[Kid Inspiration]

I had read about the HBO Movie ‘Taking Chance‘ on a blog written by a Marine serving in Iraq (One Marines View), and just watched it tonight.

I love a movie that reignites my love of Cinema! This is not a Summer action movie blockbuster… it is a very thoughful and moving tribute to a man who served his country.

Visit the site for more info on the actual movie, but the one word you can use to describe this film is ‘Honour’.

As the story unfolds of this young marines body being returned to his family what follows him is respect and honour. Every step along the way people are moved to respond in ways that place value on the life that has been given to protect them. And it surprised me by being a very powerful and moving film.

So get it and watch it

But what it did awaken me to was the fact that this world really would be a better place if we hounoured people. All people. Not just the ones percieved as heroes.

I am going to make sure my son gets to experience different cultures. From the honouring, to places where there is a complete lack of respect. So he can see for himself the outcomes and consequences. And also build into him a respect for the house of God where youth is celebrated, and wisdom and age is loved and appreciated.

Our churches really should be the most diverse places on earth. Contrary to the world where religion and ethnicity divides we build communities that by their very existence proves the nature and chrarcter of our God!

From Erwin MacManus via Tony Morgan:

There has never been one ordinary child born on this planet

Here endeths my Sunday.

More than anything else, I want to finish well. So many times when asking a young person the vision they have for their life, what they would love to do they talk about the task, the job, the mission they can see themselves doing. I just want to finish my ‘race’ with a wife and family that loves me, knowing that to the best of ability I lived with faith, hope and love (1 Cor 13:13). What I ‘Do’ accomplishing this goal is up to God.

Here are a few posts that hit it out of the park in the last few weeks!

Pudge on Leading for Tomorrow

A bunch of posts from Henry Zonio about the Conspire Conference Rewiring Ministry for the Digital Learner,  Spiritual Formation in Children

Fascinating stuff from The Connecting Church and Home Conference from Jared Kennedy via Doug

Shane Hipps on Technology from the Q blog! MUST WATCH! Hipps discusses how technology shapes your faith and offers a critique of the cliche “the methods change but the message doesn’t.”

How to Blog 101 from churchrelevance.com

Now that we have three main campuses we don’t get to see each others room setups. So last kids staff meeting we had a fun competition. But I will let Kathryn MacDaddy tell you the rest of the story:

We had a competition between our Hillsong Kids staff called “Pimp my Set up”… The idea was that we each take 5 photos of our age groups room set up and we present them to the team. We then choose 3 finalists and vote on the winner. And I WON!! Yeah Baby..I WON IT!!! My prize was a gift card for the movies, which I will enjoy every second of!!! Read On

Love reading Erwin Mcmanus.

Read Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul a while ago and wrote down this quote (Paperback pg. 63):

If anonymity was the price you would have to pay for significance, would it be too great a price?

Would it be?

Peer recognition is one of the most powerful forces in the human psyche. Learning to serve without it is one of the greatest skills this culture/generation schooled in the allure of instant fame needs!

Teach your kids that God is the only one they need recognition from!

I just sent out an email to our key team… thought I would post it here:

(And if you want to post your answers in the comments).

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Are you growing in your passion to reach children for Christ and grow His church?

We never become mature in our leadership or love for God. The thing about mature fruit is that it is just a few days away from becoming rotten fruit. We have to be leaders that are growing, not stagnant.

Really search your heart and address the issues that are holding you back. This break Beci and I are on right now is time for me to address one of the things that is holding me back. Devotion – I need to develop
the time I spend in devotion to Jesus Christ.

I have something different for our key team meeting this Wednesday.

We will not be meeting at church, instead I would love you to take the time and read this article.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/childrensministry/articles/becominganauthenticleader.html

Then simply reply to this email and write down some thoughts for me about one of the areas Jim talks about.

eg. 2. Leaders are problem solvers. Let me know a challenge or something God has spoken to you about problem solving, or even a problem you have solved in your ministry.

Looking forward to your answers!

God Bless

David Wakerley

I just read a short article in which Mark Batterson was talking about a book by Garry Kasparov titled “How Life Imitates Chess”.

Kasparov won his first world-championship chess match in 1985 and he dominated the chess qworld for several decades. In the book he shares some of the lessons he learned. Here is one of them: “A Grandmaster makes the best moves because they are based on what he wants the board to look like ten or twenty moves in the future.”

That is exactly why I serve children.

In their hands is the future – ten or twenty, or fifty years in the future.

The older you get the more you realize you don’t know.

Just when I think I have an insight or handle on things I see or hear a quote that blows me away.

I am a student of culture. I study it, disect it, look for the good in it and generally spend my life searching for the glimpses of God that can be found in it. Especially the culture as it relates to kids.

So what you need to do is visit the Catalyst conference website and watch their promo video.

(www.catalystconference.com)

“There’s far too much preaching today coming from culture instead of speaking Gods word to the culture.”
- Craig Groeschel

Anyway it may not be life changing to you, but it reminds me to make sure our kids bring God to their worlds and not let the world overwhelm their God.

Dave out.

Now in my previous post Theophilus…

I did use the metaphor about giving birth, which I understand is a foolish thing for a male to do under any circumstance. But just read this quote from Ryan Adam’s;

What I do and what all musicians do is easy. All we have to do is sit down for a couple hours a week and write a song or two. That simple task is all the world asks of me, so I do it. The other musicians who don’t are just lazy, because again, we aren’t being asked to tar rooftops or clean out dumpsters. We just have to write a couple songs!

So true!

Read the rest of the post here