[Kid Inspiration]

So Rob Bradbury at Planetshakers with his team has released 4. This is AWESOME, I got a hold of a copy from last weeks launch at Kidshaper conference. I have had a quick look through it and it is great to see this kind of quality coming out of a local church!

4 is the latest curriculum for kids 6-12. Using video clips with high quality praise and worship, Zing Things that add humour to the week’s less and preaching targeted at children, everything is set for you to add some personal group teaching before the kids disband into small groups. We surveyed children’s pastors around the world asking them what was important to have in a curriculum. ‘4′ delivers on every point and more!

So hop on over to the 4 Resources site and check it out.

“If there are any idiots in the room, will they please stand up” said the sarcastic teacher.

After a long silence, one lad rose to his feet.

“Now then sonny, why do you consider yourself an idiot?” enquired the teacher with a sneer.

“Well, actually I don’t,” said the lad, “but I hate to see you standing up there all by yourself.”

From Michael Coggin, a licensed counselor at the Resurgence. A great blog to read for some very deep thoughts, and blog posts long enough to double as books.

Listening for Life: Picking Up on Verbal and Non-Verbal Signals

…As we look at today’s generation we see a generation of adolescents that are deeply wounded. We live in a culture that is permeated by relational brokenness. We see the fruits and consequences of no-fault divorces and researchers who 30 years ago were writing of the resiliency of children of divorce and even the benefits of parental separation who are now having to come to terms with the reality. We also live in a sexually addicted society. Rise in eating disorders, the prevalence of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, and the overall neglect of today’s youth.

His article is written primarily about adolescents, but a midwife and friend of mine has been involved with a pregnant 11 year old in the last few months, so we know puberty is coming on fast for our kids!

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

So have a read of this post and learn how to LISTEN to kids and the barriers to listening.

Article Summary:

Listening for Life

We see in Scripture that Jesus understood the importance of listening. Even as a young boy he was sitting with the teachers in the temple, “listening to them an asking them questions and everyone was amazed at his understanding” (Luke 2:46–47) … The word listen occurs more than two hundred times in the Scriptures.

Listening Unearths Hidden Feelings
Actively listening allows a context for teenagers’ hidden feelings to come to the surface.

Listening Creates a Safe Environment
Free from evaluation, listening creates a safe environment.

Listening Leads to Intimacy
To listen to another human being is a relational posture that invites as well as fosters intimacy.

BARRIERS TO LISTENING

Landmines of the Heart – Landmines Are Relational Wounds
[In Europe] Shells and landmines from [WW1] accidentally explode and kill people to this day.”… The landmines, or the relational wounds of our heart, keep us from being able to enter into adolescents’ lives and earn the right to listen to them and speak God’s gospel of grace into their lives.Personal Sharing with an Agenda: Sharing to Give Something vs. Sharing to Get Something
…sharing to get these questions answered by the adolescents in their lives as opposed to being concerned about what God says about who they are.

The Importance of a Non-Anxious Presence
It’s important for teens to know that you’re not going anywhere, no matter what. They need to know that, no matter how shocking, surprising, or broken they are, you are committed to pursuing them, listening to them, and walking with them through the brokenness, as well as the beauty of their lives.

Pursuing an Adolescent’s Heart
Help adolescents know that they don’t have to fill the role of God when it comes who we are. Our willingness to take the time to listen to an adolescent will have a generational impact.

Read the full article at Resurgence

Second ever weekend report.

The cut off for our earlybird registrations for Kidsfest (Annual album recording) in October finished this weekend. For anyone who has run an event like this, or VBS where registration is required, the cut-off always brings a bump to the regos, but never as much as you thought?

Primary Age Recap:

Big Picture (August): The Word and Me
Big Word: Joshua 1:8 (NIV)
Big Idea: Promises… God’s receipt book
Big Point: God’s word is full of promises for me

Sunday mornings are a large group, small group format. So we have a DVD teaching each week, usually filmed with myself and Nathan McLean (Primary age pastor at Hills Campus).

This weeks video was okay, didn’t engage the kids as much as I hoped, but got the point across. We need to break up the video with some more random stuff/funny bits.

Had a volunteer focus over the whole weekend (8 services), and have 6 new volunteers to follow up this week…

Met a mum who came from the local area who was at church for the first time. She said she wants her kids to come to ‘Sunday School’. There are still parents around like that!! I am believing to really connect her in with the church!

So this is now this blogs official coolest kids place on earth!

Wannado City leaves behind the cotton candy, the solicitors of large stuffed animals, the mindless entertainment and trash. Instead the “city” has redefined child entertainment with aspirational activities, all of which are framed around the question: “What do you wanna do when you grow up?”

