[Kid Inspiration]

This May has turned into a big month. A whole lot of events and conferences which efectively means I am not in the office at all in May except for weekends… Putting a lot of trust in my iPhone battery!

I have some idea now of what it takes to travel like some of our team do. I like living near our airport but not having to use its facilities very often… this month I am a regular at the security check point at Sydney Aiport!

First up was our annual:

NATIONAL ACC CONFERENCE

The month started with the National ACC conference in Brisbane. It is our pastors conference for the AoG in australia. This was a great time to just sit/receive and connect with a whole bunch of people from our movement here in Australia. We had Reinhard Bonnke and Steve Murrell speak to us and just spoke some brilliant encouragement and a lot of gold from their wealth of experience.

So we were out of the office in the lovely Gold Coast of Queensland. Probably one of my favourite places to have a conference

HILLSONG ONE DAYS

Then in the second week we began our Hillsong One Day conferences which were conceived to bring the annual Hillsong Conference to cities around Australia and celebrate the 25th birthday of the event!

There would be kids programs at each of the conferences, not a ‘Kidsong’ like we would run in Sydney, but some sort of experience for our little ones. We decided to create a parenting room for parents with kids up to 1 years old, a playgroup for two year olds (families provide carers), a preschool program (3-5 year olds) and a primary school program. Each conference would be customised to make it work within the rooms provided.

HILLSONG ONE DAY: BRISBANE

It all began in Brisbane on Monday night. We arrived with a small army of production team, Hillsong United, Events team and me overseeing our kids program along with our Hillsong Brisbane Campus team.

The truth is we didn’t know what to expect really. School is still on during the event but who knew what parents would do? Bring ‘em along or organise care for them. We had limited registrations pre-event so I was prepared for big/small, young/old. What we got was volunteers from our absolutely fantastic kids team in Brisbane turn out and give of themselves to bless the children coming along.

A far larger contingent of primary/elementary kids came along (numbers of home schooling and out of towners) and a great little group of preschoolers. I led a rally/worship experience for the little ones in the morning and at night, both preschool and primary. Thanks to the kids team at Citipointe kids staff (Sam & Karolina Gunsser) who oversee the kids and youth ministries making them one of the few ‘family ministry’ pastors I know of in Australia.

Special shout-out to Richard Leworthy our Brisbane kids pastor who pulled the whole volunteer team together and Petter Klaar and Tony Moshudis who came together to form the key team to make this event happen! Thank You SO MUCH!

HILLSONG ONE DAY: PERTH

I had never been to Perth before. Unlike the East coast of Australia where everything is within 1-2 hours, it is quite a flight and change of time zone to get to Perth. We arrived to Challenge Stadium to find a venue which proved to be ‘interesting’ to say the least. It has a fully functioning Pool and multiple Gym’s throughout which would be running during the one day event. Usually we have exclusive use of a venue we hire which makes it much easier safety wise, age group room etc. to plan a program for kids.

So we were working with that, but thank the Lord my wife Beci and our Kids Event’s coordinator Eva flew in to help oversee this one.

A lot of the success of this one day would be reliant on the teams we were working with to make it happen, and the great news was we got to work with a Brilliant team!

Sam Sheedy of Sunset Coast CLC and Harvest West Bible College, Zheng Kon from Perth CLC and Jocelyn Jayasooria from Kingdom City formed the key team for Perth and bought together the most passionate and willing to serve team! If it was not for this group of Perth-ites we would have never been able to make the conference the huge success it was. In fact the reception and expectation of the Perth people was inspiring and such a blessing for us Sydney-siders.

This event was even more of an unknown for us because we were working with people in some cases have never met before and Churches who just came to serve with a willing heart! I was over the moon with every single volunteer and so grateful to God for each of them!

It was also nice to use a venue after Justin Beiber

What we have learnt so far

• Just doing one of these events gives a great idea of what to expect and where you need to put strength in the teams.
• I feel a real passion developing for preschool praise and worship. There needs to be excellent leadership of this area modeled, demonstrated and developed right now!
• It all comes down to the team and volunteers
• I have very few frequent flyer points
• Perth has some brilliant people at brilliant churches!

Hat Tip to JC on this one.

In all my YouTube years this one has to be the one that left my jaw open the longest!

It gets worse/better (depending on your general feeling about bad videos) as it goes on.

Nu Thang

So from the ridiculous to the sublime…ish

Here’s something a little more palatable/incredible! That’s confidence right there:

5 Year Old Rapping

Every weekend as I get up to preach/speak/explain a concept/teach etc. to our kids it all comes back to Einstein.

Strip back what you are trying to say to its most simple fundamentals, that’s the most effective way to teach.

I haven’t really used Facebook much recently.

