Uprising Starts this Friday!

News - Uprising Youth

Hey everyone,

Some really exciting news this week. I've just created a blog specifically for the Friday Knights age group (years 5-8) called Uprising - you can check it out at http://uprisingyouth.blogspot.com . We're still working on some of the ins and outs of what it will look like, but the idea is that it will be a relevant place for kids (particularly non-Christian kids, who make up about 2/3 of the overall group) to find information on events and happenings, as well as providing another connection point to the local church. Watch this space!

Friday Knights

Hey guys!

Friday Knights is up and running again tomorrow night. The ice cream olympics have been postponed to a later date so we can advertise and get as many people along as we can, because it should be a fantastic night.

Tomorrow, we're looking at playing some schoolyard games, and promoting our new Ground Rulz programme, which is the focus for this term's Kid's Church. As well as friday knights being a safe environment for our kids to hang out, it's also a great opportunity to get children connected with the church. Church is a great place to learn some essential values, and grow into all that God wants us to be. I'm excited about how future generations are going to be impacted by the awesome young people we have rising up.

Mr Ray

Ground Rulz

Is love just fun and Games? The teaching will be set in a school playground, looking at life in the playground amongst their peers. The challenge is for the kids to be a positive influence in the playgrounds they spend each school day in. We are looking at the Colossians passage that talks about the importance of the way we look on the "inside" rather than the obsession this generation have about how they look on the "outside".

Colossians 3:12 -14 talks about how we should behave as God’s chosen people. It teaches us in 3 verses the way we need to behave towards others so that we can live in unity. The world is always talking about peace and how we should live in harmony. God tells us how this could be possible in these three verses.

Children are looking for ways to live, rules to live by, ways to function successfully in our culture. "Clothing" and how we look on the outside is very important to children nowadays. The media have made children very fashion conscious, to the point where parents just can't keep up. God talks about another way we should clothe ourselves that is not only longer lasting but will never go out of fashion.

Next Friday Knights Event - Friday night fever!!

For Years 5 - 8. Be there or be square!!

Kidz Ministry Update

Hi all,

Sorry it's been a while between updates! There are a couple of things going on which as parents you'll probably be interested to know...

Kidz Church - The Over the Edge programme is now into its sixth week. The kids have been having a huge amount of fun as part of a live studio audience in the Over the Edge extreme lifestyle show, with stuntmen, celebrity extreme bikers, and those crazy clowns, the Brave Brothers. Coming up in week seven is the Have a Go studio audience acts, where kids can showcase unusual talents, as well as singing, lip synching, dancing, and other great acts.

The other areas are also going through a period of growth (to say the least!), and as a result, we are looking at utilising the upstairs space in a different way which will mean that there will be more room for everyone!

Feeding Mums Room - As there are currently something like 15 feeding mums and a space which allows for five mums at a stretch, we are looking at expanding into the creche area so that there is a comfortable welcoming environment for feeding mothers. The current room will be used as a sleep room. There will be no formal programme in this room, just a welcoming atmosphere which mothers can enjoy the service via the audio feed.

Creche - Creche will move over to where the current Little Knights reside, and will cater for up to three year olds. There will be a new programme in place, which will include mat time, music time, activity time, and free play time. A video feed will be made available so that parents may still enjoy the service.

Little Knights - Little Knights are going to break out into the upstairs area. We are looking at setting up workstations as well as some awesome free play toys. Due to the fact that they are a more active bunch, this area will focus on delivering a quality programme for the children, so a service feed may not be available.


Little Knights will be the first area to start shifting, with a "Gypsy Day" to occur sometime in the next month. I'm currently looking at this being a celebration event, with a party atmosphere. Any parents who would be keen to help, contact me at the Christian Centre office.

Finally, it would be awesome to have some more volunteers in order to supplement the great work that is already taking place. If you'd like to help once a month or once a term, again, contact the church office.

Hopefully, this post/email will become a regular feed which you can use to keep in contact with what is happening in this vital area.

Blessings to you and your Family.
Mr Ray

Bullies in the Bible!!

After watching The Ant Bully as part of our holiday programme, we've now started a short focus on Bullying and bullies in the bible. So far we have looked at David and Goliath, and this coming week, we will look at Nehemiah and how he coped with the bullying government.

I think this is a great opportunity for us to look at how a biblical perspective can have relevance to today's society, by looking at an issue which many children have had some experience with. If you'd like a copy of the studies to see what we are up to, just email me at ray@christiancentre.org.nz.