It’s been a while since a great story has totally sucked me in this way.

The over arching theme of these books is not for young kids, but there is much to be learned from the style of the storytelling.

We are in the midst of writing the spring content for our kids. Working through bottom lines, choosing Bible stories, and finding creative angles. Wanting to present the most amazing stories ever lived in an unforgettable way.

We are teaching our kids the most important stories they will ever hear. Many of them are jaw-dropping, action packed, and emotional. I wonder if they simply listen or if they are swept away by the wonder of it all.

A few challenges from the Hunger Games:

Bring the characters to life. They should feel pain, love their little sisters, be skilled hunters, sneak outside the fences, and miss their fathers.

Every week we teach our kids the stories from the Bible full of some of the most rich characters you will ever meet. Make them alive again in the imagination of the kids.

Create an adventure. They should sneak through the woods and lie in wait. They should break the law and scavenge for food for the whole village. They should wear magnificent costumes and battle for their life and the lives of those they love.

Want to make sure your kids never forget the stories you teach? Engage them in an epic adventure. Don’t just describe the details. Don’t just tell the facts of the story. Drive them right into the middle of the action and adventure and drop them off.

Build Tension. You should want them to win and yet be against the battle. You know they are a child and yet want to see them fight like a warrior. You should want them to be safe and yet hope they risk everything.

When there is a conflict then there is emotion. When there is emotion, then you engage. When you engage…you remember. You learn.

For those of you who write curriculum, create video, and communicate the Bible stories, what can you do to make the Bible come to life for our kids?

How can you make sure it’s the BEST book they ever read?

This summer we produced a new song called Unlock the Power. We’ve been using it with our kids for the past three months and they love it.

So we thought we would share!

Take a listen: unlock-the-power-final-mix

Here are the details:

The original music was produced for worship on UpStreet, the elementary environment of North Point Ministries. Each North Point Music Accompaniment track is fully downloadable in an MP3 format from your North Point store account. It includes a digital version of the song that can be used for performances both with and without background vocals. It also includes a lyric sheet.

*We also included a LIVE Lyric video!

This song connects well when teaching kids the following concepts:
God is the one true God
God is powerful
Courage
Standing up to the enemy
Looking to God as a source of strength
I can do all things through Christ
Confidence in God
God is our ultimate Superhero

FInd it at the North Point Store!

This year we launched a NEW strategy to connect with our parents.

We dabbled in the world of social media with our parents last year and this year we decided to jump in and give it our full attention.

We want to partner with our parents. We BELIEVE that they are the greatest influencers and leaders of their kids. It’s our goal to be their greatest fan and biggest supporter.

We want to make it easy for parents to talk to their kids about God’s Big Ideas all week long at home. So, we decided to make a concerted effort to place everything they need to know right in the palm of their hands. We also believe that most parents want to work  in simple connections to spiritual things at natural times of the day. They want it to be comfortable. And we believe those small connections multiplied day after day in a child’s life will add up to something big.

We currently have 5 campuses. It’s also our desire to make our relationship with families feel personalized to their campus. We want them to easily find events and information that they need as it relates to their campus and as it relates to what their child is learning.

Here’s what we did:

1. Created a twitter account for each campus.

We created: @gwinnettkids, @brownsbridgekid, @buckheadkids, @northpointkids, and @watermarkekids

Goal: To interact with parents and connect them to the information that they need. We also want to make it easy for us to solve problems or answer questions.

2. Created a facebook page for each campus.

We created: Gwinnett ParentStuf, Browns Bridge ParentStuf, Buckhead ParentStuf, North Point ParentStuf, and Watermarke ParentStuf

Goal: This is a landing page that will push parents to our enviornment specific pages - Waumba Land, UpStreet, KidStuf. This allows our campus pastors to personalize any announcements by directing parents to facebook.

3. Created landing pages for existing facebook pages. (Waumba Land, UpStreet, KidStuf)

Goal: To create a friendlier welcome and to give parents easy access to all 3 pages from one location.

4. Created ParentStuf Blog. (www.parentstuf.org)

Goal: To create a place to inspire and equip parents to talk to their kids (or play with their kids…or pray with their kids) about God’s Big Ideas.

5. Created ParentStuf App. (for iphone, ipad, droid)

Goal: To put simple ideas into the hands of parents and make it as user friendly as possible. We want to connect parents to this information in a simple, helpful format.

We are launching the ParentStuf App this Sunday and the blog has been live for several weeks. It’s too early for me to give you an idea of success, but I promise to follow up and let you know how it’s going.

This was a really big project that required the hard work of a team of creative geniuses. It was such a pleasure to work with Matt McKee and the entire R04R team. I can’t recommend them enough.

Here’s a little more information about R04R! Our mission is simple - to see as much faith based content on mobile platforms as possible. We currently develop iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and HTML5 apps for non-profits and those that serve non-profits. We also believe that mobile apps and social networking can’t be separated. We want to help support your cause by getting the message, vision, and mission onto the one device that people carry with them where ever they go, their phone.

We’ve created a 30 minute presentation for this class called We Believe. You can find out more about this material here.

Check out this new video that we will use in the 10B4 segment in the main services to invite our parents to JumpStart. 10B4 is a video package that communicates announcements and welcomes the congregation 10 minutes before the service starts.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hundreds of kids and parents arrived at our campuses ready jump in. Some came for the first time.

Preparation for this day takes months. We really aren’t preparing for just one day. We’re preparing for the whole year.

Where does most of our preparation lie? Volunteers!

We find them, recruit them, meet with them, train them, screen them, apprentice them, and hopefully inspire them.

This year we started the year with a HUGE kick off event!

We planned fun, we asked our campus pastors to communicate, we inspired, we celebrated, and we informed.

Here’s what the program for the day looked like:

1. Opening Video and Live Band Combo.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Of this song:

Click here to view the embedded video.

We created the percussion track using the noises of items found in our children’s environments. The band came in live as the percussion built.

2. Kidmin Staff came out and welcomed everyone.

3. Then we showed this:

Click here to view the embedded video.

4. The Talk. It was given by each campus pastor.

The bottom line of the talk was to encourage our volunteers to be more than just skilled at their role. We wanted to challenge them to engage in the individual stories of the children and families that they would encounter in the coming year. We are not herding the masses, we are leading each individual child into a growing relationship with their Heavenly Father. We have an opportunity, this year, to be a part of each child’s story of faith.

5. The Closer. Live performance of Van Halen’s Right Now.

We created a video similar to this - but with our message.

Click here to view the embedded video.

6. Meet Your Team.

Everyone went to their classroom and met their team, got their t-shirt, and their small group roster.

It was a GREAT day that got us off to a great start for the year.

How did you prepare your volunteers for the upcoming year?

It’s just a fun way to remind our volunteers of a few important things.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

God is at work in the lives of our children. I love that we are here to witness it!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As we have been busily adding a fourth and fifth campus to our teams we figured out that we would be producing 22 large group presentations of the Easter story for our UpStreet kids on Easter weekend.

We wanted it to be GREAT! We wanted to use our best storytellers and we knew that we might have a few people out of town. So we decided to tell the heart of the message on video.

A storyteller lead into the video and wrapped up at the end of the video with personal application. Then our kids traveled to small group to unpack the message more personally.

Happy Easter!

Click here to view the embedded video.