At Kidshaper Conference this year we were introduced to a team from ImagineNations Church in Penrith, Sydney.

INK is the band from ImagineNations Kids and they are awesome! They were playing songs from their CD Not Too Young and generally rocking out.

Our Churches need to be producing more praise and worship for our kids. The ratio of adult albums to kids is exorbitant, I would guess 100 to 1??

Well done Allyson Parker (Insert twitter link or similar social media site hopefully soon?) and the team!

And it seems that I may have an exclusive on this, because I cannot find a page or website or even a twitter mention, other than my wife?

So, by the power invested in me by the interwebs, I name this blog post as the official site of NOT TOO YOUNG by INK.

So not sure how to buy it, and not sure how you can listen to it, but I am hopeful that someone from the team will post a comment as the official site emerges!

UPDATE: So as the official Album Page, I thought I better add the track list and some credits from the album…

Track List:

1. Not Too Young
2. Get Up
3. My God Can Do Anything
4. Only One I Live For
5. Yours Alone
6. First Love
7. Super Awesome God
8. You Never Change
9. To The Rescue
10. Follow You Heart
11. Change Their World
12. You Are God

On our Hillsong Collected Blog Julia A’Bell posted this Behind the Scenes video, here’s what she said:

What makes Hillsong, ‘Hillsong’ is all the Jesus-loving, people-focused individuals that call Hillsong HOME. To only see crowds, buildings, albums & large church services, is to completely miss the beauty of each individual & family who has their own unique story of encountering Christ & His plan for their lives. The crowds, buildings, albums & large church services are simply the fruit of a healthy family environment.

One of the legends featured is Kieran Short a part of our Hills Campus team!

Love your work Kieran!

Righto, so blog posts are meant to be reasonably short. This is not a format for essay’s or novels — so this is part one of my thoughts about the Annual Kidshaper conference this year.

It is Saturday right now and I am enjoying my own house with my boys and some quality time with my laptop.

First of all I would like to say thanks to Rob Bradbury, Children’s minister and legend veteran inspirational leader man for inviting myself and our Hillsong Kids team to speak and be a part of this conference. I was excited to share all about ‘Makin’ It Up’ (outline to come soon), and some of our team shared at the electives in the afternoon.

Second of all it is so great to hang out with our Hillsong Kids Staff and lots of key volunteers/students and leaders. You are honestly remarkable and I love the passion and heart for our Church you have. I love the longevity and consistency that each of you already have!

Thirdly to every leader of children in the Church of Australia. You have a voice and experience and something to contribute! You have a calling and a passion and don’t allow anything to dampen what God can do through you!

Fourthly, to my own Church Hillsong and my Senior Pastors Brian and Bobbie Houston and to Joel and Julia A’Bell, I appreciate your leadership so much. You have taught me that focus, singular vision and keeping your heart with all diligence will take you a long way, in fact all way to your calling.

Lots more to come.

I wrote an update post for our Hillsong Collected Blog recently.

It gives a short overview of what we did this year at our annual conference and includes our Happy 25th video!

Kidsong World 2011

The Hillsong Conference has now officially spread all over the world to our Churches everywhere.

I have loved watching from afar the journey that Hillsong Kids has taken in London. I have been there twice over the years and seen the programs in action and they never fail to impress with their creativity!

Here are the highlight videos from the Kidsong just finished.

Kidsong Hightlights Part 1 from Hillsong Church London on Vimeo.

Kidsong 2011 Highlights Part 2 from Hillsong Church London on Vimeo.

Something has puzzled me for years.

In my travels around the internet a song keeps popping up to mystify me. It appears that Hillsong Kids has performed and recorded the well known worship song ‘Every Move I Make‘ by David Ruis.

If you search Google with “Every move I make Hillsong Kids” 84,000 results come up!

If you search Youtube 184 videos result!

We have never actually recorded this song. And it’s definitely not us singing the song.

Can anyone help unravel this mystery?

This blog space is sacred.

I mean, I spend hours pouring over exactly the wording and content of every single post just to make sure I honour the platform and influence that this little corner of the internet has given me.

37 readers, plus my Mum is not to be sneezed at.

So to use this blog to say a big Happy Birthday to someone should be considered an honour of such magnitude that it would make grown men weep, ladies swoon at the knees and grandfathers pin the medals of their youth on this blog post in gratitude and awe.

Happy Birthday Funny Man Dan.

He turns a year older today (not unusual an occurrence obviously), a year wiser (slightly more unusual) and a kilogram heavier (one can only assume upon imagining the food he will be consuming).

