?” Two generations later, the grandkids know nothing.

Maybe we can blame the grandparents. They didn’t raise their kids to know that they needed to take their kids’ faith seriously.

Maybe we can blame the parents. Maybe they were preoccupied with conquering and settling the Promised Land. Too busy to impress anything on their kids.

I was horrified by the results…

11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. 12 And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger. 13 They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. 14 So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. 15 Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.

A generation forfeited their obligation to speak into the next generation (to be orange), and the next generation neglected to provide any spiritual guidance. And now here’s a generation that’s totally lost. Depraved. Seeking hope in other gods. Making God angry with their behavior. Vulnerable. Hurt. “In terrible distress.”

Here’s what’s an “inconvenient truth” to me. If we don’t take seriously our charge as parents to raise up our kids to be followers of Jesus, it’s not like we have to die in order for us to lose our influence. Back in the day, you’d be around your family your whole life. Influence was probably a strong, life-long reality. But nowadays, your kid could go off to college; and that could be pretty much it. There may be holidays, but the influencing time was really in that first eighteen years.

This is one of the reasons that Orange means so much to me. At least they’re doing SOMETHING! Oh, and it’s not like they invented in some lab in Atlanta. This was God’s plan from the beginning. See Deuteronomy chapter 6. This wasn’t GOD’S PLAN! Just because they didn’t follow it doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t work. I would think that God’s plan would work just fine if we actually followed it.

I freaked out when I saw shrinking polar ice caps.

I freaked out when I read Judges 2:10.

This whole orange thing is no joke.

Posted by Paul Mannino in movies, orange leaders, orange parents, paul Tags: abandoning faith, al gore, an inconvenient truth, being green, being orange, blame, children's ministry, create a ehythm, depraved, deuteronomy 6, distress, earth day, environment, fatherhood, fight for the heart, generational sin, generations, go green, go orange, god, god's plan, hippies, hurt, ignorance, imagine the end, impress, influence, joshua, judges 2:10, kermit the frog, lost, make it personal, motherhood, neglect, orange phiosophy, other gods, parenting, prophetic word, recycling, responsibility, skepticism, spiritual guidance, stewardship, vulnerable, walking away from faith, widen the circle

Tag Archives: impress

I Don’t Get It

“You’re Not Alone. God Is With You.” #fpuforum

An Inconvenient Truth

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