Since 2009, when I’ve been taking Kidsong World seriously, God has used it to teach me amazing things. And I’m loving it! Last week was the 25th Hillsong Conference. As usual, I was serving as a kids leader in our kids conference Kidsong World.

This year was different because I was a tribal leader instead of a group leader and didn’t have a specific group of kids allocated to me, but a group of about 7 leaders who were leading a group of 100+ kids. And I had two electives to present. In addition, my friend and leader Dave had a great idea during conference and needed my help to execute it. As a result, I didn’t spend as much time as I wanted with the kids.

However, this lack of time didn’t stop God from using me to impact the lives of a few children, which made me happy. I love when God does that! I love when I see the smiles of children after conference, and how much fun they had, and how sad they are to leave (ok, this part is not fun, I also feel sad when conference ends and I have to say good bye to the kids who live far away and whom I might never see again).

After Conference, when I stopped to thank God for everything, He reminded me that even though I feel good when He uses me to change children’s lives, He is the one who makes it happen, and it is all for His glory. He also reminded me of the great honour and privilege that it is to be trusted as a leader to the little ones whom God loves. And He reminded me of the impact my life has in these kids.

While being a children’s leader with influence is amazing and is a blessing, it is also a great (and I cannot stress this enough) responsibility, because the kids watch every step I take, and my decisions can have a positive or negative impact in their lives. As it is written:

“But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck.” – Mark 9:42 (NLT)

Now, I definitely don’t want to be thrown into the sea, or, even worse, make the kids I lead to fall into sin, or stumble. Of course, that doesn’t mean I have to be paranoid about everything I do, but I must live a life that honours God and leads people to God. And it is not supposed to be very hard, because the Holy Spirit lives in me, and all I have to do is listen to Him and do what He tells me.

And this is one of the great things about God: when He reminds you of something, He already has all the tools you will need ready to go! What an amazing God!

Cadu

PS: By the way, you should watch the video Dave, FMD and I made during conference (this was Dave’s great idea):

This blog is kind of quiet lately… but I am not. I’ve been busy making some videos… Have a look at them, and if you want, follow me on Twitter to know when I upload more videos. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel or Vimeo channel or RSS feed.

My Favourite Things! from Carlos Dyonisio on Vimeo.

Trio With Myself (or A Duet For Three Myselfs) from Carlos Dyonisio on Vimeo.

Cadu

We all know that having vision is important. But not evaluating our ministry according to our vision is like not having vision at all. Some obvious questions we should be asking ourselves are “is my ministry going where I want it to go?” and “what do I think of it?”.

However, there are other important questions we should be asking ourselves, and in this post I will talk about some of them. In my case, I am in charge of one of our kid’s services, and the questions reflect that, but you can change them to whatever you want.

1. What does God think of my service?

The first thing we have to do is stop and listen to God. Often He has things to say and is just waiting for us to stop and listen to Him. After all, we are doing everything for Him, right? (If you are not, then stop!)

2. What do my leaders think of my service?

Sometimes our leaders won’t be present during our service, but we must know their vision well enough to be able to answer this question. Are we following their vision? Is anything happening that they wouldn’t like? Is anything missing? Can we do anything better? Don’t wait until they come and tell you what is wrong, fix it before that happens; and don’t bother them with trivial problems that you can fix yourself.

3. What do my kids think of my service?

What would a new kid think/feel/experience once they arrive in the room? Will they feel welcomed, or lost? Are the kids having fun? Is your team focusing on the kids? The service is for the kids, and if they are not experiencing God, having fun and enjoying the friendship of their leaders and other kids, something is wrong.

