[Kid Inspiration]

I have given myself a challenge for the next 26 days – post the complete A-Z of Ministry to Children.

S… salad, sumo, suddenly, sabulose…

S is for Sabbath – Rest. God does… so should we.

bye for now.

I have given myself a challenge for the next 26 days – post the complete A-Z of Ministry to Children.

R… radical, repossession, remoulade, road…

R is for Respect – Now I don’t want to go on a rant here about how the ‘young’ people of today have no respect for their elders. I’m sure your great great Grandfather faced the same problem.

I want to talk about the respect you should have for your kids.

Paul said it straight to Timothy… let no man despise your youth (I Timothy 4:12). Children are capable of a lot more than we expect, I am reminded about this when watching videos on YouTube like the one below.

Expectation is a huge spiritual principle… Jesus when healing a lame man asked if he wanted to be healed… what a question! But He knew that not every person in pain wants it to go away, because then they also lose the attention it brings.

So expect much of your kids.

1. Expect them to enter into praise and worship
2. Expect them to serve
3. Expect them to show compassion, to care about the world
4. Expect them to give generously
5. Expect them to listen and learn
6. Expect them to surprise you with their gifts and talents.

Enough of them not showing enough respect, grant every child in your ministry YOUR respect!

Jackie Evancho

I just had to share this. It is what it’s all about. I love baptisms!

From Northpoint Church in Atlanta USA.

Baptism – Gretchen Emch

I have given myself a challenge for the next 26 days – post the complete A-Z of Ministry to Children.

Q… quit, queen, Qantas, quacksalver…

Q is for Question – Your kids have questions. Lots of them probably. They will ask the most random question at the most random times. I know that when I am with one of our KDG’s (Kids Discipleship Groups – small groups), and talking I can see certain kids brains veering wildly out of control on a tangent which inevitably leads to a question like “If God is my Father, then is Jesus my brother?”.

I talked in E is for Encouragement about this topic a little. Whatever happens, you do want to encourage questions because they show thought and intiative both things that kids have control over.

So I want to talk about the questions you ask as a leader and follower.

Asking questions shows:

1. That you are eager to learn
2. You care about other peoples worlds
3. You want to improve
4. You are aware of what is going on around you
5. That you are interested
6. You don’t think you have all the answers
7. You want to involve others in the answers

As a leader you need to ask the most questions in the room. There is so much that goes unsaid in a team, assumptions, traditions, the way that we do things that are never articulated. Even if you feel like everyone in the room has heard it all before, say it!

Beginner stand-up comedians will work on new jokes until they have a solid ‘five minutes‘ of material they know is funny. They may keep using those jokes for years and years as they develop. Jerry Seinfeld in the movie/documentary comedian restarts his stand-up career after TV by writing all new material, and it is painful to watch at times as he goes through the growing pains.

Say what you have to say as a leader and then say it again. It will make your whole team laser focussed and avoid all the questions you don’t want to hear.

The questions you hear reveal your weaknesses, and the questions you ask reveal your heart.

I have given myself a challenge for the next 26 days – post the complete A-Z of Ministry to Children.

P… Passion, people, pimples, palladiumizing…

P is for Paradigm – Here’s what you need, a shift in your paradigms. I hear you protest – “But I just had my paradigms rotated last month”, “these paradigms were meant to be good for at least 3,000 miles”.

I love the old school. But only when it is truly recognised as old school.

In fact if you are still rockin’ old school like it’s new school then you are not old school at all you are instead a roadblock to the purpose of God.

…

A little strong Dave?

- Tell that to Peter and his paradigm shifting food experience which paved the way for the salvation of Gentiles (Acts 10:9-23)

- Tell that to the children of Israel who walked the desert for a few years longer than they had to because they couldn’t quite get their heads around this God who provided for them everything they needed.

- Tell that to your senior Pastor when you suddenly become a pain in the butt, dragging your inability to change around like a wet blanket when a change in direction calls for all leaders to stand up and say, “Ah, we’re going this way… let’s go!”

Some of the questions, some of the methods, some of the answers that were relevant in your old paradigm are completely irrelevant now.

Deal with it, or get out of the way for someone who can.

P.S. Working with children and young people takes the MOST flexible leadership in the Church. Hope it’s you

I have given myself a challenge for the next 26 days – post the complete A-Z of Ministry to Children.

