After the awesome Napkin conference last week myself and Nathan Mclean made our way around the US to visit a few friends and Churches.

We made it to Free Chapel in Georgia after battling through a blizzard… okay it was a little snow, but more than I have seen in long time! (Ah New Zealand, you have a wintery place in my soul).

But making it to the Church we hung out with youth pastor Clayton Baird (graduate of Hillsong Bible College) who showed us around their flippin’ awesome campus.

One of the coolest things about Kidpak (their children’s ministry) is KP7, the kids worship band!

I love seeing music for kids that is reaching them where they are at!

Take today’s hottest sounds like the music from Fall Out Boy, The Killers, All American Rejects, The Hives, Switchfoot, Cold Play, Nickelback, U2, The Black Eyed Peas (and even a little guitar hero)…

Mix them all together and what do you get…

KP7 – NOISE

You need to check these guys out, their latest album Noise was just released, you can preview the tracks here, or on iTunes.

It’s really late – and I am gettin’ ready to sleep.

But before I retire, I wrote a bunch of stuff on some Napkin’s this week, small slivers of paper with ideas covering them.

These ideas could be the seeds of my future.

They could be the result a little too much mexican food.

But no matter what, these ideas need to come out. Even if it’s not the greatest idea in the world, there could be gold hiding behind it!

(Or platinum).

So thanks to Justyn and the team at The Church at South Las Vegas for such a flippin’ awesome conference.

#napconf is the hashtag for this years Napkin Conference in Las Vegas.

Man I love it!

With a bunch of like minded people who care about kids – even more than that, the kind of of people who don’t get all freaky about going to ‘sin city‘… the truth is Jesus was all about being where the sinners were!

So the room is full of ‘My People’!

More than any other conference I have attended, I feel like this is a group of friends learning from each other.

Congrats to Pastor Justyn – the first day was sensational! Looking forward to the second day.

P.S. Nathan Mclean, Carlos and I went $1 Graveyard bowling at midnight at the Hotel and Mclean bowled 6 strikes in one game for a score of 160! A true 2am champion!

I love seeing behind the scenes footage.

This is a reel from a studio that shows you just how much is made up in your favourite TV show.

Our 2008 Hillsong Kids album is called Follow You.

It takes Jesus out of an abstract belief and makes it concrete, a cultural shift from faith being a set of propositions you put your trust in.

A generation ago that album could have been called ‘Believe This’.

Witness the rise of social justice in the Church which (hopefully) gives equal footing to worship and justice in our faith.

Justice takes our abstract doctrine and makes it concrete… we are called to be Jesus’ hands and feet.

Amen.

It’s Thursday, which can mean only one thing. My friend the slightly humorous Funny Man Dan has posted his weekly thoughts on his blog. To celebrate one year of the Thursday Blog I have written a moving tribute to the man and the myth, so jump on over there and check it out.

I am putting the finishing touches on my message for the Napkin Conference in Las Vegas next week!! Now it’s a big investment for Justyn to get me all the way over there, so he has asekd me to guarantee certain things during my message; 1. a minimum of 16 chuckles and 4 big laughs. 2. At least 2 moments of clarity and revelation and 3. A minimum of 30% of the conference in tears (more than that and I will just be overdoing it).

(okay he hasn’t really).

(if you thought he had, you should get out more)

(To LAS VEGAS and the Napkin Conference!)

(Ha).

Speaking of conferences, we are almost at our annual Colour Conference here at Hillsong, and Rob just announced their Planet Shakers kids conference coming in April.

Let me tell you about my new son! Orlando Wakerley is the MAN. He is now 6 days old and lovin’ life. One child is great, but let me tell you I am really working on a family here. And our 4 year old Brooklyn is just the most delightful boy to ever be born. When your kids are healthy and happy you honestly feel like you can take on the world! God’s grace has covered us is the only way I can describe it. ESPECIALLY when you work with so many families facing sickness and issues — never take it for granted!

And that’s what hot!

Yes, my rather slow moving plan to populate the world with people genetically related to me has taken another giant step forward! You’ve read it on Twitter, seen him on facebook, well here he is on a blog! My new son Orlando Stephen Wakerley. Born on the 12th February at 2.09pm EST.

This is adding to my first child the oft-mentioned Brooklyn Justice Wakerley.

I am truly blessed in more ways than this short and humorous blog post can convey. A trouble free birth and a healthy progeny!

Why the name? Well calling a boy Betty would have just been silly.

Orlando… we like the sound of it, and it’s nice to keep naming our children with places found in various states littered around the USA.

Stephen… my fathers name. A man crazy enough to follow a dream and see miracles happen as a result.

Wakerley… kinda had to use that one (btw if you’re ever in England, you simply must visit my wood… Wakerley Wood).

Gifts may be dropped off at our estate located somewhere within that ancient forest, just follow the hounds and the sound of tea being brewed.

Each year about this time (actually around the time of Super Bowl), we at Hillsong Church have our Superbowl event – Vision Sunday.

Pastor Brian presents to our whole church where he feels the Church is heading. Realigns us around purpose and points us toward Jesus our hope and future.

This year was the first time that the vision has been presented globally to all our family of Hillsong Churches, so it being Monday morning here in Australia that vision will have been presented and generated a lot of passion and excitement all over the world.

I am pretty sure the video will be put up online soon and will update this post when it is. UPDATE: http://www.myhillsong.com/visionsunday

The great thing about this year is that we focussed on people and their stories in a big way. It’s not so much about the big announcements (although a campus in New York is exciting), but more about becoming the kind of Church we need to be to impact this world.

Our Church has always been about connecting, equipping and serving people and in 2010 the opportunity to do just that will be greater than ever before.

So I am excited because every person that calls Hillsong Church home is called to greater participation in seeing the Kingdom of God advanced.

(It is cool seeing the New York link at the top of our website).

(It doesn’t link yet, but when it does)!!

We should be focussed on creating a Church that our Children will want to be a part of and lead.

We need to be creating a ministry where our ceiling will be their floor.

We want them to stand on our shoulders

The next senior/lead pastors of our Churches are most likely in your parenting rooms, or our early childhood ministries.

Which in my mind is the only reason to include chocolate in your weekend services.

I do need to write something down about the new iPad… which looks cool but not compelling to me yet…

Here’s the thing:

When I heard about the iPhone I wanted it like Nemo wants his dad because I hated the experience I had with other phones.The iPad hasn’t really whispered sweet nothings in my ear simply because I don’t hate using other computers. I like using my Mac Pro at home and iMac at work.

Issues:

1. I am slightly nervous about owning a ‘computer’ like device that has so many limitations on it. With a real Laptop you can install anything you like, mess around under the hood and generally go nuts. I put up with the limitations with the iPhone (only installing apps approved by Apple etc.) because it’s a phone, not a computer.
2. I want to use it at work and print things access the hard drives and although I am pretty sure those things will appear in the future they remain to be announced.

So I am gonna wait to have a go with it down at the Apple store.