Cadu

I happen to talk regularly to a few preteens during the week, and one thing that I hear a lot from them is that they are bored. Every time I hear then complaining about it I feel sad and think “But how? How can you be bored??”. I don’t think I ever felt like that when I was a kid or a preteen. Seriously, this often bugs me so much that I try to remember how I felt when I was bored, and I am never able to remember a time when I felt like that…

Even though I have a sister, I used to spend a lot of time on my own, and when I was not playing with her I always had something to do. And when I didn’t have something to do, I invented something. I never had a video game (until two years ago when I bought a Nintendo DS)… but I had a chemistry set; I liked to do experiments with plants and insects; I took an electronics course by mail; I played with matches and fire; I looked at my own sperm in the microscope (too much information perhaps, but still interesting); I learned BASIC; I tried to make a rocket (that turned out to be more like a fragmentation grenade that thankfully didn’t explode) and tried to make trinitroglycerine with a friend as crazy as me (which also didn’t explode, very sad…); I learned sewing, counted cross-stitching and knitting; I opened (and never closed) electronics and toys (and sometimes made something new from their spare parts); I recorded funny things on tape; I made some short films (and I didn’t have YouTube to publish them); and when I ran out of things to do, I found new ones…

Sometimes I try to compare their times with my times, and it looks to me that they have more alternatives to “waste” their spare time than I did years ago. They can do everything I could do, plus all the games and entertainment that is available today. They can even learn Python instead of BASIC! And yet, they are bored…

While I have some theories to explain why this is happening, I don’t have a concise explanation. Sometimes I think that all the technology and entertainment options available today is the reason why they get bored so easily, but I might be wrong. And that is where you come in to the discussion! If you have any ideas, any theories that could explain it, please say so in the comments… or if you read any recent research paper on this topic, please let everyone know about it! Also, if you have a solution for it, I will be very happy to know it!

I will probably write another post on this topic in the future, hopefully with more answers than questions.

Cadu

Today I am reviewing the series called “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” written by Jeff Kinney. So far it consists of 4 books, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid“, “Diary of Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules“, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw” and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days“. Apparently there will be only five books, with the last one coming out this year.

The books all look like a child’s diary, and have drawings and hand written stories relating the things that happen in the life of Greg Heffley, a kid that has just started Middle School (Junior High School). Although he is a fictional character, I think his stories reflect how many kids of his age see the world around them.

Greg lives with his two brothers, one older and one younger, and his mum and dad. His parents apparently don’t really understand him and don’t know how to show love to him, and he strives to be popular and look cool. In fact, according to him, nobody really understands him, and most of the time he is the best person he knows. Except for when things don’t work as he expected, and that happens very often.

Despite the lack of accurate dates in the stories (he only writes the day of the week, ie. Monday), I really love the way the stories are written. Some stories are incredibly funny, and all the books are interesting and can entertain me for hours. While it is written for kids, many adults will love them (specially the ones who work with kids…).

Bringing the books to reality, there are many kids like Greg, who don’t get real assurance from their families and strive to be popular and maintain a status of cool. While reading the book sometimes I feel sad for Greg, even though he doesn’t exist. As Children’s ministers we should be looking for these kids in our Church services and making sure we do everything in our reach to impact their lives. We can be the ones who will make these kids write a possible “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: A God Encounter” book to complete the series…

I really think you should read all the books! They are awesome!! The first three books are based on an online journal that you can find at Fun Brain. You can also buy the books from Amazon or your favourite book shop.

There is also a movie already available in some countries (including the USA) based on the first book of the series. I haven’t watched it yet, but if it is like the book, it is probably awesome!

See you again tomorrow, the 3rd!
Cadu

Today is the 17th (at least where I live) and since 17 is a prime number it is time for a new post! And to make things more simple complicated, I decided that the 2nd and the 17th will be dedicated for reviews (books, music, movies, blogs, whatever I feel like reviewing…)!

Today I want to talk about Libera, an alternative kind of boy band, as they describe themselves. They are a British vocal band of boys that sing unique arranged songs that sometimes remind me of Gregorian chants. Libera is a latin word that means “free”, and while many of their songs are (partially or fully) in Latin, they also sing contemporary songs including their own compositions. Musically speaking, I think they are incredible and their voices and harmonies are perfect. Theologically speaking, ignoring the songs about Mary, some of their songs bring me into a place of worship and awe before the Holiness and Majesty of God.

