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Investigating who Jesus is

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It is an incredible privilege for us as God’s created people that we can get to learn about God, who He is and all that He did and does for us. The Bible is a priceless gift that helps us to know more about God. This term for Cornerstone Kids we look forward to joining your children in investigating who Jesus is. We will ask a lot of questions, as any good investigator would do. But we will also find the truth by looking at Jesus and looking at His Word for the true answers.

It is one thing to know about Jesus, but it is another knowing him relationally. Our hope this term is that our teachers and children will be captivated with Jesus and in learning who He is, the hope is that they will learn to trust Him and come to love Him.

We encourage you to use this term’s curriculum in continuing the investigative journey with your children. Our responsibility is to know Jesus and to make Him known. Jesus delights in revealing Himself to us and leading us to tell the world who He is.

So get out your notebooks, get the cameras rolling. We are going live with breaking news that Jesus Christ is alive and He is our King.

Our Part
This Sunday we looked at some of the prophecies made in the Old Testament concerning the promised one, the Messiah. We tried to see if these prophecies, these guides or clues to who the Messiah would be, could fit with anyone. Well they didn’t except for one person – Jesus of Nazareth. We revealed how He miraculously fulfilled all of the prophecies, a feat that is statistically impossible. Jesus is the Promised One, He is the Messiah, He is our King and Lord. He did it! Our hope in the coming weeks is to keep learning how He is our promised Saviour.

Your Part
Firstly, download the curriculum for yourself and continue the lesson throughout the week with your children. Go over the prophecies with your children. Explore how Jesus lived and fulfilled the prophecies. Lead your children in pursuing a relationship with Jesus. You cannot have a relationship with Jesus for your child. It has to be personal for them. But you are able to introduce your child to Jesus and see the relationship ignite.

We are so excited to see what life comes from this term. Please join us.

– The Children’s Church team

Prayer & Fasting: 21, 22 April

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We’ll be having a prayer and fasting time, along with many other churches in our country, over the weekend of 21, 22 April 2017.

The prayer and fasting time will consist of three sessions all taking place at Bedfordview. Here are the details:

21, 22 April
Friday – 7pm
Saturday – 8am & 2pm

Why do we fast?

Fasting can be misunderstood to be a mystical or religious practice. Now while it’s true that in a time of fasting you may find yourself experiencing God in a unique way (or you may not), this does not mean the point of the fast is to have a mystical experience.

  • Because eating is something we, as humans, need to do, by fasting we are demonstrating our need for God and His words and His instruction. This is part of Jesus’ meaning in Matthew 4:4 – “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
  • We demonstrate how we rely on God to answer prayer and not any system of our own or this world’s.
  • Fasting is a tool that we use to train ourselves to seek God first and rely on Him above all. This is not a diet – it’s a time to seek God’s face.
  • When you fast, you devote the time you would usually use for eating to prayer. Every time you get hungry, you’re reminded about what it is you’re praying about and how you rely on God more than even bread. You can use those hunger-pains as moments of prayer to God.
  • Our corporate fasting times such as this Prayer and Fasting weekend are typically used to receive direction from God as a church. Use the time to hear what God is saying to us and share any prophetic words you receive with the church and the leaders.

Here are a couple of tips for fasting:

  1. We generally fast from all kinds of food (liquid-only fast) but you don’t have to do this if for any reason you can’t.
  2. If you can’t, you can fast anything else that seems appropriate to you – preferably something that you find you rely on every day or something important to you. Think about fasting TV or music or coffee or chocolate, for example. Yes, the last one is especially difficult!
  3. Liquidised steaks, thick soups, double thick milkshakes and the like are generally not considered ‘liquid-only’. If you have to chew, you’re probably eating! But you’re free to make up your own mind about such things and let God guide you.
  4. If you’re going to do a liquid-only fast, start eating smaller portions than you usually would a few days ahead to help get your body ready.
  5. Whenever you get hungry, use those hunger-pains as a reminder to pray. Offer up some prayer in response. Come through to a session at Bedfordview and join your prayers with the rest of us.
  6. The purpose of the weekend is not to be a hero or to lay guilt on anyone. Use discretion! If you’re feeling very ill, nibble on something light.
  7. After you break the fast, don’t go overboard! Have a light meal and keep it light for a while to get your body back into how it usually functions.
  8. Fast several times in a year so you can grow in this. John Wesley, one of history’s great evangelists, used to fast twice a week. He clearly used fasting very effectively!