O… Omnipotent, obdiplostemonous, obtuse, ordinary, orb…

[NOTE: push play on the video on the bottom WHILE you read this. It's a musical score and will make this post even more epic that it already is - trust me give it a go]

O is for Obedience – Okay. When you hear that word, don’t think straight away about little Johnny on Sunday morning squirming around distracting others. Rather think about the life of a legend of faith reaching the end of his or her life on earth having run the race and finished strongly!

That is the motivation for obedience.

The older I get, the more I wish I was obedient to what I believed God was saying to me. I am glad for the big decisions of obedience like moving to Australia to go to bible college and giving that offering with my wife in 2003 that led to incredible miracles back then and today. But I wonder what I missed, IF I missed anything?

Obviously because of God’s grace there is no point dwelling on what might have been except for the reminder that I don’t want to miss out in the future.

SPOILER ALERT (kind of)

In the recent remake of The Karate Kid, there is a large portion of the training that involves the student trusting the master and performing the basic task of taking off and putting on a jacket. Our Kung Fu master is trying to teach many lessons here but the one that stuck out for me is one of obedience.

In order for our hero to reach his goal he needed to simply obey and trust that it would bring him closer to the desire of his heart.

Help your kids see that obedience is important by imparting: 1.Faith – trusting in God no matter what, and 2. Gratitude – a heart that is thankful to God for everything in their lives. Help them see the reason ‘WHY’ to obey… then we will see a generation who live radical risk-taking, kindgom-seeking, epic, significant… in short… obedient lives.

After all, that’s what you want in your own life right?

The Karate Kid (Score) – Jacket On, Jacket Off

I have given myself a challenge for the next 26 days – post the complete A-Z of Ministry to Children.

N… Naughty, nice, nothing, nautilus, numbers…

N is for New -  Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth (Ps 96:1). It has been said the the only constant thing in life is change, and the reality of the time we live in is that change is speeding up.

The thing that drives a lot of this rapid change comes down to the bottom line… money. It’s capitalism all the way down.

Fashion is a great way to gauge how fast society has changed. It wasn’t really until the 1900′s that fashion trends began to emerge more rapidly, so now we see trends that might have lasted for years have a cycle of a single season.

I often (well once, when shopping with my wife) wonder if a few hundred years ago a dressmaker could make the same style of dress her whole life and still be trendsetting?

We don’t have the same pressures on us in Church life, so what is driving us to change and innovate the most important institution on earth?

For me the answer is leadership.

Leaders with vision and foresight. Leaders who see the call of God as too important to ever settle and coast alone. Leaders who hate the status quo and dream of ways to move beyond it. Just like stand-up comedians who consider a show wasted unless they at least try out a few new jokes in their set, ensure you are trying new things every event and ministry opportunity.

I have given myself a challenge for the next 26 days – post the complete A-Z of Ministry to Children.

M… monkey, miracle, mountain, miffed, moro…

M is for Mystery – The universe is pretty big, and with all that science has figured out I wonder if we have even scratched the surface of our ability to understand reality. So “I don’t know”, is a perfectly good answer for a lot of questions. Obviously not for “Where is the bathroom?”, or “How do I get Tommy out of the roof?”. But for many questions in life there are no answers, only more questions.

God has revealed a few secrets to us: “This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people. For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory” (Col 1:26,27).

But some things God keeps to himself: Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong unto the LORD…”

My wife watched Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing as a young teenager and then watching years later (I can neither confirm or deny if I watched it as well) suddenly realised she had completely missed the story line involving abortion the first time around. It was there right in front of her face, but she missed it hidden in plain view.

Our kids are certainly not ready to explore every mystery, there is a maturity and understanding that will grow with them. I love a mystery along with every human on earth and I truly believe that some of the mysteries and unanswered questions only help strengthen our faith not weaken it.

In this culture and time, make sure you pass on to your kids the mystery that God has revealed – Christ lives in you. But also the mysteries that make this life of faith an adventure that may forever be unexplained.

Google Reader changed the way I interact with information quite a few years ago. I use RSS feeds for probably 70% of my online time. If you don’t know whatthat last sentence means just watch this video:

Google Reader in Plain English

Now I know you want to take this step in your life, so if you would just say this prayer after me…

But really here it is:

1. Visit Google Reader

2. Signup for a google account, if you use gmail or something else you probably already have one.

3. Watch the video again and start adding your favourite websites!

I have given myself a challenge for the next 26 days – post the complete A-Z of Ministry to Children.