My favourite songs are “Sanctus”, “Libera”, “Love and Mercy” and “Time”, from their new album “Peace” that should be released already. You can listen to their album “Peace” for free on their Amazon page. You can also visit their website www.libera.org.uk to buy their albums or donate.

See you again on the 19th!
Cadu

I imagine all of you know about the massive earthquake that affected Haiti, specially the regions around Port-au-Prince. Lots of people died, and some people estimate that the number of deaths will be around 200,000…

I really encourage you to help! Either by praying for them, by going there (I wish I could), or by giving money to some good organisation that is helping the people in Haiti. I already did, and my choice was Compassion.

I chose Compassion because they are already there for years, they have many Children Development Centres in Haiti, and they are focused in helping children and families, in Jesus’ name. Many of their Children Development Centres were affected, and possibly many of the sponsored children were injured or died because of the earthquake. They have a webpage with updates about the situation of Compassion partners in Haiti: http://blog.compassion.com/haiti-earthquake-update/.

If you can, I also encourage you to sponsor a child from Haiti once their operations there are back to normal.

Cadu

A number of weeks ago there was a leadership event for all the volunteers at our Church, and I served in the kids program. It was a Thursday evening, and not many kids came to the program. I ended up hanging out with a kid I didn’t know before… he likes soccer and I am from Brazil, we played for a while, talked for a bit and at some point of the program we prayed for each other. That was basically it. I serve at Voltage (for kids on Year 5 and 6 at school), and he is on Year 4, and that is the reason why I didn’t know him before.

A few weeks later I saw him at Church with his family and stopped to say hi. It turned out his mum already knew me as “the soccer player”, and she said that he talked about me for ages since that evening when we met.

I have to say I was very surprised that his mum heard about me, and that he talked about me for a while, since we hung out for only one evening, a couple of hours… it made me think about the impact we can have in a child’s life if we stop for just some moments and show interest in their lives.

If you stop to do the maths, if a child comes to church every week, he or she will spend about 110 hours at church in a whole year. That is 1.25% of the year, and it is almost 7 times less than the time this child will spend eating (about 8.5% of the year) and almost the same time this child will spend in the toilet (about 1.5% of the year)…

One of the things that God is teaching me this year is the art of being available so He can use me to make a difference in a child’s life. When I am serving in the kids program, if there is at least one child in the room, there I am, talking to them. The last thing you will see me doing during the kids program is hanging out with other leaders or doing something by myself.

We don’t have much time, but we can make the most out of the time we have. If we let God use us during those couple of hours that we have every weekend, we can be powerful instruments in His hands to make a huge difference in the lives of the children that come to our kids program. It is a simple choice that can change their lives forever!

Cadu

The creator of the only blog to be read in the Moon, in the ISS and on Mars (thethursdayblog.com), Funny Man Dan, and more recently Funny Daddy Dan, wrote a great post on Kids Ministry and I am posting it here.

Performance skills – 101 Sharpening your skills to use in every aspect of your program.

One of my greatest frustrations is that only in the church world do people think that performing, preaching and mc’ing are a natural gift. This belief means that (1) those who believe that they don’t have this gift are excused from any of the aforementioned tasks and (2) those with the gifts just have to keep performing and they will get better and better.

This concept is absolutely ludicrous. It is the same as a man saying “I have always naturally been good with my hands, I am going to start practicing operating on people and I am sure I will get better”. Even in the world of fictional TV shows this would be too far of a stretch. Doogie Howser MD was a wizz kid and a doctor by 16 but he still did all of the study and training?

A football team doesn’t just play games to get better but they run specific drills to improve specific skills that will help them with the game. This is what I believe we need to start doing.

In this episode we are going to look at one skill that is crucial in on-stage speaking. In fact if I could only tell you one thing that most help you it would be this:

Truth by Vibration!

The year was 2002 and I was in a theatre class. I was performing a piece from the “Dead Poets Society” with a girl in my class, and I had to confess my love for her. We got to the most crucial part where I said with all my acting skill – “I love you”

“CUT”

The teacher stopped me and told me he didn’t believe me and to try again.