But to be serious for a moment:

• There is not a man on earth I would trust more to bring laughter to kids
• There is no greater writing partner of  scripts that connect with kids
• I have have seen no greater transformation from ‘crusty student bachelor man’ to responsible, loving husband/father
• He’s a man that goes above and beyond to ensure everyone feels included
• A man who’s revelation of Jesus guides everything he does
• A husband who makes the special celebrations very special (leaving approximately 3 days in the year that are normal)
• A father that puts the well being of his wife and kids (one still womb bound) a top priority

This little tradition started a couple of years ago in our Voltage (Preteen) ministry in the City Campus.

You get a canvas, get someone artistically inclined to write your ministry name on the board and then for the rest of the year get every student that comes through your services to sign it!

It’s a simple idea, but a wonderful keepsake for each year of ministry and a reminder to the students that they are the Church! And also a great way to identify the extroverts in your group. The larger the name, the larger the personality!

Our annual Hillsong Conference is over for another year – we will have photos and videos up on the Conference website but it is in ‘promo mode’ without a specific Kidsong page getting ready for next year. So when it returns to info mode I will point you to it for sure.

Because of the Hillsong One Days we were in the Sydney Entertainment Centre (probably the lamest venue in Sydney for Kids), but we had tents… in the middle of winter! Okay, they were very nice marquees with big heaters (I want one for my house). So we were comfortably housed and our Primary school Year 2-6 kids were bused to our City Campus to spend the day in luxury.

It was a huge success on all counts, especially pulling off the crazy marquee thing and making buses a beautiful experience for all concerned!

I would like to officially acknowledge the fantastic Hillsong Kids Staff from all of our campuses for making this the safest and most enjoyable conference for kids ever! (I am basing that on data available from Paramedics and General feedback from Parents and Kids, so very scientific).

And as always the hundreds of volunteers that made it work, not only logistically but relationally, you really made it happen! (I even heard of kids crying at the end of the week because they would miss you. Brilliant!)

Here is the theme and teaching for this years conference!

KIDSONG 2011 BIG PICTURE:  Unchartered Journey

PRIMARY BIG WORD: Psalm 25:4 “Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior and my hope is in you all day long” (NIV)

EARLY CHILDHOOD BIG WORD: John 14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God John 14:1

TUESDAY PM

BIG IDEA: LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION!
BIG POINT: God has an epic journey planned just for me
EC WORD OF DAY: Dreams – God has a plan for my life

PREACHING NOTES: Children will learn that God has a great future for them. An Epic journey is not always easy, not always fun, there will be challenges and lessons learned along the way but with God it will be an epic adventure!

Psalm 37:23 (NKJV) The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way.

Jeremiah 29:11 New International Reader’s Version (NIRV) “I know the plans I have for you,” announces the Lord. “I want you to enjoy success. I do not plan to harm you. I will give you hope for the years to come.

WEDNESDAY AM & PM

BIG IDEA: OPENING SCENE!
BIG POINT: If I trust God, he will direct my journey
EC WORD OF DAY: Love – God’s love leads us

PREACHING NOTES: We can trust God with our future. We don’t know what the future holds, but we can know that one that holds our future.

Proverbs 3:5-6 New International Version (NIV) Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

THURSDAY AM & PM

BIG IDEA:                    STICK WITH GOD!

BIG POINT:                 No matter what, never give up

EC WORD THE DAY:  Pray – I can talk to God all the time

PREACHING NOTES: An epic journey has a beginning, middle and end. What makes the story of the journey EPIC and exciting is that there are challenges to overcome along the way. Think of any movie you’ve seen – what makes it good is that the character has to overcome something to get where they need to go. And if they don’t give up in the end is VICTORY!  No matter what, don’t give up, God is with you!

Galatians 6:9 New International Version (NIV) Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

FRIDAY AM & PM

BIG IDEA:                    CLOSING CREDITS
BIG POINT:                 With Jesus I can overcome any obstacles
EC WORD OF DAY:     Jesus – Jesus is always with me

PREACHING NOTES: With Jesus anything could happen, nothing is impossible and with Him we can overcome any obstacles. When we focus on how BIG God is, problems we thought were big, look small.

2 Timothy 1:7 New King James Version (NKJV) “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

Matthew 19:26 New International Reader’s Version (NIRV) “Jesus looked at them and said, “With man, that is impossible. But with God, all things are possible.”

