Edwin works with poor children in the slums of Kampala, Uganda. In 2011 he first learned about KidsHubs and began to experiment with the idea of discipling children around a fun and practical skill. Today some of the kids from his first KidsHubs group have become leaders and lead their own KidsHubs groups. This demonstrates the power of multiplication and mentoring.

Jim Putman in his book REAL LIFE DISCIPLESHIP says, “Discipleship is intentional, relational, and strategic”. Making disciples is a life long process. It is not just a program, it is a lifestyle. It is empowering an individual to live a life in relationship with God. It is the very intent of God and Jesus carefully demonstrated it when he mentored his disciples and they in turn, the world. The idea, intent and command have not changed for over 2000 years but the methodology has changed in different generations. We have seen several movements and reformations and revolutions in the church history. Each of these was birthed according to the felt need of that generation.

What is the felt need of the 21st century child and youth? The life of a child in the 21st century is way different to that of their grandparents and parents, 20th century adults. There is a generation gap even among the 21st century born children because of the advancement of technology and the physical conditions of the world they live in. They are dealing with 4 generations of people influencing their lives. How relevant can we be to them? One of the ways to be relevant is to see what influences them and use that as a medium to share the absolute truth about God.

The typical approach of a Sunday school, children’s ministry or youth ministry is information based designed by people of the 20th century. Innovative ways are limited to yearly events like summer camps. What should change? Richard Jacobson from churchanarchist.com says, “Discipleship is about making a large investment in a small number of people rather than making a small investment in a large number of people.” Small groups mean more individual attention, personal interaction and strong relationships. KidsHubs goes one step further in small groups. It is application/skill-based. The children then use these skills to serve their church and local community and in some cases build a career.

“Only 4% of children in the US see life through a Christian worldview. We need new outreach for a new day in order to reach so many kids who don’t know the love of Jesus” says Karen Helmuth, one of the key drivers behind a new initiative called Neighborhood KidsHubs.

Neighborhood Kids Hubs is a collaborative training and networking initiative born out of two Global Children’s Forum projects—1for50 and KidsHubs. “We dream that every child in every neighborhood all across North America will have someone committed to helping them come to know and follow Jesus,” said Karen.

The Neighborhood KidsHubs movement is still young in North America. A pilot training (Community Outreach to Children) was held in Washington, with another training taking place in Pennsylvania in the coming months. Over the next year, Karen said “we hope to see teams of believers in several key cities across North America doing something new in their communities to reach kids for Jesus.”

Imagine a camp for children where their leaders come along to be trained at the same time. This is what happened at a 3 day Christmas KidsHub camp in Arusha, Tanzania in December 2015. 150 children attended the camp from 20 different centres accompanied by 32 Sunday school teachers and group leaders. The children had a great time learning skills and playing sports & games while learning more about Jesus. Camp organizer Andrew said “leaders were also equipped on how to multiply groups and make disciples who can then disciple other kids through KidsHubs centres in their respective churches.” What a great idea having children and their leaders playing, learning & loving Jesus together at the one camp.