“I love you”

“CUT”

The teacher tried to help. He told me to just say the line. I said with no effort “I love you” and he said “PERFECT – that is it” and told me to do it in the scene. I got to the part again, I said my perfect line and he said “CUT”

Over the next 30 mins it was really painful. He got me to stop and start 20 times speaking the line and getting it perfect, then performing it and failing. After the 30 mins I still didn’t get it. I had no idea what he was saying because to me they sounded exactly the same. It wasn’t until a few months later I found out a secret that has changed the way I have performed ever since.

I went to a voice training class and the speech specialist said during a routine exercise “Truth is communicated on Vibration”.

Every time you speak, sing or make a noise a vibration is made in your body. We generally talk with a bit of chest vibration and a bit of throat vibration but when we get on stage for some strange reason most people’s voice gets a little bit higher and it goes straight to the throat. This is the easiest way to tell the difference from a preacher that has been preaching for years and a rookie. The rookie’s voice is always a little bit higher than they normally speak.

When I perform my voice goes high, goes low, goes all over the place for the enjoyment of the crowd, but whenever I want to communicate a message I make sure my chest vibrates.

Professional performers are trained to speak on vibration (that meaning in the chest) because it sounds more confident, it is more relaxing, and you can speak for as long as you want and your throat will not tire. The other main reason is that if you don’t speak on vibration people will not believe you.

So give it some practice. It is a learnt skill that takes time. It is not speaking in a deep voice but it has certain feel that has to be learnt. The best way is to practice your message with your hand on your chest and focus on getting the vibrations lower.

If you look at all the great preachers, performers and mc’s, you will notice that they speak very similarly to when they are off-stage. They may not realise they are speaking on vibration but have just developed that over the years. If you adopt this specific training you will find that you advance a lot quicker than those who have gone before you.

Have Fun

Dan.

I was not born in a Christian family. In fact, I don’t know anyone from my extended family that is a Christian… and today, the only ones that follow Jesus are me, my mum and my sister. How did everything turn around?

Since I was 6 months old I had a baby sitter, Fátima. She was (and is) a Christian… a very strong Christian! She was a bit shy and didn’t really talked about Jesus with my mum or dad, but there was one thing she did: she prayed for us! She prayed for us in her bedroom, in her church, and while taking me and my sister for a walk… and she gave birth to me, my mum and my sister. We were born again! Because she prayed for us, today our lives are changed, and not only our lives, but the lives of everyone else me, my sister or my mum impacted and will still impact one day. Only God can count how many people this woman, my spiritual mother, blessed because of a simple and powerful thing: prayer.

How simple is that… to bring our children (real or spiritual) before God… to stand in the gap for them when maybe no one else will… to profecy blessing over their lives! Sometimes we strive to make things happen in our kids’ lives, strive to change things by our own strength, strive to make them sit down and pay attention to whatever we are saying, and forget about praying for them… but there is nothing more powerful than just shutting up, calming down, and bringing their lives before God.

I had (and still have) problems remembering kids names… Sometimes I know a child for months, they all know my name, but I don’t know their names… it is terrible, yes. But since Hillsong Conference this year I decided to change: I started to write down the names of the kids I know, and the names of the kids I meet every weekend. After the service, I go through the list and check who was there and who wasn’t, how much time I spent with each kid and so on. Before the service I have a look and think about who I expect to be there. But the most powerful thing is what happens to this list during my week… sometimes when I am praying, I just go through the list, and pray for each child in that list… I think about them, remember the good and not so good things that are happening in their lives, and I just bring all that before God, and I know that if I care, God cares much much more! They are His children, and He actually wants them to be blessed, succeed, be empowered, be happy and transformed by Him.

As Fátima’s prayers changed my life, I know that my prayers are changing the lives of the kids I pray for. Most of the time, I have no idea what is happening because of my prayers, but I KNOW that God is moving, turning situations around and changing their lives forever! Only God can do this kind of stuff! I can’t change their lives… I can’t be with them while they are crying at night because of whatever problem they might have. But I can pray! And God will do everything to be with them, love them and impact their lives forever!

How about you? How often do you pray for your children?