Isaiah 41:10 New International Reader’s Version (NIRV) “So do not be afraid. I am with you. Do not be terrified. I am your God  I will make you strong and help you. My powerful right hand will take good care of you.  I always do what is right.”

This year was the 25th Anniversary of Hillsong Conference! It all started in 1986 in a school in Baulkham Hills, and this week we were at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in the Heart of Sydney!

I haven’t blogged much in the last week, but to make up for it here is a Happy Birthday video from Kidsong to Hillsong Conference! Blog posts maybe take an hour to write but this video took days, so show the love and retweet/share do your thing!

Thanks!

Twas the weekend before conference and all through Dave’s blog, not a creature was stirring, not even his dog.

For the site was silent and lonely and bored, and had even forgotten where the spel cheker was storred.

Then all of a sudden from out of the mist, came a new blog post oh how it was missed!

But alas and alack for it was simply a dud and Dave’s blog let it’s expectation down with a thud.

No enlightening reparte no intelligent scribbles, just a silly poem and unitelligent drivel.

Dave’s blog sat back down on its server lightly sighing, oh well at least, thank you for trying.

A Poem by David Charles Wakerley the first.

*It’s all true. But I really would like to give a bit of a inside peek into what we do this year at our annual Kidsong World conference! Coming soon! If you are coming to conference. See you soon

Myself and my wife Beci attended Hillsong International Leadership College back just after the turn of the new millenium. It was a defining two years of our lives.

Fast forward to this year and the current crop of students and lecturers have created a powerful expression of what college is all about.

It’s broken into three parts, so check them out below!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Well done College team!!!!!

For those of you who know what planking is, the following image will create great amounts of external laughter and much merriment. For those of you who don’t then probably move on before you get sucked into a void of internet nonsensry and start looking at pages like this, or this, or find out what it is here.

Thank you small baby child for making my day

I hope that my boys get this pumped about learning a new skill.

What was the last new thing you learned?

When was the last time you did something for the first time?

The Highlight video from our One Day events around Sydney is now up online.

Thanks to @BrianCHouston and @joelabell for making this possible and bringing a kids team along!

We have neared the end of May 2011, a month remembered for its apocalypse (May 21) and Hillsong One Days (in my mind anyway). In this second installment about May we continue our story where we left off. After a great weekend in Church (I remember some of it with the help of caffeine), we returned to the road for a conference in Melbourne and Adelaide. I have visited Melbourne a few times, but had never been to Adelaide so was looking forward to that! (Note: Adelaide reminded me a lot of New Zealand, which means I loved it)

Hillsong One Day: Melbourne

Monday morning even before Jesus gets up we were flying down to Melbourne for One Day number 3. This was going to be held at Hisense Arena which was by far the largest venue we were using. Again my wife Beci and our Kids Event’s coordinator Eva were with me to rock the event. Additionally in an act of inspiration, (or perhaps insanity) a bus came down from Sydney with a bunch of our leaders to support the conference owing to the size of the venue.

Side note: this is actually quite a good venue to run a kids program in. Lots of smaller conference rooms around the auditorium made for a great experience for the children. A huge parenting room (for kids 1-2 years old), and two adjoining rooms for a preschool and primary program. But the greatest blessing came from the teams we were working with in Melbourne from Crossway Baptist, Eastside Church and Careforce Church. Thanks to Magaret Spicer and her team, Rebecca Buckle and baby (still womb bound – Rebecca you are a legend!)

It was a huge night with a crowd packing the arena for the night session with Hillsong United!

Hillsong One Day: Adelaide

Then it was onto Paradise community church in Adelaide for the final hurrah! Darren Fowles (that’s not him in the picture btw) and his team were brilliant, alongside a group from Edge Church with the living legend Andrew Shepherd. It was nice to be back in a Church venue with everything setup and ready to go! And I do get a little jealous when we go to churches with permanent facilities with fancy kids rooms! Once again a packed house for the night rally but our team was able to squeeze everybody in!

It was a lot of fun seeing all these venues around Australia and has given me inspiration for what I need to implement and also appreciation for what we do have! In all our One Day events the theme was the same Under the Psalm Tree, a week of teaching from our New Curriculum SUPERNATURAL… coming soon!

Thanks to every single volunteer and Church that partnered with us to make these event brilliant for children all over Australia. I certainly pray and believe that God was glorified and kids were blessed.

All that is left for May is to hang out with our awesome Hillsong staff at our annual staff retreat this week… looking forward to it! I

Thanks!