Scriptures on fasting

  • In Matthew 4 we see Jesus fasted for forty days and nights in the desert.
  • Acts 14:23 says, “And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.” They fasted together, committing the newly appointed elders to the Lord.
  • Acts 13:2 – “As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” As you can see, it was out of a time of corporate prayer and fasting that God told the church to send Paul and Barnabas out to fulfil their Apostolic ministry.

Want more? Here’s 105 verses on fasting.

Other resources

You might enjoy John Piper’s book, A Hunger for God, which you can download here for free.

 

We no longer have to search for God

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Isaiah 25:8

“He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces.”

Luke 24:46-47

“The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name.”

1 Corinthians 15:55

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

We’re two weeks away from Easter Weekend. This means we ought to be thinking about what it all means and teaching our children, like we do at Christmas time, that there is more to this story than meets the eye. Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday are two days that represent the pinnacle of what our faith in Christ revolves around – the day he died and the day he was raised; the day our sins were forgiven forever and the day death and Satan were conquered. Sometimes we see Easter as a holiday time and another round of public holidays on the calendar, but we don’t really spend time dwelling on it. If you think about how much you dwell on Christmas when that comes around, you’ll probably find that Easter gets a lot less airtime in your own walk with Christ. Why is that?

The fact is that Jesus died and rose again and it really happened in history. If someone died tomorrow and rose from the dead three days later, I bet you would be pretty shocked. And whatever that person had to say you would deem to be mighty important. But sometimes I think the familiarity of Easter causes us to forget what we ought to be doing with it. As Christians, we are to always look back at what Jesus did so that we can see what He is doing today, and so we can look forward to what He will do – wipe away tears from all faces. We are to live in the story of Easter.

Easter means we no longer have to search for God. He meets us in Jesus. He met us on the cross when Jesus took the punishment of sin for us, so that our conscience is clear when we put our faith in Him, and we are free. We do not live trying to stack up enough good works to impress God so that we will escape judgement. In Jesus, by faith in Him, we have passed through judgement and have already received eternal life.

Here’s a question for you to think about as we lead up to Easter:

Are your sins forgiven? Or are you trying to pay for them yourself?

Our Children are the Church of Today

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An important truth for people to understand, young and old, is that our children are the church of today, not just of the future. As our children engage in their relationship with Jesus, as they worship Him, learn about Him and tell others about Him, they are living out the call of the church. They meet together as believers and encourage each other. So they too are the church, the church of today, and their role in this beautiful body is so important.

Our Part

Our desire this past Sunday was to help the children understand that they are part of the church. As scripture teaches that the church can be compared to a body, and we are the many parts, so our children make up parts of the body. They have a role to play for God’s Kingdom advancing. They too are anointed by the Holy Spirit, they too receive gifts to serve and they too are called for mission.

We looked at Jesus’ teaching on the giving of talents: how some used them while others buried theirs. Our children are given talents by God and they are encouraged to grow in them and be led by God to display them for His glory. We taught how the smallest of parts to the biggest are all equally important and needed in the church and loved by God.

Your Part

It is exciting to believe that among the many children that we meet at Children’s church there are church planters, evangelists, worship leaders, teachers, healers and more. We look forward to seeing all that God has for them as they grow in Him. But it begins today. Their call has begun. Pray with your children. Pray for the church together. Encourage them to be involved in church in many ways. Help them find their value in being part of the body. We love having them part of the body.

This coming Sunday is the last of the term. The children will have a recap of the term’s message. Remember that you can still download the curriculum to look at yourself.

We look forward to the new term.

– The Children’s Church team

The BIG WEEKEND 2017: Incredible!

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The Big Weekend is such an incredible event with so many highlights, special moments, stories and testimonies that a simple report back cannot give the weekend the justice it deserves – so here is the attempt.

