[Kid Inspiration]

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

C… Christ, cooking, craft, cookies, camping…

C is for Culture – Whether we want to accept it, ignore it, or use it–the reality is that our kids are growing up under the influence of a media-saturated culture.

If we refuse to engage young people in biblical discussions about what they’re watching and hearing, we make it easy for them to compartmentalize their faith and put it aside when they move beyond the church walls.

Through discussions that reveal either the gospel’s presence or absence in popular culture, we help young people develop a biblical filter that shines the light of Jesus’ truth on media messages, encourages them to live authentically at school and church, and engages the Holy Spirit’s discernment in their lives.

Knowledge of kids’ culture also enhances our efforts as missionaries within that culture.

I like to USE culture, when you use something you have power over it, you take away fear. I certainly don’t want my kids to be afraid of any forms of media. Book burnings should be left in the past lest they turn into iPad burnings!

Now in an effort to drum up comments… Harry Potter – discuss

(please don’t)

P.S. Hillsong Church now has an official Blog! VIsit Hillsong Collected and read my first post at the site - The Dispenser of Enthusiasm.

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)

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

So we have just launched new ministry tees this weekend at Hillsong Church.

So to all Hillsong Kids Leaders don’t forget to bring in your old tees leaders and trade them in, along with ten bucks if you can!

Photo courtesy of @K4Kieran from our Hills Campus!

I am really happy with the design – and the three colours are just options for our leaders to choose from. If you look in the top right of the design you can see our name tags that are printed out from our Biometric (fingerprint) ESI (Electronic Sign In) kiosks. So there is actually a spot to put the name tag now — looks smart!

Thanks to Ricky on our communications staff who hooked us up and pointed us in the right direction for suppliers!

NOTE: If you are wondering why we get our leaders to bring in old tees, its mainly because we don’t them showing up in second hand clothing stores and we hope to recycle the old ones for some purpose like tee shirt games for kids and even giving them to one of our new campuses in Europe.

This is probably not the most earth shattering news to most of you. But if you have an interest in the music industry etc.

(Nashville, TN) April 9, 2010 – EMI Christian Music Group has entered into an exclusive recorded music licensing and marketing agreement with Hillsong Church and Hillsong Music, one of the world’s fastest-growing evangelical ministries and a global force in Christian music. Effective immediately, EMI CMG will have the exclusive license to develop and market Hillsong music in US and Latin American territories (including Canadian digital and mainstream retail stores) in the areas of Recorded Music and Video, Live Events and Leadership/Church Resources.

Yep, we have new friends in EMI CMG.

EMI CMG Label Group and its Sparrow Records label will be marketing and developing Hillsong Music annual releases, including the best-selling Hillsong LIVE, Hillsong UNITED and Hillsong Kids recordings, as well as other music and video products from the Hillsong Music team.  In addition to new product, EMI CMG will be re-introducing all key Hillsong catalog titles into Christian, general market and digital retail outlets.

What does this mean for you, oh inspiring reader of blogs? Nothing much at all but with every new partnership comes new opportunities and it is a new day, so I am looking forward to working with the dudes and dudettes at EMI to create resources that grow our own Church, but also Churches around the world.

I don’t talk about it too much, but when I was probably 14/15 and learning Hillsong songs to play for my children’s ministry praise and worship in my Church in Christchurch New Zealand I never dreamed I would end up here a part of the team that creates that music!

Which leads me to our project(s) this year – which I can say nothing about lest I get in trouble for spreading rumours and innuendo But suffice to say, it’s new, fresh and some stuff we have never done before!

That is all.

So you want to work for Hillsong Church, perhaps serve with Hillsong Kids at a high level?

I got this idea while reading Beat the Clock by Jim Wideman who filtered out speaking invitations to get rid of tyre kickers.

What kind of person am I looking for to be part of the team?

