Quotes from Reggie Joiner

Orange] is one of God's favorite colors--- He stuck it right there between red and yellow as the second color in the rainbow. He decorates entire forests with shades of orange every autumn. It shows up in sunrises at the start of the day, sunsets at the end of the day, and in the glow of the moon at the right time of night.

From the time they hit middle school, they start moving away from home. They are not doing anything wrong; it's just the way they are made. They are becoming independent, and they begin redefining themselves through the eyes other people who are not in their immediate family. The older they get, the more important it is to have other voices in their lies saying the same things but in a different way.

They are not working in sync. Working on the same thing at the same time is not as effective as working on the same thing a the same time with the same strategy.

Church and family are both primary influences designed by God for a purpose and when they work together, they are orange. Both are systems comprised of imperfect people—that's why God desires to use them as a platform to tell his story of restoration and redemption to the world.

Our fights should really be for the mission of the church and the mission of the family instead of trying to have bigger churches or better families. When it comes to entities that god has created specifically to make disciples and accomplish His mission (of influencing a generation to have a stronger, deeper, and more authentic relationship with God), there is the church...the family...and nothing else.

God is at work telling a story of restoration and redemption through your family. Never buy into the myth that you need to become the " right" kind of parent before God can use you in your children's lives. Instead learn to cooperate with whatever God desires to do in your heart today so your children will have a front-row seat to the grace and goodness of God.

Church has believed that parents probably wont' assume responsibility for their own children's growth, so they have tried to become a parent substitute. This in turn ha s fostered parents to adopt a "drop-off" mentality. Maybe the greatest gift a church can give parents is the confidence and courage to do what God has wired them to do.

If you want small group leaders to make a weekly investment in kids, then you need to make a weekly investment in small group leaders.

If you want to get serious about influencing the hearts of this generation, you have to think about creating an actual, visible, consistent place where they know they belong.

What if you started acting like what you do for kids is more important than anything else you do.

Never embrace a version of the gospel that doesn't require you to do life with someone who isn't like you.

every parent will leave a personal legacy (though not all parents will leave behind an inheritance). what i give to my children or what i do for my children is not as important as what i leave in them.

When we lead small we simply make a choice to invest strategically in the lives of a few over time so we can help them build an authentic faith.

No one has more potential to influence your child than you.

most kids who grow up and leave church did not run away from caring relationships. They ran away from prejudice judgment irrelevance and religion.

YOU CAN SHAPE A KID'S FAITH BY CONNECTING THEM TO CARING ADULTS WHO WILL BE PRESENT IN THEIR LIFE.

The first priority of the family should be to establish a quality of relationship with each other that is a reflection of an authentic relationship with God. That may have been what Paul was aiming at when he wrote to the church in Ephesians 5 and 6 about the family.

Sometimes, we forget the essence of parenting is really about nurturing critical connections that affect every child's future.

You can't manage people to be on the same page; you have to live together on the same page.

YOUR JOB IS TO BALANCE THE TENSION BETWEEN ENCOURAGING CONFIDENTIALITY AND KNOWING WHEN TO PROMPT ONE OF YOUR FEW TO USE DISCRETION.

Part of the success of every program should be linked to how well it elevates the idea of finding authentic community.

Change is not the enemy of what is sacred. Change is the champion of what is sacred.

WHEN YOU SEE HOW MUCH TIME YOU HAVE LEFT, YOU TEND TO DO MORE WITH THE TIME YOU HAVE NOW.

You are the leader. You can't do away with tension. You can manage it.