[Kid Inspiration]

Part one is here.

So on the first day all of the small groups (each child is in a small group of kids with a leader) got a ‘Cloodle’ which was a record of all the clues that we left around the Kidsong venues. Some were written in chalk in random places, some were read out from stage, some were texted to leaders and some were handed out on bits of paper. There were 18 clues in all and they had to fill out all the clues because on the last morning we revealed the final meta puzzle.

A letter out of each of the 18 clues was needed to create a final sentence to unlock where the ‘treasure’ was ultimately hidden.

One of our challenges each year is to create an exciting prize for the winning team (every child is allocated a tribe/pod for the conference). It’s hard on a limited budget to get a prize that is valuable for a few hundred kids and doesn’t cost your whole budget.

Every year we produce ‘trading cards‘ (coming in part three of this series) that we release each day and the kids go nuts trying to collect them all. Some are rarer than others and this year the rarest of all turned out to be the hidden treasure on the final day. We produced an unannounced 11th card for the winning team ONLY.

There were only a few hundred of this card and not many kids outside of the winning team would have got one. So after announcing the winning team and revealing the meta puzzle we produced the MAP and the winning team went to dig up their treasure.

Funny Story: My esteemed collegue Nathan Mclean, whom I charged to bury the aforementioned tresure only hours before it was revealed is still at the conference site looking for one of the packages (two primary school age groups = two different treasures). One thing I know, I will never let him forget his disastrous treasure finding abilities.

(Even with one lost we had enough to go around thank goodness).

Thanks to Elisha Suarez and her team of thespians who wrote our Mystery script, she did an absolutely magnificent job and I could not have imagined a better video series! Also thanks to our editors Logan, Eric, Josh and Nathan who did post audio! It all worked out in the end!

Here is part three of the video:

This is part four:

And here is the final wrap up of the whole thing, where the kids get to see all the secrets. This is shown on the final night of conference and recaps the entire week.

Coming in part three: The designs of the trading cards and the ‘cloodle’.

Plus other highlights from Kidsong World 2010!

To our awesome Hillsong Church volunteers. Thanks!

Last weekend we took a moment during our services to say thanks to the 4779 people who pulled off our best conference yet! If you were one of them, then thanks so much, you rock!

So each year at our annual Hillsong Conference we host Kidsong World. This year was my 9th and I have been involved from my very first year in 2001 as a ‘Pod’ leader (all the kids are in teams), to now overseeing the whole thing.

The ages we take differ slightly from our weekend services so I thought I might run them down. Unlike normal services we don’t take kids from aged one, instead we run ‘playgroup‘ providing a fantastic area for parents to hang out with their kids and showing the service on screens. This complements our parenting rooms which are for all kids under one.

Our first program starts at aged two and we take 2-5 year old into our Ark program and they hang out mostly with the ‘Funhouse’ kids (Kindergarten & grade 1 at school). This is our ‘Early Childhood‘ program. They have Max and Melody shows and HK Team, our praise and worship team for young ones.

Our ‘Primary school‘ program starts at grade 2-4 (All Stars) and 5-6 (Voltage), they hang out together mostly and have similar programs. But as much as possible we provide different targeted experiences for all age groups.

We have found that split works well for such a long conference (9am-4ish and then a 2 hour night rally), we have these kids for a significant period of time. In fact every year I remind our volunteers that we will get as much time during conference than the rest of the year put together!

So in this post I want to focus on the ‘story’ of conference.

My main concern is of course the safety of our kids, but I really love focussing on the content of the week. Here was our theme this year. Each day of conference was a different theme, we are also using this theme for the month of July (5 Weekends).

BIG PICTURE: THE MYSTERY

BIG WORD: That Word contains the mystery that has been hidden for many ages…and here it is. Christ is in you. He is your hope of glory. Colossians 1:26-27 (NIrV)

1. BIG IDEA: OPERATION BLUEPRINT - BIG POINT: God’s Word is our Guide

2. BIG IDEA: CSI: CREATION STUDIES INSTITUTE  - BIG POINT: We can see God in His Creation

3. BIG IDEA: EVIDENCE UNEARTHED - BIG POINT: We can see God in History

4. BIG IDEA: DESIGNER GENES - BIG POINT: We can see God in His workmanship

5. BIG IDEA: TRUE LIVES - BIG POINT: We can see God in our lives

We make ‘teaching clips’ that are similar in style to our BIG Curriculum videos, but the exciting thing this year was the creation of the Mystery Videos. A five part video that engages kids in a mystery that they have to solve! Each morning they watched the next episode of the video and spent the day looking for clues that would help them solve the secrets of the Mystery.

Here is part one of the video:

And here is part two:

Coming soon…

Kidsong – The Mystery Part 2  [Edit - It's up here]

The rest of the mystery videos and the map

Conference has officially finished this year. Lots of highlights and new things. Full report to come, but right now enjoy the Hip-Hop.

Love it!

I have found a few moments during Hillsong Conference (#hillsongconf for all the twitterers out there), to write a couple of thoughts down.

1. It’s awesome

2. It’s full on!

So many kids, new venues and a whole lot of leaders to pull of the most creative and fresh conference we have done in a while!

(These were short thoughts okay, I’ll try again before the week is out)

But go to http://hillsongconference.com/backstage to see all the action!

All right!

(Yep that’s me in the hat)

The CMTelesummit has just started… which is true if you are reading this soon after I am writing this, but very untrue if you read this in a few days, to it’s one of those time sensitive announcements.

It’s 9:30am in the morning in the US but Midnight here in Sydney so I am out, but if you read this any time soon get on over to the sit and get a hold of the call in number.

