[Kid Inspiration]

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.

Every weekend in Hillsong Kids we have what are called ‘Ask God’ and ‘Thank God’s', they are modelled off the Praise reports and Prayer Requests that the adults have in their service.

This is my son Brooklyn’s first ever Ask God:

He is asking God to ‘find Bullseye’.

Bullseye is, of course, the horse from Toy Story 2 and 3, and one of his favourite toys.

This is also some of the early recorded handwriting from my son.

Apart from being ridiculously cute, I highly recommend printing out slips like this in your ministry and get your children to fill them out before services. Then during the program read them out and take a moment to pray for needs and thank God for providing!

P.S. Unfortunately God has remained silent on the issue of Bullseye, but we remain in hope and faith and maintain a single candle lit as a memorial to the departed toy.

P.P.S. Only part of that last sentence is true

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

W… water, witness, woah, wapenshaw…

W is for Welcome – One of the most important moments in your ministry to kids on a weekend is as they arrive. Not only kids but parents. How good is it for them to see their child welcomed like a champion, like one of the family. High fives all round, names remembered, discussions about what happened that week and also sometimes the injury of the week (for the boys usually).

It will probably be one of the only two moments during your program the parents get to see, the other being pickup.

When I see as a parent, my boy running into a room and welcomed well, it gives me a confidence and sets my mind at ease. It is no different for the parents we serve.

Your team can out do Disney and the biggest budgets in the world if their welcome is personal and fun!

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!

So in every service in Hillsong Kids we have various upfront positions rostered for our primary school programs.

And I always forget who ends up doing what.

So if I write them down here:

1. It might just help me remember them
2. If I forget, they are online for posterity

THE THREE M’S

MC – Responsible for the running of the service, welcomes kids etc. They also do the offering.

Ministry – Does our ask God, thank God prayer requests. And any time of ministry/prayer with the children.

Message – Does the message. Every service someone will bring a message to the children. Some services it may be longer than others.

There are a lot of other roles in a service, but these are three of the main one’s in terms of upfront/platform citalopram online apotheke leaders.

So the latest Hillsong Church started meeting today in cialis generic overnight target=”_blank”>Capetown South Africa!

They are meeting in the Cape Town International Convention Centre. And have had five services on their first Sunday!! The auditorium sits 620 people so this is a MASSIVE start for the church!

Service times | Sunday 9am, 11am, 4pm and 6pm
*PLUS EXTRA ONE-HOUR SERVICE @ 8pm*

The kids team over there already has gotten the curriculum we are doing right now, they have the same tee-shirts we have in Australia, and are running programs for every service over the first Sunday!

I’m not even sure who is running the whole kids programs yet but it is very exciting to see the church establish itself over in Capetown!

God is good!

We run a 5 Star Leadership Program for kids in years 4 and 5. And last Saturday night they took over… running the whole shebang. MCing, Preaching, Running Games, Doing sound etc, etc.

 

A Giant Connect 4 Competition.

 

Kirra Preaching up a Storm

 

Tayla Speaking the Word!

 

Caleb MC’ing!

 

Me and Caleb talking about stuff!

It was a huge success and the kids loved running everything – get a group of your kids to try this… very rewarding (You will also be surprised with what the kids preach about!).