[Kid Inspiration]

This is one in a series called Nuts and Bolts, single concise thoughts on some of the topics that make up life ministering to children in a local Church.

Nuts & Bolts – DISCIPLINE

Are your children’s ministry rooms making your kids misbehave?

Well, they may not be helping.

Discipline problems start with the physical space the kids are in. If you wait to deal with behaviour management problems during your weekend services you are too late.

You probably know the kids you are going to have to spend a little ‘extra attention’ with this weekend. So here is your check list to help you.

1. Pray – it’s amazing what a difference a prayer can make.

2. Assess your rooms before the weekend. What distracts your special little one? Remove it. Be brutal and leave no stone unturned. If its an xbox then have a xbox free Sunday…

3. Talk to them when they arrive. Not a warning talk… stop it! Ask them how their week was and tell them how glad they are at Church to learn about God. Tell them you would like their help, but you’re not sure if they are up for it. Get ‘em to help out! (Yes even preschoolers).

4. if all else fails try this:

Instruct all your group that you would really appreciate their respect and attention, if they are not willing to do that there are two great leaders in the room (male and female) who would love to hold their hand for the rest of the service (works great for boys who can not yet comprehend holding a girls hand this side of puberty).

P.S. – Calling your rooms ‘classrooms’ isn’t helping.

P.P.S. – Seriously, kids are in classrooms five days a week, do they need another reminder of school?

P.P.P.S. – Let’s just call Church ‘the office’, then you could spend another day being reminded of work.

Tomorrow I start a series called Nuts and Bolts, a bunch of concise single thoughts on a long list of topics and issues related to working with kids in a mainly alphabetical order.

That sounds way more boring than it should, so I will make sure to throw in the occasional image of a ninja eating bacon… (just googled that… surprisingly not a lot of images… seems like an opportunity for someone in the internets).

Part one tomorrow: DECOR

(please control your excitement).

Photo Credit: Pascal via Compfight

The Jesus Story Book bible – CHECK, The Toddlers Bible – CHECK, Baby’s first Bible – CHECK, The picture book bible for little ones who are incredibly advanced for their age based on parental opinion – CHECK.

I’ve read ‘em, I’ve got ‘em, but for 6 year old Brooklyn it was time to move on to his first ‘real bible’.

So I researched and found what looked like to be a great Bible just recently published. The Fire Bible for Kids.

FROM THEIR SITE:

Q. What is a Fire Bible® For Kids?

A. In the Bible, fire is often a symbol of God’s presence and power. In the Old Testament, God spoke to Moses in a burning bush. And God guided His people through the wilderness in the form of a pillar of fire.

Before Jesus left the earth following His resurrection, He told His followers that He would send the Holy Spirit to give them the power to serve Him. That promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit filled the room where they were with the sound of a might wind. People began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

The notes in this Bible are based on a firm belief that children who believe in the God today can experience the same presence of His Holy Spirit that first came on the Day of Pentecost. We call these children God’s POWER KIDS. They live to serve Him and to love Him. His might and power changes them from ordinary kids into POWER KIDS. Our goal in creating this Bible is to provide tools that will help children be filled with the presence of God’s might and power burning in their hearts. May every kid who reads this Bible become a POWER KID!

While I was in the US at CPC I noticed there was a stand from the publishers all about it! So with my boy Brooklyn with me and after seeing some cool stuff coming soon involving an iphone (it’s awesome), I got him his first ever Bible… okay one of their team graciously gave me a copy!

It’s definitely out of his reading level, but like a pair of jeans on sale, he’ll grow into it

I started reading with him through one of the features which is: GOD’S PROMISES: Key verses about God’s promises.

Review: Highly Recommended!

My first ever CPC just happened in San Diego.

Here’s the thing.

When you come to a kids pastors conference in Australia, maybe only 25% of the delegates would be paid in any capacity. Now that lends a unique feel to a conference, and it is beautiful to see the volunteering, sacrificial attitude that so many people have.

So to get into a room with so many full time/family pastors/even preteen pastors was awesome!

Five things about CPC that were cool!

1. The Resource/expo/exhibit hall thing. It was massive! So many publishers and resource providers I totally geeked out and got every free sample I could possibly get.