L… love, Lionel Richie, laughter, lost, lozenge…

L is for Longevity – After five years as a Children’s Pastor (in one Church), I started to feel like I was beginning to see some momentum building in the team. It wasn’t that amazing things weren’t happening and growth wasn’t going on, but I just hit that milestone and reflected on the things we were able to do that would have taken SO much longer in the past. I reflected on the fact that within the staff I had proven myself faithful and worked hard to build a trust. And the biggest secret to that? Just keep turning up.

My calling is NOT a career.

A common theme that appears throughout the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is the “10,000-Hour Rule” (basically to be good at something you have to do it a lot). Gladwell claims that greatness requires enormous time, using the source of The Beatles’ musical talents and Gates’ computer savvy as examples.

Your Dad would have called it good old-fashioned hard work.

For a moment, think about the leaders and pastors you admire, you aspire to be like. There is a very good chance that like me, they have served in one place for a long time.

What do you think Dory?

“Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming”.

I have given myself a challenge for the next 26 days – post the complete A-Z of Ministry to Children.

K… kindness, kids, karate, King Kong…

K is for Kidology – Kidology is the study of kids! The Apostle Paul said he became all things to all men so that they might be reached. If you know the work of Karl Bastian, aka “The Kidologist” you know what I’m talking about. Karl founded Kidology.org and blogs at Kidologist.com and I am going to borrow his phrase for this entry.

Studying human behaviour is a fascinating insight for all pastors and leaders who want to understand just what makes people tick. What helps them to change and grow beyond their current circumstance. You don’t need to be a counsellor to use information like this to help others. A lot can be accomplished in a single conversation if you know what you’re doing.

You and I are immigrants into the world of kids. We are strangers in a foreign land seeking to understand the natives.

Have a sit down with your kids sometime and ask them about their world, find out what their interests are and what their accomplishments are… you will be surprised. When you bring toys to Church, bring your own. Buy a Nintendo DS for yourself, not your kids. Swap Wii games, trade football cards, give away your old stuffed toys. In short, kids love to see that you are interested in what they are interested in.

I am pretty comfortable conversing with a 7 year old, it no longer terrifies me, but there was a time where it seemed we spoke different languages. I needed to study this strange creature in its natural habitat, I needed to understand its strange ways and in time it grew to trust me.

Become a student of children and remember… you used to be one.

I have given myself a challenge for the next 26 days – post the complete A-Z of Ministry to Children.

J… Jokes, Jiminy Cricket, juice, Jesus, jiraffes?…

J is for Journey - (Yes I know Jesus starts with J) Our kids have a lifetime of faith to discover. Salvation is not a one-time event but rather a lifetime journey. Sure we make a big deal about the ‘event’ of making a choice to receive salvation and redemption, but there is so much more to it than that.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Cor 1:18)

I think with children, one of the the important things to remember it that phrase ‘being saved‘, we have been saved, are being saved and will be saved.

Jesus has of course accomplished salvation on the cross (2 Timothy 1:9), and we will eventually be saved from the presence of sin (1 Peter 1:5), but there is a long time in between that we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).

I used to get pretty frustrated with kids who just didn’t cope well in our programs, you know the ones who perhaps should be on a slightly higher dosage of medication. But as I have aged and mellowed out , I have realised that we need to take a long view of a child’s life.

I met last weekend a 14 year old I hadn’t seen for about 2-3 years when he was in our programs. He admitted to me that he was a ‘bit of a punk‘ when he was in Hillsong Kids, which I did seem to recall. But this is a young man who is still ‘being saved’, and I am looking forward to see him start serving and helping in our pre-teen ministry.

I am taking a long term view of his life for sure.

I have given myself a challenge for the next 26 days – post the complete A-Z of Ministry to Children.

I… Igloo, ignoramus, ice age, itinerant…

I is for Inclusive - This year at our annual Hillsong Conference, we made our most concerted effort to include children with special needs. It held, and still holds many challenges but I believe that God has called the Church to lead the way in making sure the most vulnerable people in our communities have a place, and in many cases that is children with neurological and physical disabilities.

Don’t put it in the too hard basket, don’t relegate it as someone else’s job. Prayerfully consider just what you need to be doing in this important area.

