[Kid Inspiration]

Cool Tools in a great blog that highlights awesome products… (You should read it). A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true.

They blogged about these today: cheap soma prescription target=”_blank”>Peltor Kid Earmuffs

Which made me wonder why I hadn’t blogged about them.

We have a few sets of these available in our Parenting Rooms (for parents with kids under 1 years old). They can use them to protect their kids ears when they head into the main auditorium for services (our music is kinda loud).

Parents love ‘em!

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). cheap levitra 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. 

After looking through my DVD’s last week I spotted something that I should have blogged about at least a year ago. Some most excellent praise and worship music for kids!

Citipointe is located in the great city of Brisbane and have alesse buy services in Mansfield (Citipointe Brisbane) Coomera (Citipointe Gold Coast) and Inala (Citipointe West).

Check out their first Kids album All of My Days it is absolutely brilliant! I LOVE seeing churches give their best for children, and this church has done it. Great value with a DVD, CD and Bonus DVD you just need to order it from their site. The site says that they cannot process online international orders yet, but I had a test of the order link and it seems like you can!

I also saw Luke Harris, Citipointe’s children’s pastor lead worship with his team at last years Kidshaper conference in Melbourne, and apart from being passionate worshippers… they have a REALLY great group of leaders!

Go… buy… now…

P.S. Signing off from blog world until next weekend due to Hillsong Conference. See ya there (if ya there).

DISCLAIMER: This post is not in any way directed at any person living or dead. The judges decision is final. No correspondence shall be entered into.

Time for a little Friday Night Rant.

My last post, the purpose of purpose drew a number of responses, (thanks to all who commented!) including one from Sam that got me fired up (not at Sam)… after I let it simmer for a day I have some thoughts on ‘family worship’.

This may be a long one.

I will try and be concise, as I am aware that pages and pages of text does cause ones aldactone price eyes to glaze over.

Here is the statement we shall consider:

Parent – “I prefer to keep my kids in with us in the adult service so we can worship as a family”.

There are many ways in which people can ‘do church’; gather as a house church, spread over a city in a cell church… but the paradigm which most of us operate in, is the ‘modern church’ in various denominations (or non-denominations). So when I talk about ‘church’ that’s the paradigm I am talking about.

I am all for the whole family unit experiencing God together, but so often it comes out of a very set cultural perspective. This often shows up when adults talk about a church meeting as the ‘worship service’, as if there is any other kind of service?

Let’s begin:

1. Worship is a lifestyle, not a service attended once a week. As a family you worship in, and during, your day-to-day life. Being an example and training your children in the way they should go. So for a family to opt out of children’s ministry so they can ‘worship together’ during a service is a biblically defensible stance but probably misguided. You have been worshiping together the entire week, why not give your child an opportunity to ‘worship’ with their peers.
2. The house of God (and worship) is not just about receiving, it is about GIVING! Don’t give your kids a perspective of church that involves sitting without serving. Please don’t create a Mary only child (Mary and Martha Luke 10:38-42) who sits at the feet of Jesus and never does the washing up.
3. Whether your child goes to a Christian school or not, your child needs to build relationship within your church family. The church cannot give your child a thorough/solid/extensive knowledge of the word, in two hours a week (not the churches job mind you)… but give us a chance to teach them that the community of believers is THE place to develop faith and relationships that push you toward God.

Having children together with adults makes perfect sense in a house church, but look at the specific ministry paradigm you are in and judge accordingly. In my mind, the way that most of western Christianity (Europe, US, Australia, Great Britian, New Zealand etc.) structures church, leads in my mind for the need to create separate age specific meetings.

And I’m not saying that just ’cause its my job.

Maybe the children’s ministry at your church doesn’t really look like the above three points… hey… don’t bring me a problem unless you are willing to be part of the answer.

<and breathe>

So what is the purpose of your ministry to children?

We have our annual conference coming up in just two weeks at Acer Arena in Sydney. As well as Kidsong World we run the Children’s pastors and leaders stream. Nathan Mclean and I will be speaking in one of sessions with the leaders about curriculum and developing leadership.

In planning the sessions I am exploring the purpose of our ministry to kids… and more importantly HOW aldactone online to outwork that purpose. One of my not-yet-conclusions is:

“I don’t think it’s just teaching kids the bible”.

The pharisees were the most versed in scripture, but their knowledge never translated into faith.

‘Scope and sequence’ is one of those phrases that simply strikes a chord of… apathy into my heart. It’s just hard to get excited about it. The ultimate goal should not be to get through the whole bible in two or three years… the goals should be to create life long learners passionate and excited to read the word of God. Cover all of the bible you can, but don’t make it the goal.