2. Meeting my fellow bloggers. So I have been blogging for a lifetime in internet years now (9 years) and have never met many of the authors of other great kidmin blogs. It was great to finally meet them… and the great thing about it was realising we had so much more in common. They were on the same ‘wavelength‘ as me and connecting was really easy. So thanks @dalehudsoncm @mikefjohnson @samluce, @mattmckee, @kidologist, @jonathancliff, @jimwideman, + others I have just left out for sure.

3. Michael Chanley. You gotta question, @michaelchanley knows who can answer it. It was fascinating watching him negotiate and lead his first CPC… (I  love observing people in leadership positions – especially new ones)

4. The Lakewood guys. While I was at CPC my pastor @BrianCHouston was speaking at Lakewood Church and I was having lunch with Lakewood champion pastors @claytonhurst and @craigjohnson5 and talking about possibly the most important question for children’s ministries right now – special needs. (6 million kids in the US!)

5. My underground secret breakout session. So my breakout time changed from Thursday to Tuesday morning and no one really knew. I was talking about creativity and leadership and stuff and one of the 12 people who attended was Mike Johnston from Fellowship Church, creator of Elevate Curriculum and general all around long-term pastor legend was one of them. Oh man. What do you do? Well you just go for it! (I was an honour Mike, thanks for taking the time)

I will be posting the notes online from the session soon and the recording will probably be available from the INCM website.

DISCLAIMER: This is written on an iPhone app and may not be fully good English.

In a few short days time I will be in Vegas at the Napkin Conference at the Church at South Las Vegas. My whole family will be there and I am excited to meet anyone coming along especially blog readers.

This post is part two of three introducing the ideas I would like to talk about at napkin, a sort of primer, pre conference exchange of thoughts. Also make sure if you aren’t coming and you can get yourself there, make it happen!

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In the old testament Moses’ father in law seemingly organized the whole Israelite nation in a single meeting. Telling Moses to find leaders over 10′s, 100′s and 1000′s and therefore save his sanity.

Tick the efficiency box and move on to the next task?

Well Moses just found himself a new job, overseeing a bunch of leaders.

What the bible doesn’t go into just how Moses kept the system going over the following years. How did he grow the structure over the coming years? Did he fire any of his new leaders? Who got promotions?

However it worked, it was probably a little messy. He was figuring it out as he went along and I’ll bet his father in law had more to say to him!

The 700 word magazine articles you read about teams and leadership can make teams and leadership seem a clean and tidy affair. But the day to day reality is messy. There are decisions to be made and the greatest structural leadership flow chart, venn diagram, PowerPoint presentation is an ideal not a constant reality.

Have an ideal, but roll with the unexpected!

DISCLAIMER: This is written on an iPhone app and may not be fully good English.

In a few short days time I will be in Vegas at the Napkin Conference at the Church at South Las Vegas. My whole family will be there and I am excited to meet anyone coming along especially blog readers.

This post is part one of three introducing the ideas I would like to talk about at napkin, a sort of primer, pre conference exchange of thoughts. Also make sure if you aren’t coming and you can get yourself there, make it happen!

The Crumpled Napkin of Creative Leadership.

The bible uses some amazing words when describing the local church. It paints a picture of the community of faith being a body, a bride, a building. The house of God is glorious and splendid and magnificent. The people of God are welcoming and giving and selfless.

Now some of these words may be in your churches mission statement but are they to be found during weekend services?

That feeling when you visit another church and walk away feeling inadequate after inevitable comparisons? It happens to everyone!

I mean everyone.

The kids pastor with the most rocking facilities become discouraged just as easily as the rented school church pastor.

Familiarity blinds us to what we have.

Don’t ever stop using those words to inspire and encourage. The bride of Christ is beautiful and magnificent, friend to the friendless and home for every heart!

So I have seen a few children’s ministry tour/remodelling pictures where there are seemingly amazing facilities filled with beautiful stages, incredible murals on the wall and spectacular entrances and their sitting in the middle of the picture are chairs.

Now first of all I get over the pangs of jealousy generated by the permanent facilities and I realise that of course the room is set up for a photo shoot.

