April 20, 2009
If you’ve been doing kids ministry for a while and run conferences for kids you might be able to offer some ideas.
We’ve run a conference for kids called KidsRock for the past two years, and I’m excited about doing it again this July. KidsRock is about bringing kids from different churches together and creating an environment where they can meet with God and have a life changing encounter with Him.
Last year we decided to open it up to the kids leaders from other churches, the idea being that they have relationship with the kids and they will do after the conference as well. How cool would it be if their leaders hear the same messages as the kids and are able to keep challenging them about the things that they learnt and experienced at the conference.
However, we discovered that they didn’t carry the same culture that our team carries. Rather then getting in amoungst their kids and joining in worship they stood around the outside with arms folded and sat on the seats during the teaching times while our leaders sat with the kids and did a bit of “crowed control” as they usually do.
This hugely effected the culture and made it a lot harder for their kids to really step out of their comfort zone and it acutally made it quite intimidating for anyone who was up the front MCing, worship leading or speaking.
The question I would like to put to you is this:
Do you think that having leaders that are already discipleing the kids present at the conference
or
Would you stick with the leaders that carry the culture but may not already know the kids?
I have a few more ideas of my own but I would like to know yours! Please leave a comment!
P.S. I’ve also posted this as a CMConnect Forum
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Posted by Sarah
August 28, 2008
This time last week I was over in Melbourne for this years Kidshaper Conference, FLY. It was off the hook! Ps Rob Bradbury launched on Wednesday night with a challenge to us to be living at a higher level. God calls us to soar, but so many Christians just float. Why is that? Then we heard Glen Bertau along with Stephanie Sewell and Jeol Chelliah on Thursday. I’ll post some more thoughts over the next week or so.
If there is one word that sums it up for me it would be FAITH. My faith and expectation of what God can do through me and the children’s ministry that I lead was lifted. It’s totally what I needed! I’ve realized even more since I’ve been back that my limits determine the limits on my team. As leaders we have to be always pushing the boundaries, the lives of cities full of kids depend on it!
A highlight for me (no suprises for those who know me well) was meeting loads of people. It was great to hang out with some fellow Kiwis from Auckland, as well as meet some of the people that I’ve been meeting on cmconnect.
I love what God is doing in kids ministry in Australia and NZ, and I’m so excited to be a part of it, what a privilege! I can’t wait to go back next year with my team!
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Posted by Sarah
July 8, 2008
If you haven’t already, you must check out cmconnect. It’s had me rather distracted for the past week or so!
It’s a networking site for those in children’s ministry. I reckon that it is the best way of getting the big picture of what’s going on in kids ministry around the world. Most of the people that write blogs that I follow are on there. Not only that, but it puts you in the big picture!
Make sure you check it out for yourself!
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Posted by Sarah
July 7, 2008
This weekend the LifeKids Leaders team went away to Berwick camp for a weekend retreat. On Friday it snowed but sadly there was none on the ground when we woke up on Saturday. It was freezing though, we ended up sleeping in the lounge around the fire! We even had our team leaders debriefing in the sauna in our PJ’s!
All weekend I was constantly amazed to see how much members of our team have grown. We have a lot of leaders who are teens, and their growth in the midst of the pressure their culture puts on them is amazing! Many of them are seriously pursuing God’s call on their life. As for the young adults on our team, I’m also blown away at their commitment, wisdom and passion. I have the best team in the world!
Our main theme was revelation. We know that it would be easy to go week to week doing what we usually do, just because it has worked in the past, but God has so much more! God is never short of fresh ideas. How much better would our children’s ministries be if we are constantly seeking God’s guidance for what we do. What is is that He wants our kids to hear and experience this week? In what way does He want His beautiful kids to meet with Him? To really lead kids to Jesus, we need to have revelation.
Revelation comes when we have relationship. The longer you’ve known someone and the more you time you spend with them the more you know them, the more you know what is on their mind and heart, what makes them tick and what makes them mad. It’s just like that with our relationship with God, the more time we spend with Him the more we He will show us about what is on His heart for us and the kids we lead.
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Posted by Sarah