In fact I haven’t twittered much either.

What does this all mean?

Maybe I am going through a mid social media life crisis?

Too much information for too long is giving me info-fatigue?

Is this what non-geeks feel like about the internet?

Can I relate to this guy at all?

Now if you are reading this blog post, I would assume that you are otherwise engaged and interacting online? So have you ever experienced this? Or perhaps you aren’t involved in social media? Your thoughts?

In this years eXchange film and arts festival at our Hillsong Easter celebrations I entered a film with my partner in crime Funny Man Dan.

Now mostly because of the sobriety and importance of the moment that Easter demands a lot of the films are quite serious in nature. A lot of movie trailer voiceovers and artistic shots of nature and out-of-focus moments of contemplation and earnestness.

So we decided to stick with what we know… ie. irreverence.

Here is my synopsis:

‘Had An Idea’ is a short film produced for the Exchange Festival 2011.

Starring David Wakerley and Dan Lee-Archer as themselves.

“What happens when two motivationally challenged young men attempt to film a movie about making a movie. ‘Had An Idea’ is an angst driven cliché-fest about the pitfalls of filming your own movies.”

Had An Idea: On Vimeo

I have met over the last few years a large number of incredibly faithful kids pastors and leaders. A large percentage of the people who lead children’s ministries in Australia are volunteers and give a large chunk of their time to their local Church to see the ministry to children move forward.

I think these leaders have a HUGE amount to say to everyone involved in ministering to children. I am fascinated with the different forms that our little world of ministry takes on. Just last year a network that had seemingly languished here in NSW was resurrected and is finding it’s feet again. I have been able to be a part of a few of the gatherings and it has been such a blessing just to connect with leaders from other denominations across the spectrum of ministry in Australia. The Salvation Army people, Anglicans, Baptists and representatives from World Vision.

Now I don’t travel around very much except perhaps to the Kidshaper conference each year. But mainly I get to invite hundreds of pastors to the kids stream at our annual Hillsong Conference. So for me the net is a vital connection to leaders around this sunburnt land.

Maybe it’s the Tall Poppy thing in our culture – but my experience is that very few leaders in Australia a good at telling their own story.

There is so much God stuff going on with our kids in Australia I want to read some more about this, I want to hear more about this.

The most significant thing we have done in the last few years is start a preteen ministry. I wrote about it here: Re: Ideas for Children’s Ministry and have spoken about it everywhere I get the chance. What a WASTE if I had never shared the experience of starting this program and the blessing that it has been (I think I should talk more about it actually), and simply kept it to ourselves.

Right now someone is sitting on a story that will inspire me (or anyone) to greater effectiveness and new vision but they choose the path of least resistance and keep it to themselves. That’s not humble, that’s irresponsible.

<And Breathe…>

Here are some people telling the story of what God is doing in Aus:

Rob Bradbury is the Godfather Children’s ministry in Australia of has a new blog.

Children’s Ministry 1234 – The Planetshakers kids team

Brendon and Cathie Clancy – Kids worship leaders and pastors

Chris Neal – Keep writing Chris

Nathan Mclean – On Hillsong Kids staff at our Hills Campus!

Andrew Shepherd – 25 years in ministry and passionate as the day is long!

Funny Man Dan – My very own muffin of mirth keeping you smiling since 1984

Kathryn Macdowall – Hillsong Kids staff and the worlds greatest curriculum writer

Uniting Church – News from the Uniting Church in Australia

This was a pretty quick list and far too small. I am sure it needs to grow. If you know of others please leave a comment below and I will edit this post!

P.S. This is kinda like a part two of my last post Blogging Matters.

HT to TSK on this one.

Seth Godin & Tom Peters on blogging

I have tried to put into words the impact and point of blogging to many people over the years. These two influential business leaders put it brilliantly!

If you are leading anything like a ministry or team I want you to understand that you have a voice and a platform. You are called to steward that responsibility and privilege! If you don’t record and share what God is doing with and through you in this age of information I believe you are missing something quite profound.

Paul recorded his life and it turned into the New Testament.

That opportunity is not really open to us today, but who knows what could happen if you took steps to present your voice to the world? At least have enough respect for your calling to treat it as precious and important.

A book is simply a container for an idea (what makes a book a book?).

After you are gone, where will your ideas be contained? If you don’t do something about it… nowhere.

At the very least give your future generations the inspiration of discovering your story, your journey with God!

“The local church is the hope of the world.” - Bill Hybels

I get excited about opportunities to present Christ in media, culture, music and through the influence of politics and entertainment. But most of my enthusiasm is reserved for what I believe can be accomplished through the local Church. YOUR local Church.

It’s the relationships of your Church community as the representatives of God on earth that make the quite confronting reality of heaven and hell seem important right now.

