[Kid Inspiration]

OPEN LETTER TO MY BLOG FROM DAVID WAKERLEY:

Dear Blog,

I would like to apologize for my absense, and do realize that part of the joy you receive is not only people reading you, but new content added on a regular basis.

I have stolen this joy from you, but hop you do realize that I am in the middle of preparations for our Kids Album recording which has taken over my life. This recording is happening in two weeks time: Wed 10th October 2007. After that I will have more time to devote to your needs.

Until that time I will most likely only update you about the album.

We have 12 awesome tracks, some older songs from Hillsong albums, plus a bunch of fantastic NEW songs!

More to come.

Yours faithfully,

David Wakerley

There have arisen of late a number of most excellent writings upon this interweb I would like to point out to my most wonderful of vistors to this blog:

• Sermons Motivate, but Systems Dictate. Is a ‘system’ for ministry a bad thing… not if the system serves YOU and not the other way round. Bob Franquiz weighs in.

• He looked at me as I was eating a cheese biscuit and asked, “What would you be willing to attempt for God if you knew you could not fail?” Without hesitation I answered, “I would start a church!” He replied, “You are a coward if you don’t!”. Perry Noble says it like it is (as usual).

• Ryan Frank announces a new Children’s Ministry mag from Kidzmatter Ministries. Looks awesome! The first issue of K! Magazine (January / February 2008) will drop in the mail mid-to-late December.

Check ‘em out!

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

To all my fellow bloggers out there, interested in generating lots of readers to your blog… a new service that just launched – BlogRush.

It has literally just launched as I am writing this – in fact they are still ironing out all the bumps!

So if you want to be the coolest kid on the on the block get in early and get the blogrush box on your site (check it out right hand side of thie blog). Just scroll down a bit!

This is a follow-up post to McDonalds and Leadership

I have been developing the pipeline we could use for our ministry… here is the first draft if you will…

Hillsong Kids Leadership Pipeline:

A simple way to explain to emerging leaders how they could continue to expand their influence.

1. Hillsong Kids Leader – (Apprentice leader) Be a part of the team that makes our weekend services happen/run our mid week ministries.

2. K.D.G. (Kids Discipleship Groups) Leader – (Leader of children) Pastor a small group of children during our weekends and midweek in .

3. Team Leader – (Coach of leaders) Oversee a group of leaders.

4. Ministry oversight – (Lead a ministry) Run an aspect of Hillsong Kids.

5. Key Team – (Oversee leaders running ministries)

I think that implementing this could really impact every volunteer as they can see where they are and where they could go!

9 Things You Simply Must Do for Success

Principle #1 – Dig It Up
Principle #2 – Pull the Tooth
Principle #3 – Play the Movie
Principle #4 – Do Something
Principle #5 – Act Like an Ant
Principle #6 – Hate Well
Principle #7 – Don’t Play Fair
Principle #8 – Be Humble
Principle #9 – Upset the Right People

This list is from John Maxwell’s Leadership Wired Newsletter.

If you don’t subscribe… do so RIGHT NOW. 

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.

Maybe its becuase I work with kids all the time… but this is the funniest video of all time!

Youtube Link

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!!

Just found these randomly on YouTube, a bunch of clips with Superhero in them.

Even after writing this song four years ago it still gives me a buzz to see children around the world singing to God…

What a blessing!

So Rob Bradbury at Planetshakers with his team has released 4. This is AWESOME, I got a hold of a copy from last weeks launch at Kidshaper conference. I have had a quick look through it and it is great to see this kind of quality coming out of a local church!

4 is the latest curriculum for kids 6-12. Using video clips with high quality praise and worship, Zing Things that add humour to the week’s less and preaching targeted at children, everything is set for you to add some personal group teaching before the kids disband into small groups. We surveyed children’s pastors around the world asking them what was important to have in a curriculum. ’4′ delivers on every point and more!

So hop on over to the 4 Resources site and check it out.

“If there are any idiots in the room, will they please stand up” said the sarcastic teacher.

After a long silence, one lad rose to his feet.

“Now then sonny, why do you consider yourself an idiot?” enquired the teacher with a sneer.