A team of children’s church leaders from across the sites began dreaming and praying six months ago for the Big Weekend 2017. Planning, dreaming, Pintresting, creating and teamwork all came together to result in the theme of Diving Deep to discover Jesus. We felt God’s desire to call our children and those from the community to search for Him as the greatest treasure with the promise that if you draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. So we created a weekend to help the children discover our incredible Jesus.

The result of our preparation and prayer saw 150 leaders lead and serve 450 children from all across the city. Six groups (Wahoo, Flier, Finback, Sailfish, Seawolf and Snapper) worked together to have fun but ultimately learn more about Jesus. From fighting off sharks with a memory verse, being rolled around in Zorb balls, sliding down giant slides, to jumping off a base onto a soft landing, our children had the chance to build friendships, have fun and discover Jesus. The children passionately worshipped Jesus through song and dance. A great sign was 50 children spontaneously running onto the stage on Saturday night to lead the worship.

We taught on God’s grace, the greatness of God, what it means to search for Him with all of your heart and Jesus being the greatest treasure we can find. We know that there was revelation and truth that some of our children heard for the first time. And there was response too. Our children responded to Jesus. They asked questions, they spoke to Him, they met their King and they loved it all.

Our prayer now is to see the fruit of this weekend. We believe that this weekend will be used by God to affect our city in many ways. So although the weekend is over, what God is doing through the weekend is only beginning.

We will send the links to the songs we sang for those who would like them and share some the pictures soon.

We are off to Lesotho in September for a Big Weekend and begin dreaming for Big Weekend 2018 soon. Thank you for all involved either by sponsoring, praying or physically leading.

– The Children’s Church Team

Children’s Church: Encouragement

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“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:11)

Over the course of this term, our children have learned what it means to build God’s Kingdom and what His Kingdom looks like and represents. We looked at how the church is not a building but rather the gathering of God’s people to live for their King and His Kingdom. Understanding this, our focus this week was how we need to help build each other up, and as 1 Thessalonians 5 teaches, we can build each other up by encouraging one another. Simple efforts encouraging each other can lead to God’s Kingdom becoming more as He desires it to be.

Our Part

We had a look on Sunday at the importance of cement. Without cement, bricks cannot be joined together. Cement is a little like the love and encouragement we are called to show one another. It is easy for people to ‘stick’ together when there is a relationship of love and encouragement. We taught the children how the Holy Spirit helps us to give such incredible gifts to people. Just like cement helps a wall become solid and stable to withstand difficulty, so love and encouragement can help people in the church stand strong together.

We looked at Barnabas (known as the Son of Encouragement from the book of Acts) as an example of someone who tried to encourage others.

Some classes may have received encouragement cards to share with others to encourage them. The fact that our children want to encourage others is encouraging in itself.

Your Part


Be an example of encouragement. It is easy to find fault and criticise accordingly, but to encourage can require some effort before it becomes a wonderful habit. Try to make the effort to encourage your children and your spouse and see the life it gives. Help your children to try to encourage from the smallest of gestures to grand efforts.

Mom and dad, you are doing an incredible job in raising your children and helping them know Jesus more. Well done! We love the chance to support you in this wonderful journey. Keep it up.

– The Children’s Church team

Children’s Church: A Building Starts with One Brick

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To build a building you need bricks. One brick is placed against another, on top of another and as each brick is placed so you build a wall. Walls link to walls and soon you have a building. But the building began with one brick, and then another, and then another. Each brick plays a vital part in the greater building. And so it is with the Church. God’s church is made of people. As people come together and support each other so the church gets stronger and becomes the picture God desires it to be. Each person is important in the church.

Our Part

This was our focus this Sunday at Children’s Church. We told the children how a building needs more bricks and so the church needs people, and they play a role in getting more people. We explained to them how they, in every area of their lives, can tell people about Jesus and help them come to know Jesus and become part of the church. In doing so, they build. Our children can reach people we never can so they play an important part in seeking the lost.

We also looked at how Solomon built a temple for God, one in which the people could meet with God. But how incredible is it now, because of Jesus, that we don’t need a temple any more. We can meet Jesus anywhere and He says that He (Jesus), God the Father, and the Holy Spirit want to live inside of us. So we become a temple. God lives in our children and so our children can show Him to the world.

