The Best Things about Orange Conference

My suitcase was emptied, lint rolled (the cats just cannot resist a purple suitcase) and put away less than a week after I returned home from The Orange Conference. That may not sound like much to you, but take my word for it: That is progress.

I’ve sorted the fliers and souvenirs, and I’ve made note of a few more blog posts I want to write. But before I can get to that, I want to tell you my top ten favorite parts of the whole trip!

1. Staying with Amanda: Amanda and her family took such great care of me, and we had a blast hanging out! Even though it’s fun to see blogging friends at conferences, staying in someone’s house for three days is a completely different – and better! – thing. Especially when you consider how far Amanda’s house was from the conference and therefore, how many hours we spent together in the car, talking, laughing, crying. It was good. I love Amanda and her family – and did I mention she makes a great egg sandwich? Because yeah, she does.

2. Seeing the Sisterchicks and Kathy: In both cases, our visits were cut short – one by impending tornadoes and doom, the other by a crazy busy conference schedule. But eating pizza and amazing cupcakes with Mandi, Becky and Staci was so much fun, and I loved eating a couple meals with Kathy during the conference. (Yes, I have noticed that my favorite things always revolve around food and I’ve decided that I’m okay with it.) I love these girls, and if they could just fix the traffic and the summer heat, I might consider moving down there to hang out all the time!

3. Experiencing a little bit of Atlanta: Thankfully, the three days I was in Atlanta were beautiful – no sign of the muggy heat that the city is known for. I did have the privilege of experiencing its traffic, though. (And if the traffic we saw “wasn’t that bad,” please don’t tell me.) But my favorite part of Atlanta was the OK Cafe, where we ate lunch one day and breakfast another. I may not technically be Southern, but grits, black-eye peas and a bunch of other foods that didn’t need salt (because they were already Southern-seasoned enough!!) Hit. The. Spot.

4. Hearing NEEDTOBREATHE: Not only did I get to see this band in concert at the end of our first day, but I got to listen to them warm up while I wrote a post in the bloggers suite. They ROCKED. I loved them. The end.

5. Jeanne Stevens: Without realizing it, I signed up for three (out of a possible four) breakout sessions by Jeanne. Apparently we have some of the same interests! She was a great speaker, teaching about creativity and leadership in an engaging, heart-moving way.

6. Tons of other great speakers: As a one-time speech teacher, I’m a picky audience member for pretty much any speaker. And I have never been to a conference or event where every speaker hit it out of the park! Perry Noble was by far my favorite, but I also loved Jeff Manion and Carey Neiuwhof, too. (As a matter of fact, I can’t wait to read Carey’s book, Parenting Beyond Your Capacity!)

7. Confirming that ministry, church and work for a cause can be done well. Sharing this thought with Amanda might have been the first (of many) time I cried at Orange. So many things I thought I knew [during our church plant, other ministries and jobs I've had] – and was told I didn’t – turned out to be right. I may have made a lot of mistakes, but I wasn’t wrong about everything. And that was both amazing to hear – and so very hard.

8. Being around so many people who love the Lord and are doing His work. Enough said.

But if you want some details, the Orange website has these stats about the conference: 4700 attendees / 1300 churches / 47 states / 24 denominations / 15 countries / one movement

9. Meeting Yancy and Cory: Amanda’s friends were fun and sweet to let me tag along with their breakfast on Saturday. And the moment I got home, I ordered a Yancy CD for Annalyn!

10. Learning about Orange: Until I met Kathy at this year’s Blissdom, I didn’t know that Orange existed. Now that I do, I really want to have Annalyn in a church that uses this approach.

If you’re wondering what Orange IS, I’m going to borrow from the Orange website. “[Orange is] what happens when you combine yellow (the light of the church) and red (the love of the family) to make a greater impact [and] to work together and show a generation who God is. [Orange is] when church leaders work together to implement a comprehensive strategy from preschool to college to incite wonder, provoke discovery and fuel passion in the hearts of sons and daughters so they can see God for who he is, so they can see themselves the way God sees them [and] so they can love others the way God does.”

Awesome, right?

This post will be linked to Top Ten Tuesday at OhAmanda. It also includes affiliate links.