Skype works brilliant for the summit, so get on it!

My session is on 2pm tomorrow US EST time. Check it out, I am talking about how to run a key volunteer team!

It’s conference season! Which is like a the buzz of a gnat (albeit a really groovy gnat with rhythm and dance skills), it takes all your focus!

Hillsong Conference is almost upon us, and my bloggin’ is suffering, but there is great news on the horizon.

1. You can be a part of Conference from anywhere in the world. hillsongconference.com/backstage Live streaming during the week and lots more. Look out for me, i’ll be showing up a couple times.

2. Some really cool announcements about the direction we are going in online as Hillsong Church. I am truly excited about these!

3. It’s better if you have three items on a list

Amen.

Hope you’re havin’ a great summer Northern Hemisphere, winter has not been kind to us here in Sydney, but I love this season anyway… it’s the meloncholic, hot chocolate drinkin’, mellowed out with candles side of me that loves winter.

I’m super freakin’ pumped up like an over-inflated bicycle tyre

My man James Leggot explain in the video which you can watch on the site: hillsongconference.com/backstage

Hillsong BACKSTAGE – Web Design – 5weeks to go from Hillsong Church on Vimeo.

So this is similar to the Catalyst Backstage and Orange Conference Behind the scenes/live streaming plus highlights from the conference!

So it will be developing for the next few weeks as we countdown to the conference. If you cannot make it to the conference then this is the place to be during the week.

I will be hosting some of the live streaming along with a bunch of our team here at church!

Can’t wait!

We are once again ramping up for Hillsong Conference in July!

I love conference time each year… the air is crisp, the sun bright but ineffective, winter is all around and we all get precious little sleep as we present our annual conference to champion the cause of the local church.

KIDSONG 2010 promo from Hillsong Church on Vimeo.

So, Hillsong Kids team, we want to hang out with you and a couple thousand kids! Make plans to be there. Ministry leaders come along, if you are in the leadership stream we would love for you to be a part of our Children’s Pastors and Leaders electives!

hillsongconference.com

I have a couple of awesome events comin’ up soon one of them you probably can’t come too, but the other you really should!

1. I’m speaking at a Kids camp in Dunedin NZ! Kidsrock… was invited by the awesome Sarah (best title for a blog in a long time), and I am really excited to get back to my roots and speak to a group of kiwi kids.

KidsRock Promo 2010 from ICCNZ on Vimeo.

2. The other one you can all be a part of — the Children’s Ministry Telesummit

This is a brilliant event that you can be a part of for FREE, just sign up online… you just need a telephone! I have a VERY practical message to present that WILL help you in your ministry!

You need to read the last line of my bio on the site, I am very proud of my new accomplishment!

It’s really late – and I am gettin’ ready to sleep.

But before I retire, I wrote a bunch of stuff on some Napkin’s this week, small slivers of paper with ideas covering them.

These ideas could be the seeds of my future.

They could be the result a little too much mexican food.

But no matter what, these ideas need to come out. Even if it’s not the greatest idea in the world, there could be gold hiding behind it!

(Or platinum).

So thanks to Justyn and the team at The Church at South Las Vegas for such a flippin’ awesome conference.

#napconf is the hashtag for this years Napkin Conference in Las Vegas.

Man I love it!

With a bunch of like minded people who care about kids – even more than that, the kind of of people who don’t get all freaky about going to ‘sin city‘… the truth is Jesus was all about being where the sinners were!

So the room is full of ‘My People’!

More than any other conference I have attended, I feel like this is a group of friends learning from each other.

Congrats to Pastor Justyn – the first day was sensational! Looking forward to the second day.

P.S. Nathan Mclean, Carlos and I went $1 Graveyard bowling at midnight at the Hotel and Mclean bowled 6 strikes in one game for a score of 160! A true 2am champion!

Helen Burns from Relate Church in Vancouver came with her husband recently and spoke at our annual relationship seminar here at Hillsong.

We captured her talking about Kidsong World at Hillsong Conference, you can check it out below or visit the Hillsong Church Youtube channel here.

Thanks Helen, you can come back any time!

I am pretty pumped about this becuase for the first time ever Hillsong Church has created an official online forum!

So if you have been to Hillsong Conference in the last two years or a member of our network then you should have a login for the new online community all based around Conference.

Check it out!

There is pretty much one conference I attend each year that I have nothing to organise and that is Kidshaper. It is the national ACC children’s ministry conference in Melbourne Australia.

I get to just attend and enjoy it!

Except this year I had the honour of speaking as a keynote to the hundreds of awesome men and women of God who sow their lives into the kids of Australia and New Zealand and the world!

You can read a report from the official blog of Kidshaper CM1234

And follow Rob Bradbury (national grand poo-bah of Kids R Us) on twitter.

But from a personal perspective it was such a great few days receiving leadership and wisdom from Papa Smurf himself Jim Wideman and so many other leaders around this nation.

I really felt God speak to my heart about great steps forward both personally and for our church. It was a profound week and I love seeing the same faces each year knowing there are so many volunteers out there running ministries with a heart for God and kids.

If you are one of those people who perhaps is out there running your ministry as a volunteer without a big network of like minded people around you:

1. Find out who is close by you from Kids R Us… make contact and make yourself known. I know Rob and his team would love to support you.
2. Contribute – it’s the greatest way to connect. Write a nice comment on someone’s blog, reply to them on twitter. Connection is not all about the phone and face to face anymore. As you give you will receive. Send a resource to another Church, help them out. You may just find a lifetime ministry friend.
3. Come to Kidshaper next year and say hi.

Thanks Rob and team!