Your Part

Explain to your children how God is always with them. Tell them how they can play an important part in telling others about Jesus and seeing the church grow. Pray with them for their friends, family, teachers etc. Let them see you telling people about Jesus. God uses us to reach the lost. God uses our children to tell the world about Jesus. Help them build.

– Greg, Nicole & the Children’s Church team

Rise Up and Build!

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“The God of heaven will give us success; therefore we His servants will rise up and build!”

– Nehemiah 2:20

This was our memory verse for this past Sunday. Linked to our theme this term, this verse tells how the Israelites were determined to rebuild their city wall, and they knew that God would give them success. We might not be building a literal wall, but God is calling each of us to build for His kingdom. Every one of us plays a role in building, be it a relationship, telling people about Jesus, being involved in a local church, outreaching to other churches, or allowing God to lead your life. And the verse thankfully confirms that God will give us success. With this in mind, we told our children to build.

Our Part

This Sunday we spent some time looking at the story of Nehemiah. We looked at his passion to honour God in building a broken city wall. We looked at how he got all of the people to build where they stayed, to do their bit. We emphasised how God gives each of us a call, a call that He will lead us in. We also encouraged our children to persevere when times get tough. God says He will give us success in building and so when times do get hard, we can persevere because of Him.

Your Part

Spend time looking at the story of Nehemiah again with your children. Perhaps try to build something with them and encourage them in the building process to not give up. Ask them where they think they can build in their life: family, friends, church, with God. Give them some ideas. Pray with them asking God to reveal His plans and call for our children and encourage them to walk into that call as God leads. Their call has already started. The key now is to know God’s will and obey, like Nehemiah did.

For those who took home biscuit walls, it is okay to eat those. Some walls do need to fall.

– The Children’s Church team

Children’s Church: How to Build

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This week at Children’s Church, in keeping with the theme of Building God’s Kingdom, we started to look at how to build. Any builder will confirm that the foundation of the building is absolutely important. The same applies to our lives and the church. What are we building our lives on? What is our foundation? This week we looked at building our lives on God’s Word, the Bible.

Our Part

Our focus this week was to explore the Bible and to remind our children, and ourselves, how important the Bible is to us. We looked at the story of the two houses, one built on the sand and the other built on the rock. Jesus teaches us that to build our house on the rock and be secure when difficulties come means that we need to build our lives on His teachings, His Word, the Bible. We also did a little Bible quiz with the children (don’t worry, there were no failures and no one will be kept back a year!).

Your Part

There are a few great things you can do. Let your children see you reading your Bible. If they see you read your Bible and sense that it is important to you, then they will believe its importance when you tell them. Read Bible stories to them. Read from their Children’s Bible so they know the stories are in their Bible. Try to get your children to act out Bible stories as you tell it to them. It is a fun way for them to remember the story and see it in a different way. Through any means, we need to teach our children that the Bible speaks perfect truth, it is our means of hearing God and knowing Him more. Help your children see the valuable treasure the Bible truly is.

– The Children’s Church team

Rooted in the River

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At Rev this term (term 1 – 2017) we’re looking at how our present series, The River, can be practically applied in our lives.

The River focuses on Ezekiel 47 in the Bible. In this passage of scripture we are asking the same question the angel did of Ezekiel: have you seen this? This very much echoes what Jesus says in the gospels: He who has ears to hear, let him hear. God has made promises to us. He has promised that where his river flows – his Kingdom, his rule, his authority, his presence, his love, his holiness – there will be abundant life; salt water turned to fresh; transformation of our hearts; and fish of all kinds (diversity of people). He has promised that there is abundantly more in Him, and we must expect abundantly more from him.

But we need to get into that river, and not just go knee-deep or ankle-high, but get right into it so it sweeps us up.

We’ll be looking at six different roots in our lives that gets us practically into this river:

1. Jesus’ cross

2. Jesus’ Word

3. The Holy Spirit

4. Church

5. Jesus’ blood

6. Baptism

After the Looking Up camp in January, with the theme “Game Over”, we want to take our call and life and relationship with God seriously. So we’re being passionate and intentional about applying this.