[Kid Inspiration]

Another post announcing something without actually containing any kind of content or insightful thoughts on God and His manifest presence and glory working in the lives of we His people here on planet earth!

Yep, just wanted to point out that I just updated the BIG curriculum site with a new promo video… I am trying right now to upload it to youtube, but the gremlins are active…

So check out the new 9:12 long video that goes into more detail exactly what BIG is!!!

Hillsong Kids Big

- Dave

Little advance notice… Hillsong Kids website redesign has been completed (almost).

There are a couple of tweaks to make, but generally the website is finished!

Front page especially needs some different content… but I am REALLY happy with how it turned out!

Thought I would post a reply to an email enquiry we just got, might make for interesting reading if you are that way inclined! (edited for brevity)

—– Original Message —–
From: D G
To: David Wakerley
Sent: Thu May 15 06:04:47 2008
Subject: Ideas for Children’s ministry

…We are trying to enhance and improve our children’s ministry so we would like to learn more about what you do and seek your wisdom… we want to learn even more so that we can increase, and we know that’s exactly what continues to go on at your church… INCREASE! Are your age groups separated or together and what do you think has worked best for you? Also, how many volunteers do you usually try to have for each service and if you don’t mind me asking, how many payed staff do you have on your children’s team? We would love to learn as much as we can from you! Your ministry is an incredible blessing to churches world wide!

——– Reply ———-

D,

Thanks for your email, I hope I can answer your questions!

Little bit of background: We have two major campuses and 14 extension services (at present) We don’t have permanent facilities here at any venue, except for a couple of ‘nursery’ rooms. So at this point we work with what we have… We separate age groups as much as possible for each campus.

Parenting Rooms 0-12months
Cubbyhouse 1-3 years
The Ark 3-5 years
Funhouse 5 & 6 year olds
All Stars 7,8,9 year olds
Voltage 10,11 year olds

We started Voltage (preteen) ministry this year (10-11 year old) and it has been an incredible momentum builder. A bunch of kids that weren’t really engaged are now LOVING church and building relationships with other kids and
leaders.

We try to break down each age group as much as possible, one of the goals we are working toward right now is to get every child ministered to through small groups, not just on weekends, but that they would know and identify one leader as their KDG (Kids Discipleship Group) leader.

Okay there are 8 services in the City campus on a weekend and 5 at the hills campus (almost 30 services with all extension services), so the number of leaders varies widely depending on the time… (9:30am in the city is large, 7pm Sat is not etc.)

There are 9 people on the kids staff, a bunch more if you include interns etc.

Your ratio of kids to adults is about 14% on a weekend which is great!

Check out http://hillsongkidsbig.com for our curriculum coming soon!

Not sure how helpful all that is, but please email me anytime!

Kind Regards,

David Wakerley
Children’s Pastor – City Campus

Hillsong Church
188 Young St
Waterloo NSW 2017
Australia
Ph: +61 2 9775 3642

The conference website is up! Check it at kidsongworld.com

It is almost time for our annual Hillsong Conference, July 7-11 2008.

If you are a children’s pastor or leader you NEED to be at our:

CHILDREN’S PASTORS & LEADERS ELECTIVE
What a privilege it is to be serving this stunning generation of children! Come and join us as we are inspired to disciple children to do greater things for Jesus and His church than any other previous generation has done! Experience praise and worship that captures the hearts of children to unashamedly proclaim the name of Jesus Christ. Gain insights from the Hillsong Kids team on the practicalities of ministering to children. Learn about the latest in curriculum for children. Discover how you can grow your outrageously faithful leaders and volunteers to take your children’s ministry forward.

(That would be the blurb from the website)

So for your kids they will experience being with a couple thousand other kids following Jesus, and for you as an adult (I can only surpose), our elective stream.

The team is planning some fantastic sessions this year, we will be talking about our new curriculum and curriculum in general, answering any questions… it will be a blessing to you and your team. We really want to see you reach more kids and impact your community, so do us the honour of hosting you!!!

Rego link is here

Monday evening… going to to see Harry Connick Jr at the Syney Opera House tonight! Which caps off a great easter!!

Easter was at the Darling Harbour Convention Centre again this year! Which means the rooms for our school age kids has a magnificent view over the harbour… I SHOULD have taken a photo!!! Dang!

Below is a shot of Guy Sebastian performing at our Sunday night concert…

Had a great 6 services really speaking about what Jesus has done on the cross! Saw a number of families who I have not seen for a long time and was able to connect with the kids!

So a great weekend with a record number of kids attending!

There are VERY few veterans when it comes to ministry to children, especially in Australia… so it was a real honour to meet Dick Gruber last weekend. He was in town for a conference and popped in to one of our Sunday morning services.

Got to meet Dick and his son Tim, both incredibly tall indiviuals.

Although, don’t you hate it when you have guests and after saying farewell you realise you just spent the entire time talking about what YOU are doing and not taking the time to ask THEM questions… anyway I felt like that after they left… and I usually am and inquistive person!

Oh well!

Let me give you the run down from last weekend and camp last week!

A lot of things happening:

• Voltage! We started a brand new age group this weekend (pre-teen; Yr5 and 6 for those in Aus) and had a camp last week – from Wed to Fri, couple hundred kids having a VERY powerful time with God!
• Primary/Elementary age groups are now: Fun House K-1, All Stars 2-4, Voltage 5-6 (not sure how they translate in different countries, but Kindergarten (K) is first year of school)
• 8 Massive services – Phew, I love Mondays!
• Pre-teens are different… a whole new style needed to really reach them!
• Camp can be a really powerful and defining time in a life, set apart from the familiar kids can experience God!
• We will be starting mid-week small groups with Voltage age group, so the only way you can be involved in this age group is to commit to this! Very pumped about that, a greater level of commitment and ministry!
• Parents reported some awesome conversations with their kids after camp!
• I talked about Song of Solomon a lot during a message at camp… Song 2:5… look it up!
• Pre-teens need the ‘talk’ at camp! No boyfriends/girlfriends stuff like that! Never thought I would have to deal with hormones in Children’s Ministry!
• Rearranging a room can add big time freshness to a program! Need to do it more often!
• I love camps! The best time of the year you get feedback from parents!