1. You better bleed/love/fight for the local church – Sure there are plenty of worthy causes out there, but our focus is Church, the one thing Jesus said he would build!
2. Your second mile better be well travelled – Above and beyond should be your local cafe, over-delivery should be your courier company.
3. I love great ideas, I hate great ideas poorly executed! – That is all.
4. You need to understand the devil is in the details – the comma in 1,000 is important! My first question might be “how did the event go?”, my second will be one of the following; “did the church van get returned clean?”, “did our volunteers feel appreciated?”, “how many kids exactly were there?”, “did it grow from last year?”, “what can we improve next time?” etc.
5. Are you committed to the vision of this house? – What’s in your hand right now at this moment in time is as important than what is in your heart for the future.
6. Sure you work hard, but can you holiday hard? – When you take a break… take a break… 8 months of leave owing is not a good sign.
7. I hope you believe that you are more important than the role you perform – Your well being matters, no workaholics/martyrs need apply.
8. Tell me HOW you manage your time – If you can’t clearly explain/define it we gotta problem.
9. The only way you can hope to survive and thrive is with God – Your job/role/task/mission will be more than you can handle, don’t come on expecting your talent/gifting is enough. Forget it, you will need God! (Although you will be a person who wouldn’t have it any other way).
10. Everyday will require you being creative – Everyone is creative, just because your 3rd grade teacher didn’t give you a gold star on your painting of your dog Pedro, and gives it to Tommy Wilkinson instead — doesn’t define your life. You are creative.
11. Expect to be inspected – Hey, if you’re not growing your volunteers probably aren’t.
12. You will have to pay the price – I’m not sure exactly what that will be, but on regular occasions there will come something that will touch your treasure (that’s where your heart is).
13. God will give you the desire of your heart – Tommy Barnett says hold on to a dream for five years, whatever you do — please dream big.
14. Please have a sense of humour – At some point I will make fun of your name or Funny Man Dan will live up to his name. The team that laughs together… will probably laugh at your expense.

I could go on… really I could.

Setting the bar high is very important in ministry. Don’t just accept warm bodies both on Church staff and volunteer teams – sell a vision, one that will require work, the kind of vision YOU would want to be part of.

Sure some of these will seem contradictory – that’s the point. Welcome to life (and life abundant)!

Each year about this time (actually around the time of Super Bowl), we at Hillsong Church have our Superbowl event – Vision Sunday.

Pastor Brian presents to our whole church where he feels the Church is heading. Realigns us around purpose and points us toward Jesus our hope and future.

This year was the first time that the vision has been presented globally to all our family of Hillsong Churches, so it being Monday morning here in Australia that vision will have been presented and generated a lot of passion and excitement all over the world.

I am pretty sure the video will be put up online soon and will update this post when it is. UPDATE: http://www.myhillsong.com/visionsunday

The great thing about this year is that we focussed on people and their stories in a big way. It’s not so much about the big announcements (although a campus in New York is exciting), but more about becoming the kind of Church we need to be to impact this world.

Our Church has always been about connecting, equipping and serving people and in 2010 the opportunity to do just that will be greater than ever before.

So I am excited because every person that calls Hillsong Church home is called to greater participation in seeing the Kingdom of God advanced.

(It is cool seeing the New York link at the top of our website).

(It doesn’t link yet, but when it does)!!

Just saw this in the digital version of Charisma Magazine. A great article that talks about Hillsong Music and perhaps better than a lot of writing blends a great perspective on the Church with discussion of our Praise and Worship.

Australia’s Hillsong Church may be on the other side of the world, but its music and ministry style have affected every continent. We talked to Pastor Brian Houston about the global impact of Aussie faith…

There are two ways to view it:

- On the fancy (and very pretty) Digital Magazine version.

- Or the standard blog post/static but linkable website version.

On our Hillsong Kids Big website we added a news item with a fun Video blog, but to save you the chance of a repetitive strain injury I have embedded it here.

Aren’t I thoughtful…

Visit the Follow You Curriculum page here and check out all the bonus material we’ve just uploaded for you!

As always we value your feedback and questions, so please feel free to contact the BIG team anytime.

Slowly but surely every single person on the team at Hillsong Kids is becoming a blogger…  its my theory on growing a volunteer team… if every single team member will become a blogger, then maybe, just maybe every single blogger in the world will become a volunteer!

Not sure exactly on the logic yet, but it’s a work in progress.

Carlos Dyonisio (aka Cadu), is just one of the most passionate people I know about seeing the lives of kids changed for the better! He is from South America and came to Australia a number of years ago and has found himself serving here at Hillsong Church!

He is an uber nerd… I mean I am nerdy, but this guy has Linux installed on his laptop with no graphical interface… just think back to the days before windows on MS-DOS and you can imagine how he runs his computer.

His new blog is For One Child and already has some great content up.

P.S. Don’t read the post entitled Running the Race unless you really want to read about his bladder movements.

P.S. I am kinda serious about the blogging theory, the more your team can see their lives invested into being a voice for childhood the greater impact your Church community will have!