I am not a expert by any means, but I have a couple of experts on our team. The best resource I know of is a new blog called The Inclusive Church. It’s written by Amy Fenton Lee… in her words:

I am not a credentialed professional from the education or medical field. I am not the parent of a child with special needs. I am not on staff at a church.  I AM a children’s ministry volunteer, the daughter of a church pastor, a writer, and a passionate Christian who believes that the bride of Christ, the church, is still the most effective instrument for developing and discipling Christ followers. And out of my desire to equip churches, this blog was born.  This is the passion that fuels every post.

I don’t know Amy personally, but there is a lot of great content developing at the blog, so check it out.

Special needs issues are affecting churches of every size. Congregations with a regular attendance of 80 and 8000 are both impacted as children with neurological and physical disabilities seek inclusion.

Amen!

I have given myself a challenge for the next 26 days – post the complete A-Z of Ministry to Children.

H… hope, happiness, Harry, highjinks…

H is for House – There are two ‘houses’ in our lives, the ‘house’ of God and our own family. In a NT theology the house of God is the gathering of the Church, and there is always a tension between promoting a works based religion and a relationship with our saviour. Church attendance does not equal salvation, just like living in a garage doesn’t make you a car, just like eating a hamburger doesn’t make you Ronald MacDonald.

But then I began to see how little time we get with our kids as the Church and all the competing activities there are in the life of a family.

Faith without works is dead (James 2:20).

All of the examples I want to follow when it comes to family life just have so much in common, they are passionate about passing faith on to their kids AND live a life of service to their local Church.

If a family would simply model a life of dedicated service, our calling as pastors to children would be infinitely easier and far more powerful, impacting, fruitful and significant!

Just watch this very recent video of Benny Hinn talking about how he neglected his family. The home and the family NEED to work together.

If I lose my family in my pursuit of ‘ministry’, I have lost everything!

A Special Message from Pastor Benny Hinn

I have given myself a challenge for the next 26 days – post the complete A-Z of Ministry to Children.

G… granny, gigantic, gross, gravity…

G is for Growth – When I was a school child we had a backyard… this was the countryside in New Zealand… everyone had a backyard. One day I shall take my son outside of Sydney and show him this mythical square of land called the ‘backyard’.

And on this backyard we had a garden, and for a brief period of time I grew my own vegetables. Notice the use of the word brief… it was a school project and like most projects was abandoned upon getting a C+.

But the thing I realised in this project was healthy plants grow. Because not many of mine did.

So many of the parables of Jesus were about seeds, planting etc. because he was part of an agrarian culture (thank you Bible college). As a farmer you don’t spend your time measuring the height of your crop each day, you just make sure that they get everything they need to grow. Sun, water, insecticide and whatever else helps a seed sprout.

Your job as leader is to make sure everything is healthy, because healthy things grow.

Even if you have reached every single family and individual in your community, if your Church is healthy the growth in the lives of the people will be evident.

We will often talk as a team about the kids in our ministry, comparing them to when they first started coming to Hillsong Kids compared to now and it is often amazing the growth that has taken place, because we work hard to ensure it is a healthy environment.

Just today in our Sunday 12pm service, I helped a first time 6 year old visitor who was clinging onto Mum and wailing about not wanting to leave her, come into our program and have a great time. I can’t wait to look back at the growth in his life over the next few months!

I have given myself a challenge for the next 26 days – post the complete A-Z of Ministry to Children.

F… fun, fanatic, friends, forgetful, friar Frank…

F is for Fun – Hey you, yeah the fun police! Listen up… only 4% of the kids in the state of NSW in Australia have any extended contact with Church. Most of the families I want to reach and help in this community have no reference point to our ‘Christian’ sub culture. They don’t know the rules of religion, they don’t get the subtleties of pre-millennial vs. post-millennial rapture discussions, nor do they care. If you ever dare to try to talk/debate with me about how the ‘Church’ needs to stop being ‘edutainment’ and get back to getting deep into the word… listen… you wanna ‘get deep’… go and share your faith, go and serve someone who desperately needs a little help in this life… that’s deep!

Bottom line is this – Your efforts to take away laughter from the gathering of the Church community is taking away the very thing you are striving to obtain — real, passionate, engaged learning happens best… no wait… happens ONLY in an environment where there are smiles. Give me a child who has just laughed until they pee’d their pants (metaphorically) and I will show you a child who has given me permission to speak into their lives. I will show you a child who has put aside the pressures (and in some cases pain) of a 21st century, busy, urban, city life and has the space to take on board the word of God I am about to present to them.

If it ain’t fun, they ain’t learnin’