In Sawgrass Mills Mall in Southern Florida (sounds like a place you could loose your leg to a alligator just getting there) – is this most coolest of kids spaces.

America’s first indoor role-playing theme park, makes their wishes come true in a realistic and imaginative way. Aimed at the 2-14 year-old set, Wannado City™ recreates all the sites of a major city from the point of view of its kidizens™, with many real-play™ venues and hundreds of career possibilities. All venues are designed to allow kids to live out their dreams – from learning to be a firefighter to piloting an aircraft to working at a television studio. Real-play™ empowers kids to become decision-makers and learn responsibility.

There’s my idea of a children’s ministry building!!!!

Via the Cool Hunter

Americans Are Most Worried about Children’s Future… new research from the Barna guys and girls. I just wish we had a similar research team here in Australia, to really delve into some of the issues here… although results would be quite similar to the U.S.

With the 2008 presidential election campaign well underway, a new survey suggests that the biggest issue of them all may well be one that leaders do not seem to be focused upon: the well-being of America’s children…

Trailing the focus on children were matters such as improving national security (72%); helping the poor and disadvantaged (69%); upgrading the reliability and honesty in news reporting (63%); increasing the nation’s investment in environmental protection (60%); and enhancing the state of marriage and families (60%).

If the government won’t focus on kids, then hey… let the church lead the way!

Sounds like a plan.

Scott Williams posts over at the Swerve.tv Blog.

Should we get rid of church members and begin to develop ministry partners?

member – a person, animal, plant group, etc., that is part of a society, party, community, taxon, or other body.

partner – a person who shares or is associated with another in some action or endeavor; associate; a husband or a wife; spouse.

Ministries around the country are evolving, changing, becoming more relevant. It’s time to get rid of the dated idea of having church members and instead develop ministry partners.

Love it!

Every person/family/teen/kids needs to realise that they don’t just attend church but in attending they are choosing to partner with us in seeing the vision of the community go forward!

It’s always good to bring a good report, so here is the first in a series of posts about the weekend. Will be a great record of the little things (and big things) that happen each weekend.

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Had a GREAT time in church this weekend.

Benny Perez from The Church Las Vegas spoke in our 5pm Service, and got to hang out with his children’s pastor Justyn Smith. Awesome dude who has been in his role since only March this year, but has great vision for where they want to go!

Announced about our new age group next year. We are introducing a pre-teen ministry at church called Voltage (more about that in a future post). So huge excitement about that for all our year 4/5 kids who will be a part of that in 2008.

Spent time my 11:30am Sun service hanging with our year 4 KDG (Small group – Kids Discipleship Group). Discussing the theme with them, ‘The Bible is the map to life’. Really saw some of the kids ‘get’ it as I talked about how God had led myself and my wife to Australia!

Dave out. 

Evan Doyle over at the Way We See It Blog, posted about the 10/40 window yesterday. Now I am not accusing him of anything here, but I was thinking of posting some thoughts about that very topic at least two days ago.

So here my take on the 10/40 window (stolen in part from Joel A’Bell – Hillsong Executive Pastor)

(Do I ever have original ideas?)

The 10/40 Window refers to those regions of the eastern hemisphere located between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator, the area that has the largest amount of unreached people groups in the world. An area that encompasses the majority of the world’s Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists.

A very popular term I heard a lot growing up in the nineties… maybe because my parents were into missions big-time?

Where is the 10/40 window in your church?

The largest group of families, students, singles that are not connected in any significant way to the life of your church. Sure, they may attend monthly or even weekly, but do they have relationships within church life or do they just come and go?

The pathway within our church community is this:

• New People Network – You are new (6 months or less) to the church.
• Service Active – No longer a new person but attend church
• Connect Group Active – You are active in a small group
• Ministry Active – Active in a ministry within church life
• Key Team – Oversee teams of leaders/a ministry within church life.

Our goal is to break down the BIG into something smaller… ANYTHING smaller. So if you start serving on weekends, you are now involved in a smaller community. If you get involved in a Connect group (small group) you are now part of a smaller community.

The desire is that everyone serving is a part of a small group… but that is not a barrier to serving, you will probably find your small group within the relationships you make in the ministry.

So the 10/40 window for us - Service Active

The big black hole that is service active.

Families that enter may never come out. They may never build significant relationships, they may never really get excited about the vision of our church, they may slowly start becoming the Easter and Christmas kind of church attender.

So our goal is to connect ALL new people with ministries/small groups BEFORE they enter service active. There is a journey that all people take in your church – and your goal is to make the pathway clear enough as POSSIBLE to every new person.

There are kids that I see regularly for months, then all of a sudden it has been half a year since I last saw them…

Where is your 10/40 window… I have a feeling it is in the same place as mine.

Proof… women DO get what they want.


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