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!

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?

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?

In our latest curriculum: Supernatural, we are trying something different — the first two series had memory verse segments using actions and spoken word. In this one we have gone for songs that teach straight scripture.

So I can identify with a brand new album from Seattle Dads Tyson Paoletti and Greg Lutze, they have created the Rizers (short for Memorizers).

Writing songs to straight scripture can be quite restricting flomax mg and a challenge and these guys have done a magnificent job! I love music that comes out of local Churches, especially responding to a need, in this case teaching their kids scripture.

Here is a preview of some of the tracks:

And a vid of the creators talking about the project:

Youtube: The Rise of the Rizers

Check it out at their website therizers.com

I love that like Gorillaz it’s basically a virtual band. Gracie (lead vocals), Matty C. (guitar and vocals), Mei Mei (keytar) , A-Yo (drums) and Johnny Danger (bass). This is a cool way to help kids connect with the group while keeping the focus off personalities/superstars.

Anyway, enjoy!

3 year old Jonathan conducting to the 4th movement of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony… Jonathan’s passion for classical music became apparent when he was only eight months old. Shortly after that he began conducting on his own.

This video might just be better than Grover doing old Spice guy!

In fact I declare it my favourite video of all time I love it so much. If you work with flomax 0.2 mg kids you should watch this especially the last few seconds, there is a lot to be learned about joy for you and me.

3 Year Old Conducting

This blog has been quiet.

It may not get much noisier in the next little while, but I would love to share a couple of highlights from the last few weeks.

We have Kidsfest both in our Hills Campus in Sydney (all Sydney campuses join us) and for the first time in Brisbane!

We recorded a project for our preschoolers in Sydney, the first ever for that age group.

The days ran amazingly well, probably the best run Kidsfest we have ever had! Well done to our Hillsong Kids team!

By the way: Thanks for so much great feedback on the recent post about Story fill zyrtec prescription = Danger? In all the years writing this blog, its has been the most well engaged and responded post ever! So thanks to all commentors! And I will do a follow up post eventually!

A while back we were looking into how to do our Early Childhood Praise and Worship better. One of our awesome team Matt who also works in our Bible College suggested getting a hold of some Cuban Box Drums or cajón’s.

They were perfect and have added a fantastic dimension to the praise and worship we do with our little ones. They are capable of sounding like a whole drum kit with a skilled player. Any drummer/percussionist should pick this up pretty quickly.

So our team on a weekend service would typically look like an acoustic guitarist or two, cajón, maybe someone with an ‘egg‘ and a bunch of singers. They circulate through our rooms (depending on our different campuses) leading our kids in worship with our ‘Cubbyhouse’ (1-2 years) diovan 800 mg and ‘Ark’ (3-5 years).

So you have an instrument that this age finds fascinating (you sit on it and hit it),  supports the music brilliantly and is super portable!

They start from less than $100 on amazon but I would suggest moving up to a slightly higher price bracket to get quality!

The kind of music we do with our little ones is a mixture of some songs we have written and a bunch of bridges and choruses from our songs… eg. they

couldn’t sing the whole song ‘Tell the World‘, but the chorus is great! We don’t really use backing tracks with this age group a lot, but then again we haven’t ever done an Early Childhood kids album

So there you go, get one and try it out, you won’t regret it!

After the awesome Napkin conference last week myself and Nathan Mclean made our way around the US to visit a few friends and Churches.

We made it to Free Chapel in Georgia after battling through a blizzard… okay it was a little snow, but more than I have seen in long time! (Ah New Zealand, you have a wintery place in my soul).

But making it to the Church we hung out with youth pastor Clayton Baird (graduate of Hillsong Bible College) who showed us around their flippin’ awesome campus.

One dilantin generic safe of the coolest things about Kidpak (their children’s ministry) is KP7, the kids worship band!

I love seeing music for kids that is reaching them where they are at!

Take today’s hottest sounds like the music from Fall Out Boy, The Killers, All American Rejects, The Hives, Switchfoot, Cold Play, Nickelback, U2, The Black Eyed Peas (and even a little guitar hero)…

Mix them all together and what do you get…

KP7 – NOISE

You need to check these guys out, their latest album Noise was just released, you can preview the tracks here, or on iTunes.

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 diflucan online 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.

I discovered a few months ago exactly why Yancy has a website called Yancynotnancy, on a number of occasions as she was introduced to well meaning people down here in Australia, this would happen (or something close to this):

Introducer: Hey , this is Yancy.

Yancy: Hi there!

Person: Hi… Nancy?

Yancy: No… Yancy…

Person: Nancy?

Yancy: No… Yancy… with a Y.

Person: Y’Nancy?

Yancy: (a sigh as she quietly dies a little more inside) Yeah… you got it.

Anyway, she has a new album out, and what timing she has for it’s a CHRISTMAS album!

Have a Fancy Yancy Christmas is available on good old fashioned diamox prescription CD at Amazon, her website, and Itunes.

I have a bunch of Christmas albums that are on heavy rotation during the Christmas season… some Harry Connick Jr., Destiny’s Child, Israel Houghton and Vince Guaraldi…

Yancy joins that esteemed alumni on my iTunes playlist and fits in just fine! The production on this album is absolutely top notch, great programming and brilliant guitar work. We will be using this in our mix for our December services in Hillsong Kids for sure! And as I have mentioned before on this blog it’s great to see music (especially kids music) coming from Artists not just compilations from big music labels.

Dave out.