#voltagerocks

I could not think of a better time to talk to you about the victorious generation than now.

In Arcade (a collection of ministry groups at Hillsong Church London) for the last few months we have been exploring the concept of being the ‘Victorious Generation’ - we in Voltage started to look at what being part of a victorious generation would look like for our kids and trying to get them to understand this in a more practical way.

On Easter Sunday this year we got the kids in Voltage to share some of their testimonies of how they came to Christ, there were some kids who had come to Christ after being born in Christian families, many whose parents were first generation Christians and some who had been brought to church by a family friend and eventually convinced their parents to take them to church (I love that our church is so diverse!). At the end of our Easter service we had an altar call and asked if there were any kids who had not already accepted Christ that would like to accept Him as their Lord and saviour and we followed this up by speaking to the parents of the children who had made this life-changing decision.  

I truly enjoyed seeing these kids showing victory over evil through making this bold decision to dedicate their lives to Christ and I am so happy we were able to facilitate letting the little children come to Him (Matthew 19:14), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The following Sunday we then taught about why we should share the story of salvation with others and tell others about Jesus giving them examples of stories from the book of Acts. The scripture we fixated on was Mark 16:15 where Jesus said “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” we looked at how they could do this in their relational groups at school, not just through what they say but how they treat people; i.e. with kindness, sharing and putting others before ourselves and we equipped them with tools to share the love of Jesus with others. Our Voltage kids are amazing with applying practical things that they learn on a Sunday to their week, I know that we often have our kids bring their non-believing friends to church and I know that the week after this teaching one of my High Voltage kids brought his younger cousins to church and they got to experience why he loves church so much and he got to serve them and show the love of Jesus in a very practical way.

In the final week of the ‘Victorious Generation’ teaching we spoke about how Jesus was willing to do whatever it took to save people, which in His case meant dying on the cross. We looked at John 10:10 and what it means to have an abundant and full life linking it to being more than conquerors through Christ like in Romans 8:37-39. For because of this abundant life on earth and eternal life in heaven Jesus saw the cross set before Him as COMPLETELY worth it.

I said at the beginning of this blog entry that I could not think of a better time to talk about the victorious generation than now. That’s not only because our generation needs to know about walking victoriously in Christ but because I have just come back from a weekend of Colour Conference (our yearly women’s conference at Hillsong) where we taught about strength under humility and purpose in each person’s life, I left the conference fully  victorious.

These past few weeks of teaching the Voltage kids about the victorious generation aligns perfectly with one of the messages taught at Colour Conference by Beth Moore where she talked about impacting a generation for Christ and she breaks down one of her points into 3 parts saying that to communicate Christ’s message effectively to the next generation we have to communicate:

1) Christ’s story – we teach the kids using the word of God and they often give us examples from the Bible that they enjoy when telling others about Jesus

2) Their story – using their testimony and what God has done in their lives to draw others to Christ

3) Our story - the why we do what we do and how the story of Jesus and their individual story ties to the story of the church which helps them live life more abundantly.

is when I really woke up feeling that the season of Easter was upon us. Although I had given up various things during the period of ‘Lent’ (40 days before Easter), it still hadn’t sunk in yet that Easter was close-by.

However; the week of Easter I found out that our church would be having a Voltage service, a service for the 7-11 year olds whom I have the privilege of serving, during the Good Friday morning service.

Now I’d love to say that I was immediately excited, that as soon as I received that text message I was energised by the prospect of it. Unfortunately that was not the case (please don’t judge me!). Let me tell you why; I had just spent the last two weeks telling parents of my tribe of kids that we were NOT and I repeat NOT having a Voltage service on Good Friday. 

I knew we had baptisms on Friday evening and a couple of my kids (in my tribe) had told me in advance that they were going to be baptised on Friday evening so I had decided that my Good Friday would be spent cleaning the house and preparing to go to the baptisms on Friday night, I was not even planning to attend the Friday morning service (again; don’t judge me).