But I have seen it a number of times in photos and videos of weekend services with kids spread all over the room – In the back of the room, in the sides… holes and spaces throughout the crowd.

There is only one reason for this – the chairs are set up before the kids arrive in the room.

Huh?

You mission in life is to help these kids connect with God and with each other and you take one of your tools – seating – and leave it to chance?

Here are three rules of seating I just made up:

1. Have the same amount of seats as kids
2. Never have seats set out during praise and worship times
3. Teach your kids the seating system/plan/fun way of making this tool work for you

One of the first things I did as a children’s pastor was change the way we setup chairs in our services… there were probably more important things but it’s what I did okay

Why do you put the chairs out?

My mind is very focussed right now. In fact it can only really fit a couple of things in it and I have reached capacity.

There are two main projects which are at their almost final end.

1. Our fourth Hillsong Kids Big curriculum – I am excited about this and we have a final video shoot next week, but I really want it to be done. (It also differs slightly from our first three so stay tuned for details!)

2. The DVD of Crazy Noise. Our first ever preschool album CD was released in Aus. last November and will be launching worldwide early this year with a DVD as well… so it’s kinda all happening right now, and because its a studio alum not a live one there is a lot more content that needs filming and a bunch of creative ideas that need to be idea-ed-afied.

So this blog takes a back seat, but I look forward to writing some posts about the creative, songwriting and filming processes that will hopefully be helpful!

Talk soon!

It’s time for a random yet related fact.

So think about how many individual images go to make up a Pixar movie… the average frame (a movie has 24 frames per second) takes about seven hours to render, although some can take nearly 39 hours of computing time. (Source: Wired Mag)

P.S. Rendering definition here.

Finish of random but related fact.

We are creating our latest Hillsong Kids Big curriculum of which the media we produce is a very important part…

Why… In our culture because of the proliferation of media it is used to segregate and divide (you are defined by the music you like and the TV you watch – Hip Hop, Emo, Country, Pop, Beiber have their ‘tribes’). Having all your kids watch the same media at church is a small step in the effort to unite and build community.

So that’s why I’m wearing gold tights, drinking Pepsi Max and spending untold hours filming a ‘Christmas Story’.

It’s worth it.

For approx 35 minutes of video:

• Pre production: (Writing scripts/Recording songs): about 100 Hours
• Filming: 31 Hours

This is the final installment of this little series. Thanks for everyone’s questions – we finished up the main studio time of our latest album and now it’s time to move on to our latest Curriculum filming. It’s that season which I will affectionally call ‘little sleep, much catering’.

Onwards for some questions.

Question 1: Love to hear about your point system or reward system in kidmin. – Cyrstal

I have found myself drifting over to the ‘no rewards’ side of the debate in Kidmin. I like the idea of example and relationship being the great motivator not lollies. But that being said, one of the most important things you need in order for kids to learn is FUN. Prizes are fun so we will use them!

See this post at Ministry-To-Children for an overview of the debate.

Here’s how we use them – we get little points stickers printed that say Hillsong Kids on them. And throughout our services we stick them on kids who are all divided into ‘pods‘ or teams. At the end of the service our ‘pod‘ leaders count the stickers and the team with the most wins a point for the leader board up the front of the room. At the end of each year just before Christmas we announce a winning team and all the kids in that team go into the draw for a big prize (like a Nintendo DSi or something).

This is for our primary school kids, we don’t really do it in our preteen age group, or with our toddlers.

Question 2: “Why do the All Blacks choke at every World Cup?” – Andy ‘I’m a weasel’ Kirk

For my international friends who don’t really follow Rugby there is a world cup going on right now in my homeland of New Zealand… (Even the U.S. has a team there!)

To answer your question Andy, I think I will just bide my time until the result is announced and the All Blacks win.

My last post explains this short series. It is 11:12pm and I am sitting in the studio and suddenly my brain is protesting even considering this idea… “why would you decide to do this now?” it says to me. Well I am gonna do what I said I’d do!

We are well and truly into the mix process and it’s rocking… click here to watch a little video sneak preview from Luke who is producing with me!

