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.

From cities to remote villages, KidsHubs trainers have been busy over the last few months in India. One highlight from these trainings was the story of a seasoned children’s pastor who attended the Imagine conference in Hyderabad in late 2015. KidsHub trainer Pearl wrote: “The pastor would have trained hundreds of Sunday school teachers and those interested in children’s ministry. He and his wife were so shocked that in all their training, they were focussing only on evangelizing and emotional healing but not on discipleship. He said they are now committed to make that shift in their ministry. He is also translating KidsHub lessons into Telugu and this has challenged him to think about discipling children more seriously. He wants us to come with him to rural villages and train others. The request for training especially those from rural villages and orphanages is overwhelming. The city preachers demand a lot of money to minister in these places. They were even happy and verbally blessed the KidsHub team for providing the resources free of charge and as an open resource.”

How are you going discipling children around you? Free KidsHub training resources and lessons can be found at www.kidshubs.com

As Christmas approaches stories of hope from KidsHubs around the world make us aware of how many leaders and children have experienced Immanuel ‘God with us’ throughout the year. A gardening hub with teen offenders in a Guatemalan prison and 3000 children in 5 regions across Egypt growing in Jesus through KidsHubs. A new venture was begun in Uganda building Community KidsHubs with playgrounds and a hub for adolescent girls was established. Sick children in a Kenyan hospital joined the fun of KidsHubs while teen leaders in Togo passed on their skills running their own Media hub in a slum area. 2020 leaders trained and over 7000 children involved in KidsHubs learning skills for life and how to follow Jesus. Join the global KidsHub family this Christmas in giving thanks for all that our great God has done!