The most exciting occupation on this earth has got to be joining in with what God is up to, and whatever he is up to will have something to do with the local Church. In Matthew 16:18 Jesus makes it pretty clear what he is going to be doing in the foreseeable future, ”…I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

There can be no greater life that one spent involved in what Jesus himself told us he will be building — His Church.

“In the beginning, the universe was created. This made a lot of people very angry, and has been widely regarded as a bad idea.” – Douglas Adams

No matter who you are or what you do, get involved in ‘THE’ Church.

So I was just a part of the 2011 Children’s Ministry Telesummit hosted by pajama conference.

Myself and Funny Man Dan put together a video training with a title too large to mention here.

If you missed it, have no fear because you can download the entire package for under $50 at their website.

Get Inspired! Be Blessed! and Learn from some of the top Children’s Pastors and Leaders today.This downloadable collection is the entire 2011 Children’s Ministry Telesummit Audio’s and Video’s. Over 30 Hours of Teachings and Education! This package will be great to give out to your ministry leaders! Make copies and you can give one out a month for over two years or give one out every week to feed your leaders with.

A great group of leaders for sure!

In the late 1840′s, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis was an assistant in the maternity wards of a Vienna hospital. He noted with alarm that the mortality rate in a delivery room staffed by medical students was up to three times higher than in a second delivery room staffed by midwives. Women were terrified, and rightly so, of the room staffed by the medical students where up to twenty five percent of women died of ‘childbed fever’.

Semmelweis observed that the students were coming straight from their lessons in the autopsy room to the delivery room. In a flash of insight (obvious to us today), he surmised that the students might be carrying the infection from their dissections to birthing mothers.

After ordering doctors and medical students to wash their hands before examining women in labor the mortality rate in his maternity wards eventually dropped to less than one percent!

What needs to change in your ministry to kids?

So that’s what happened to them.

It’s Sunday…midnight…

Got a big sabbath waiting for me in a few hours so must sleep but here for your listening pleasure (hopefully) is a little track I put together tonight called “I’ve Got A Reason”

I’ve Got A Reason by kidinspiration

I firmly believe that in order to be creative, we need to be creative.

We are in the season of writing praise and worship songs for our kids and I need to be on the top of my game creatively.

Sometimes the best idea is hidden behind another idea that simply needs to get out of the way. So I exercise my creative muscle by getting stuff out.

Doesn’t matter if its good or not, it’s out of the way. If something comes of it then brilliant…bonus!

We at Hillsong Kids once lost an entire drive full of videos and content from our ministry. In fact this Tuesday myself and Nathan Mclean will be filming a new leaders training video because of that disaster.

So take heed and maybe join the World Back Up Day and back up all of your data.

I have backups, but they are currently all stored in my house.

My plan is to make a copy and move it to my office at work. That is insurance… the odds of my house and the church office burning down on the same day are astronomically small!

A lot of noise has been made (in our little but colourful corner of the the internets) about the 2011 Ministry To Children Blog Madness competition.

I was up in one of the divisions in the first round (there are four) but owing to our Colour Women’s conference and all that was happening it just passed me by without much comment on my part.

Unlike the 2010 comp. where the prize was just winning, this year Tony Kummer put up an iPad as a first prize!

I couldn’t let the whole thing happen without saying how awesome that was, so kudos to Tony!

The four final blogs are all worthy of winning and I love reading all of them.

Sam Luce

Small Town Kidmin (Jared Massey)

Justyn Smith

Leader 2 Leader (Jim Wideman)

There is more diversity each year in our world of kidmin blogging and I am so happy to see that!

Oh yeah, more funny babies.

Seriously, when I was a kid I had to wait for funniest home videos to come on Sat nights to see ridiculous home movies!

Twin Baby boys have a conversation

This year in the lead up to our annual Hillsong Conference in July we are doing, for the first time ever, what we are calling one days (hillsongconference.com/oneday). These are one day conferences to inspire and encourage in whatever way we can your local church.

We are going to visit four major cities around Australia (Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide) and celebrate what God has done and is doing in the local church here in Australia.

Along with our senior pastors Brian and Bobbie Houston, Casey Treat and Hillsong United will be joining us.

The scary/awesome part is that we will be creating something awesome for our kids at each of the events!

Scary in that these are venues that we have never been to before and awesome because I would love YOU to be a part of them. I am working with my team with local churches at each city to create an experience for kids from preschoolers through to year 6 at school. If you would love to be a part of it, or even bring a team with you to volunteer then I can promise you an event to remember!

Email us at: hillsongkids@hillsong.com with your details and we can get you all the info you need.

And I will be sure to be blogging about these events if you are not in Australia in May. It’s gonna be crazy on so many levels!