Kids need to enjoy and participate in the journey, not just wake up at the destination.

An hour and a half a week during your weekend services is never enough to cover the whole bible thoroughly. But it can be accomplished with the hundreds of hours a year that a parent has.

Provide an opportunity to experience God and connect with others this weekend.

What a fancy title… ‘Engaging with Trends’… let me subtitle even fancier…

Engaging with Trends
“Why using relevant pop culture elements can help
you create a ministry that kids refuse to miss.”

I started two new elements in our weekend services last weekend. It got dozens of kids excited, engaged and begging to attend church.

We have a bunch of ‘stations’ setup before we start the service so the kids can hang out and interact with the leaders before we start.

Craft stations, Air Hockey, Playstations, Xbox etc.

Well I added two new stations last weekend.

1. Nintendo DS Station
2. Tazo Station

The biggest selling portable gaming system in the world is the Nintendo DS… Especially with kids.

And one of the coolest things to do is collect tazos… especially Footy Tazo’s. It is so popular advocare vitamin online various schools have banned them from being traded at school!! (You know something is engaging kids when they ban it!!)

Listen, you may not live in Australia and have NRL or AFL Tazo’s, but I would place money on the fact that your kids are trading some kind of sports collector cards!

So I create an area where kids can play each other on their DS’s (over Wi-Fi) and trade tazo’s… it is amazing the kids that come out of their shell when you start trading with them.

Of course as a leader you don’t just create an area for kids and not get involved yourself… so I am now the owner of a Nintendo DS with Diddy Kong Racing and have a huge pile of NRL Tazo’s (research I tell my wife!).

As a minister to kids you do not bring in your KIDS toys… you bring in YOUR toys!

I don’t tell the kids that I have bought a DS for my little boy Brooklyn, I tell them it’s mine! (And it is… Brooklyn is allowed no where near it! – he’s 1)

Your mission is to find out this weekend:

1. How many of your kids have a DS
2. What cards are they collecting

OK…

This is not a post about technology (none of your kids may have a Nintendo), it is about getting into your kids world!

So you can bet at the beginning of next years footy season I will have a whole corner devoted to Rugby League and will be finding out the most popular games so I can buy it and practice enough to whip all my kids at it!!!

FOR AUSSIES: Go onto ebay and search for ‘Tazo‘, you can buy a whole set without having to go through the hassle of collecting them in chip packets. While you’re there, buy a second hand DS!

I am:

• Building credibility with kids
• Building a bridge to speak into their lives
• Creating a cool environment to participate in
• Staying young
• Creating topics I can talk to kids about
• Redeeming technology
• Bringing ‘new and fresh’ elements into our services
• Having fun!
• Finding excuses to buy stuff
• Training my hand-eye coordination
• Supporting Australian sport
• Creating opportunities for introvert kids to be admired (who has the most cards/highest score is the ‘man!’)

It’s a win-win situation!

NOTE: Don’t get too attached to your collecting cards… make a point to give away your best and rarest to your kids. I don’t care about collecting the set… only helping my kids to get every card.

When I was about 2 or 3 my dad made a now famous (in our family) stop-motion film (okay about 10 seconds), using his Super-8 Camera (really old school video camera).

Now you can do the same with the insanely cool iStopMotion

And actonel monthly prescription it’s $40 after a free demo version.

So first check out a reiview from Wired Mag

Link

Then go to the site and at least download the thing and have a go.

Link

P.S. If you have no idea what stop motion is check out this vid:

It’s amazing how coincidence works. Here I was yesterday thinking about how the best way to respond when someone tells you bad news, or is grieving. And then today, Rick Warren’s Ministry Toolbox appears in my email inbox with an article titled: What not to do when someone is grieving.

So many times I have been in situations where I was not sure of the right things to say… this article gives a great outline of what NOT to say to someone who is going through a painful time!

Link acomplia price

Have any readers had contact with this organisation?

accutane generic href=”http://www.viva.org/”>Viva.org Viva Network is a global movement of Christians with 81 network initiatives in 48 countries, helping 1.2 million children.

Maybe they are just not in my part of planet earth, but they seem to do some pretty cool things.

So episode 3 of the podcast just went up online. Click acai buy HERE!

Only one week after episode 2! I know, shocking!

Coolest Ministry video I have seen in a while.