“Well, actually I don’t,” said the lad, “but I hate to see you standing up there all by yourself.”

From Michael Coggin, a licensed counselor at the Resurgence. A great blog to read for some very deep thoughts, and blog posts long enough to double as books.

Listening for Life: Picking Up on Verbal and Non-Verbal Signals

…As we look at today’s generation we see a generation of adolescents that are deeply wounded. We live in a culture that is permeated by relational brokenness. We see the fruits and consequences of no-fault divorces and researchers who 30 years ago were writing of the resiliency of children of divorce and even the benefits of parental separation who are now having to come to terms with the reality. We also live in a sexually addicted society. Rise in eating disorders, the prevalence of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, and the overall neglect of today’s youth.

His article is written primarily about adolescents, but a midwife and friend of mine has been involved with a pregnant 11 year old in the last few months, so we know puberty is coming on fast for our kids!

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

So have a read of this post and learn how to LISTEN to kids and the barriers to listening.

Article Summary:

Listening for Life

We see in Scripture that Jesus understood the importance of listening. Even as a young boy he was sitting with the teachers in the temple, “listening to them an asking them questions and everyone was amazed at his understanding” (Luke 2:46–47) … The word listen occurs more than two hundred times in the Scriptures.

Listening Unearths Hidden Feelings
Actively listening allows a context for teenagers’ hidden feelings to come to the surface.

Listening Creates a Safe Environment
Free from evaluation, listening creates a safe environment.

Listening Leads to Intimacy
To listen to another human being is a relational posture that invites as well as fosters intimacy.

BARRIERS TO LISTENING

Landmines of the Heart – Landmines Are Relational Wounds
[In Europe] Shells and landmines from [WW1] accidentally explode and kill people to this day.”… The landmines, or the relational wounds of our heart, keep us from being able to enter into adolescents’ lives and earn the right to listen to them and speak God’s gospel of grace into their lives.Personal Sharing with an Agenda: Sharing to Give Something vs. Sharing to Get Something
…sharing to get these questions answered by the adolescents in their lives as opposed to being concerned about what God says about who they are.

The Importance of a Non-Anxious Presence
It’s important for teens to know that you’re not going anywhere, no matter what. They need to know that, no matter how shocking, surprising, or broken they are, you are committed to pursuing them, listening to them, and walking with them through the brokenness, as well as the beauty of their lives.

Pursuing an Adolescent’s Heart
Help adolescents know that they don’t have to fill the role of God when it comes who we are. Our willingness to take the time to listen to an adolescent will have a generational impact.

Read the full article at Resurgence

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!

So this is now this blogs official coolest kids place on earth!

Wannado City leaves behind the cotton candy, the solicitors of large stuffed animals, the mindless entertainment and trash. Instead the “city” has redefined child entertainment with aspirational activities, all of which are framed around the question: “What do you wanna do when you grow up?”

In Sawgrass Mills Mall in Southern Florida (sounds like a place you could loose your leg to a alligator just getting there) – is this most coolest of kids spaces.

America’s first indoor role-playing theme park, makes their wishes come true in a realistic and imaginative way. Aimed at the 2-14 year-old set, Wannado City™ recreates all the sites of a major city from the point of view of its kidizens™, with many real-play™ venues and hundreds of career possibilities. All venues are designed to allow kids to live out their dreams – from learning to be a firefighter to piloting an aircraft to working at a television studio. Real-play™ empowers kids to become decision-makers and learn responsibility.

There’s my idea of a children’s ministry building!!!!

Via the Cool Hunter

Americans Are Most Worried about Children’s Future… new research from the Barna guys and girls. I just wish we had a similar research team here in Australia, to really delve into some of the issues here… although results would be quite similar to the U.S.

With the 2008 presidential election campaign well underway, a new survey suggests that the biggest issue of them all may well be one that leaders do not seem to be focused upon: the well-being of America’s children…

Trailing the focus on children were matters such as improving national security (72%); helping the poor and disadvantaged (69%); upgrading the reliability and honesty in news reporting (63%); increasing the nation’s investment in environmental protection (60%); and enhancing the state of marriage and families (60%).

If the government won’t focus on kids, then hey… let the church lead the way!

Sounds like a plan.