It was on the Tuesday night before Good Friday that I changed my mind. Here’s why; I remember seeing the faces of not only disappointed parents but also disappointed kids when I had reiterated to them before that we weren’t having a Voltage service during Good Friday. I also happened to have some of the Voltage girls over at my house for a baking lesson (one of my favourite pass-times!) and some of them said they were unsure of whether they would be serving on Good Friday morning; they asked me if I would be. In that split second I thought of all the leaders of different areas in Kids Ministry and how they would be going the extra mile, being the ones to get up early on a Bank Holiday Friday, write the programme and ultimately struggle to execute a great programme if we had a lot of kids yet the labourers were few (Luke 10:2). In that moment I decided to say I would go and serve; with this small act of yielding to service Good Friday started to take on a whole new meaning for me.

I got in touch with all the parents of the kids in my tribe via telephone to let them know that there had been a change of plan and that we were now having a Voltage service. Before the service I decided to read the disciple Mark’s account of the conviction, death and resurrection of Jesus (Mark chapters 14-16). Boy was I humbled! From the moment I started reading about the preparation for the Feast of Passover, to the Communion that Jesus shared with the disciples, to the scene at the Garden of Gethsemane, to the trial to the ultimate sacrifice.

I finally got this Easter’s wake up call; that is what Easter is all about; sacrifice.

We had a special programme for Good Friday where we set up different stations and I led a new tribe of kids (with a couple of our usual kids that I recognised).  At each station I went through a different part the Easter story, the kids read part of the scripture and we did an activity. The kids in my tribe wrote out Easter prayers; we talked about things that keep us from God and how Jesus overcame all of them at the cross, I got to have communion with them, we painted Easter cards for their parents and I had the privilege of washing the feet of one of the kids. When we got to foot-washing station all of the kids were like ‘I’m not washing my feet’; all except 1 , so I got a volunteer in my tribe to read out the story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet and how Peter had refused at first saying that he was not worthy to have his feet washed by Jesus but Jesus was setting the example that in order to be first in the Kingdom they must be servants of all. Then I got all the kids in my tribe to reach out and stretch out their hand to this one child (who had agreed to have his feet washed) we all prayed a blessing over him, then I carefully washed and dried his feet. It was such a quiet moment, it’s like the whole room went still and the kids were just focused on this 1 child getting his feet washed. After this the whole tribe wowed and asked if they could all get their feet washed but by this time it was the end of the service. The kids (including the new kids) really seemed to just let go during their time in praise and worship, I’m guessing the visiting kids had a good time because I saw some of them back on Sunday for the Easter Sunday service!

My time serving at the Good Friday morning service taught me:

1.) That Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for us; the little sacrifices we make can’t even compare to His great sacrifice, yet He loves us and is so proud of us when we take these small steps of obedience. 

2.) That kids really do come alive when they hear the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus; no matter how many times they hear, if it is broken down to them in a way they can understand they can grasp it anew and get a fresh perspective on it; just like adults do.

3.) Sacrifice ultimately leads to a better you and an encouraged group of people around you. Since me and the girls I had over my house baking (before Good Friday) all served, we all had a good amount of kids to do activities with, we had over 60 kids but we weren’t over stretched nor under-stretched.

I needn’t have been worried that I would be too tired to attend the baptisms, I finished packing things away from the morning service by about 1pm, went home, changed, had time for a snack, and then went straight to baptisms. That was one of the most amazing nights ever, I got to see two kids from my tribe before they got baptised (that same morning when they were all excited), during the baptism and I had the privilege to be one of the people praying for them along with our awesome Voltage Pastor (Pastor Robby) after they got baptised. I truly believe the baptisms had more of an impact on me because of the Good Friday morning service and made me fully excited and expectant for Sunday service.

Sunday service outdone all my very high expectations. One of the girls from my tribe that had gotten baptised gave a message to encourage the kids to give to our sponsor child (sponsored via Compassion International) about the gardentomb. She explained how the empty tomb meant Jesus was resurrected and that He had done this to make disciples of us and as His disciples we should give just as He gave, He gave His life on the cross, and so we should give to others. To say I was blown away is is an understatement!