The Early Childhood Ministry ‘Kidodeo’ at Eaglebrook Church MN (Minnesota? If I know my USA states… and I probably don’t) has a great video overview of the ministry, starting with a couple of babies having a conversation about how boring the senior pastor is… LOVED it. Says so much about the culture of the church already.

http://www.eaglebrookchurch.com/youth/early_childhood.html

I am going to steal borrow the idea for sure and create one for Hillsong 500 mg levaquin Kids.

Sydney is a very fast city, the pace is fast, the cars are fast (at least at 3am when the traffic is sparse), we work fast. Even in a church setting where there are no sales targets and no quarterly profit reports there are deadlines.

So something I am going to do after reading a blog entry at Fast 1buy generic cialis Company Now

is make an appointment with myself.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 11:30, my calendar had an unmovable meeting. It lasted only half an hour but my assistant knew that on no account could it be changed or cancelled. And so, three days a week, at 11:30, I’d walk out the door; I’d be back at noon.

…I held this all-important appointment for myself. It was my thinking time. I had finally reached the conclusion that, if I didn’t book time to think, I’d never do it.

After probably ten years looking for a time management system that works for me (PDA’s didn’t, Daytimer didn’t) I finally found one (yay!). And I find that if I take the time to really prepare at the beginning of the day I get SO much more done, and forget less.

Henceforth and forthwith I do decree an appointment with myself once a week, until further notice.

I have taken sooo long to get my Podcast going. It is coming… (and so is christmas).

The great news is, others have started producing podcasts for Children’s leaders and pastors.

Tal Burdine is on episode #3 of his Kid’s Konstruction Site Podcast.

Check it out in iTunes and get it on your iPod.

NOTE: His site takes a LONG time to load. His images are huge, but hang in there (maybe get a coffee while you wait).

Or you can subscribe direct from iTunes.

To find it:
1) Open itunes (Free download at Apple.com)
2) Go to the music store
3) Select podcast in the pull down menu on the left (where it says choose genre)
4) Just below that pull down menu is a podcast search window – Type in Kid’s Konstruction Site
5) You can listen and subscribe there. – And by clicking the title in the above, next to the art, you can get more info and a link to the website.

Even if you don’t have a iPod or similar MP3 player, go to the website and listen online.

Media in my world is restricted to the ‘G’ kind. I do not want to spend my life on the phone to upset parents explaining why their children were exposed to PG.

When cinema defines most of our pop-culture references this is restrictive… communicating truth visually and cinematically is a powerful way to get through to kids.
My childhood is full of experiences with books. Now this may be due to the fact that I didn’t have a TV until I turned 12! But I certainly know that my book choices were censored by my parents (including Orsen Wells ‘The Invisible Man‘, I don’t really know why I remember that) and I am certainly not worse off for it.
If Harry Potter had been casting spells in the early eighties I am pretty sure I would have never been allowed to experience his magic. And I am sure you are aware of the publishing boon it has been to authors who need to rant against popular culture.

Townhall.com contributor Erik Lokkesmoe writes about 10 mistakes conservatives make in art and entertainment.

His article REALLY resonates with me… Resonates like a opera singer smashing glass with a High ‘C’ (that’s a lot).

This is not so much about our kids getting to see edgy cinema but more about the idea that wee need to train them to make right decisions. What is right for one person may be completely wrong for another (Alcoholics shouldn’t really order wine).

But as a child of a creative God, I should be by definition, as Erik puts it… curators of the good, the true, and the beautiful.

I want the WORLD to marvel at the genuis of children wholeheartedly devoted to their Jesus and expressing themselves in ways unimaginable to the unredeemed life.

Perry Noble continues to say very cool things!

and I quote:

I can’t brag enough on our children’s area. I remember at our very first worship service on January 16, 2000 we had 3 kids! THREE!

My how things have changed…

I posted here a while ago when he said something else cool and he has gone and done it again!

This Christmas begins the Chronicles of Narnia – “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. Now, like the “Lord of the Rings”, the books had a big impact on me when I was a kid and so I await with mucho anticipationo for the release of this movie.

There is a lot of interest from the Childrens Ministry / Christian world using this as an outreach tool (much like The Passion of the Christ) and teaching tool which it a GREAT idea.

I am looking to do a series on it next year sometime, when the DVD is released probably and teach kids the major themes of Christianity found in the books.

Here are some online resources you will want to check out about the movie etc.

Official Movie site: www.narnia.com

Narnia News site (From Walden Media): www.narniaweb.com

Resource site for teachers and educators: www.narniaresources.com

10 Week Narnia Curriculum from Kidology: http://www.kidology.org

Aslan is on the Move (Five session series): http://www.leaderresources.com/