Question 1: How do your KDG’s work at Hillsong Kids and how do you transition from large group time to KDG’s? - Braden

KDG’s are an integral part of Hillsong Kids. It stands for Kids Discipleship Groups, our small groups for kids on weekends and Friday nights for our Preteen program ‘Voltage’. In fact it is one of the main things I mention when talking to prospective volunteers and leaders. I explain that one of the most powerful things you can do in the life of our Church is connect with the same group of kids each week. Building relationship and being an example and guide to living for Jesus Christ.

Our best example of this is on Sunday morning services when our primary (elementary) program is a large group/small group format. The last 20 or so minutes we break down into small groups of about 10 kids, depending on campus and service time. If I am MCing (every service has an MC leading) I would literally get the leaders standing around the room and send the children to their leader. They are usually in the same area each week so they know the drill.

We have ‘worksheets’ (horrible name I know… should be funsheets not work sheets), that relate to the theme, but we place a high emphasis on relational connection and pray and talking about real issues. The younger the kids are the more we rely on the sheets as a general rule.

Question 2: Dave. What rules do you have at kids church? how do you explain them to the kids? – Lisa

We have rules but we don’t call them that. At the front of our primary programs we have a “When At Hillsong Kids” sign.

1. Always be kind to others
2. Listen when others are talking
3. Put your hand up and wait to be asked to speak
4. Be Involved
5. Have Fun

We reinforce this with a ‘Welcome Video’ played at the beginning of each service that goes through the rules, points system, toileting procedure etc. About 1:30 long?

Thanks for your questions! More to come!

For the next week I would like to try something on this blog.

We are going to mixing our new Preschool Kids Album all week long, which means lots of sitting around punctuated by bursts of intense activity as we lock in a song (The mix process is basically taking all your recorded songs, balancing all the different instruments and adding lots of Autotune to make my singing sound passable… yep I’m actually singing).

So in order to keep my sanity and around my regular job of keeping Hillsong Kids moving forward I would like to answer questions with a “Here’s What I’d Do…”, Or even a “Here’s What We Do…”

For example:

• Dave. I have a two year old that brings a light saber to Church each week and we have had three hospitalisations, what would you do?
• Or; Dave. I love country music, what’s wrong with me?
• Or; Dave. I read a blog that disparages country music, what would you do?

Ah!

Brilliant.

More new praise and worship music for kiddly winks.

I REALLY like the Kids on the Move team (I even bolded the REALLY if you noticed). The Senior pastor of Church on the Move Willie George practically invented children’s ministry (not even joking) and Jim Wideman it’s co-creator took it to new heights as the kids pastor for many years!

SIDE NOTE: I have had the privilege to spend some time with Jim Wideman and here’s pretty much how conversations go with him:

Me: ”So we did this <insert kind of cool thing> with our kids last year, but we couldn’t seem to <insert issue>”

Jim: (clears throat) “Yeah, tried somethin’ like that back in 1984 and found that you need to <insert solution> and God will bless it, dadgummit!”

Me: ”Oh… yeah… wow…”

(Problem solved).

And… back to topic: In the last little while the seeds blog has come online and been a HUGE blessing to me as I have watched kids services and events all filmed beautifully and lots or input from their myriad of awesome people like Adam Bush and Gabe George etc.

Check out their CM category on the blog.

So enter their album Greater is He!

Tracks include:

Jesus, What a Friend
I Love My Bible
Jesus Is Alive Right Now
Greater Is He
Supernatural
You Are My Rescue
I Obey Right Away
Jesus, I Love You
By Faith
Jesus Is the Way
Jesus on My Journey
Jesus, What a Friend (Remix)

My favourite? Jesus on My Journey.

I really like the title track Greater Is He with an awesome kids choir rocking in the background as well! But don’t take my word for it check out the iTunes link and sample some of these tunes!

Awesome job KOTM team, I’m sure that Hillsong Kids will be worshipping to some of these soon… which leads to a question… backing tracks and website with lyrics?

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

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?

Hat Tip to JC on this one.

In all my YouTube years this one has to be the one that left my jaw open the longest!

It gets worse/better (depending on your general feeling about bad videos) as it goes on.

Nu Thang

So from the ridiculous to the sublime…ish

Here’s something a little more palatable/incredible! That’s confidence right there:

5 Year Old Rapping