Two weekends brings up our Vision Sunday weekend… that will be huge!

C Ya

I have never really talked about our Bible College on this blog before… so with the Feb intake coming up now is a great time to give a shout out for our awesome college…

Check them out here: Hillsong International Leadership College

We have thousands of students from all over the world… heaps from the U.S. some from the U.K. lots from Australia (funny that), South Africa, Norway, New Zealand…

You get the picture… there is also a Children’s Ministry Stream which you need to come to — if just for the fact that you get to hang out with me!

If that isn’t enough here is what the website says about the course:

Hillsong Kids, the children’s ministry of Hillsong Church, is a dynamic and exciting program for families with newborn babies to children in Year 5 at school. Students who study in this stream have the opportunity to learn from Hillsong Kids leaders and be involved in a cutting edge children’s program where the children are discipled, connected and have a whole lot of fun along the way!

Students who complete this specialisation will also complete a range of industry approved training units.

This specialisation is available at Certificate IV in Ministry and Diploma of Ministry level.

For more course details please refer to the Certificate and Diploma Courses

See you in Feb!!

Hey,

Quick update about Kids album 07 –

Tell The World by Julia A’Bell
Message from Hillsong’s Children’s Pastor about the project

Pre-Order Site
Now updated with a couple of downloadble items – Music video preview and ‘My Number One’ preview. You can also download the mp3 and mpegs! Check it out!

You’re the Answer – Video Preview
My Number One – Audio Preview

Enjoy.

P.S. Oh it seems the release date is the 8th of Dec, but I heard whispers it might even be quicker than that!

Just put together this quick list of the reasons the leaders (not the kids) wear identical tee-shirts and name-tags at Hillsong Kids.

Inspired and mostly blatantly ripped off from Scott Ginsberg (who wears a name-tag 24-7).

4 Reasons for TS and NT

1. It’s pure, human and friendly. And most importantly, it’s simple. Not to mention, you’re immediately on a first name basis … with everyone!
2. Inspires confidence in parents. A parent walking into a room filled with leaders wearing tee-shirts and name-tags gives an immediate sense of safety and assurance.
3. It’s self-disclosing. Having your name encourages an exchange of personal information and builds an instant connection. Name-tags instantly and constantly reveal your personal information to everyone around you. This foregoes your anonymity. Which creates instant accountability for your actions.
4. Helps to create a sense of authority with children. A teacher can give detentions, a policeman can arrest, a Hillsong Kids leader does not have that luxury (no matter how much you want to). Establishing a sense of authority in your leadership is helped by name-tags and tee-shirts.

Not final artwork yet, but the preorder page is up for Tell the World!

TELL THE WORLD is the latest live worship album from Hillsong Kids that will capture the heart of every child and encourage them to tell their world that Jesus lives!

The things kids say. In our two Sunday night services the kids stay in the service until after the praise and worship finishes, then they all head out to our kids program. Well I was asked by Joel A’Bell to pray for all our prayer requests and praise reports that are handed in before the service… so I got fired up and REALLY prayed for answers to every situation and circumstance!

Well one of the leaders in the service I think had asked the kids if they saw me up praying in ‘big church’… and one of our little treasures wondered out loud why I never pray like that in kids!

Ah. The honesty.

The obvious respect.

The cheek.

Primary Age Recap:

Big Picture (September): Faith
Big Word: Matthew 17:20 (NIV)
Big Idea: A sword for the Lord and for Gideon
Big Point: Obedience brings victory

Little late this week.

Took time on Saturday night to really speak life into the lives of kids. Encouraged them and believed God to impact their lives! Decided: do that more often. It is one of the most powerful ways to give kids a lasting imprint/memory of the impact God can make in their lives.

Primary Age Recap:

Big Picture (September): Faith
Big Word: Matthew 17:20 (NIV)
Big Idea: Big Mo on the go. (Moses)
Big Point: Trust God’s Plan.

Had a guest speaker Sy Rogers who is here for our sense and sexuality seminar this week. What an amazing story, check out his website for more info.

An awesome weekend in church!! Fathers day bought a GREAT atmosphere to the building. We celebrated one of the single dads in our congregation by blessing him and his two kids with a whole bunch of stuff. Plasma TV, Trampoline, gifts for the kids and a Gold Coast holiday with all the theme parks included. The change in his life and his kids has been amazing since they started coming along!

Joel A’Bell hosted a video of the ‘reveal’, which I couldn’t be a part of unfortunately – bummer. The video was replayed in every service over the weekend.

Primary Age Recap:

Big Picture (September): Faith
Big Word: Matthew 17:20 (NIV)
Big Idea: Noah’s Boat
Big Point: Trust God no matter what.

Great new people serving in the Praise and Worship team this weekend!!! I love fresh voices and people. We are nearing our new kids album recording so some of the time is devoted to learning new songs and actions. Kids are REALLY getting into the actions! Love to see that.
The Dad of one of our families who recently returned to the states was back on business and told us the his son wanted his dad to video conference with his computer the service so they could watch in the U.S. LOVE IT!!

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!

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.

=============>

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.