New Creation Kids — a new resource from Youthworks

Next week, Youthworks is launching New Creation Kids, a Bible-centred children’s ministry curriculum designed to help churches teach the whole Bible as one connected story, with Jesus at its centre.

We’re glad to share this information from Youthworks –

A new creation for the next generation

It started with three questions children’s ministry leaders kept asking. Eighteen months later, Youthworks’ answer is ready for churches.

If you’ve ever led a kids’ church program, you’ll know the moment. A seven-year-old puts up her hand halfway through the lesson and asks a question so sharp you have to stop and think. Children grow as disciples of Jesus when church, home and their wider church family are all opening the same Bible with them. That conviction sits at the heart of New Creation Kids, a new children’s ministry curriculum from Youthworks Media that opens to churches on 2nd November.

Three questions

It began with listening. In the churches Youthworks partners with, children’s ministry leaders kept raising the same three questions. What curriculum should we use? How can we train and grow our leaders? And how can we better partner with families in discipling our kids?

Rather than answer them one at a time, Youthworks’ Ministry Support Team set out to answer all three together. For the last 18 months they have been working alongside children’s ministry workers in local Australian churches, building one curriculum that teaches the Bible richly, invests in the leaders who teach it and brings families into the conversation. Volume 1 is now ready for use in 2027.

“Our hope is that New Creation Kids will grow leaders who love discipling children and are equipped to create age-appropriate, engaging and Jesus-centred teaching times. From the beginning, we wanted to build in leader training and provide practical ways to partner with families — something that can often feel overwhelming for busy kids’ ministry teams.” – Annemarie Rivers (Children’s Ministry & Primary SRE Advisor)

The whole story, with Jesus at the centre

Children love a good story, and the Bible is the greatest one there is. New Creation Kids takes children through all of it over three years, with six months in the Old Testament and six in the New Testament each year. Along the way they work through the Old Testament narrative, the Gospels, the early church and some key topical series. Each year has four 12-week units, plus a holiday series and an Advent series. Year 1 begins in Luke and Acts, then heads back to Genesis and Exodus.

Each week, children see how that Sunday’s passage fits into one great story with Jesus at the centre. Youthworks is convinced that children aren’t disciples-in-waiting. They can know God, understand the gospel and grow in faith now, so the lessons are written to stretch them, not just keep them busy.

Leaders who grow as they teach

Children’s ministry in our churches runs on faithful volunteers, and many of them learned to prepare a Bible talk at Youthworks’ LIT conferences. New Creation Kids builds on that same training. Each week’s leader notes use the LIT Teaching Target, and instead of one scripted lesson, leaders get several teaching approaches, discussion guides, games, activities and craft ideas to make the week their own.

Every series opens with an overview of its theology, and a podcast episode for every week talks through the passage and how to bring it to life for children. Picture a leader listening on the drive home on a Thursday and walking into kids’ church on Sunday already excited about the passage.

“I’m excited for leaders to spend time in the Bible for themselves as they prepare. For leaders to have all the pieces they need for teaching children and then to create a way to teach the Bible to the specific kids in front of them each week.” – Cam Harte (Children’s Ministry & Primary SRE Advisor, Southern Sydney Region)

Sunday at church, Tuesday at the dinner table

Kids church has one hour on a Sunday morning. Families have the rest of the week. Therefore, every week comes with home reading cards for children, a weekly family discussion guide and a parent devotional that follows along with what children are learning. The passage a child hears at church can be the one the family opens together over dinner during the week. 

Every lesson has a primary school version and a preschool adaptation on the same passage, so the whole children’s ministry is in the same part of the story. That works whether a church has one mixed group or separate classes for every age, and it means parents with a four-year-old and a nine-year-old get to have one conversation, not two.

Ready for 2027

The New Creation Kids site opens on 2 November, and churches can start teaching it in January 2027, in time for the new ministry year.

In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul writes that if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. That’s the hope New Creation Kids is built around: that the children in our churches will come to know God for themselves.

Find out more at newcreationkids.org.

Inside Sydney — by Bruce Ballantine-Jones — free e-Book download

In 2016, former ACL President Bruce Ballantine-Jones OAM published a significant history of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney.-

Inside Sydney: An Insider’s view of the changes and politics in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, 1966-2013

Bruce has made an e-Book version available for free download.

It’s available on this page in our Resources section.

(Thanks to SydneyAnglicans.net for the photo of Bruce.)

Institutional Captivity

Phillip Jensen writes,

“In this first episode of our series of topics, Peter and I are discussing institutional captivity. Christians, especially evangelical Christians, have been very enterprising and energetic in setting up Christian organisations and institutions. But sadly, we have not been as good in maintaining their focus or original intention.

So many of our organisations have lost their way even to the extent of excluding evangelicalism. In our conversation we try to explore why and how this takes place.

It’s a large topic which hopefully will lead to many discussions amongst our listeners.”

– Listen to this week’s discussion at Two Ways News.

The Church of England Must Stop Wasting Money

Julian Mann, a former Church of England Vicar, shares some of his experiences, as well as a new report on the CofE –

“In early 2019 I was sitting in the choir stalls of a large medieval church in Sheffield with a group of somewhat stressed-out fellow clergy being told by the then new Bishop of Sheffield that the diocese couldn’t afford us and that our numbers had to be cut. …”

– At The Daily Skeptic.

Launch 2027 — 26th-29th January

Launch 2027, the camp for school leavers, is planned for The Tops Conference Centre at the end of January.

See all the details at Phillip Jensen’s website.

The Enduring Word: From William Tyndale to the English Standard Version

From Crossway –

“This short film celebrates God’s providence throughout the history of English Bible translation—from William Tyndale’s 1526 New Testament to the English Standard Version Bible.”

It’s a 20 minute video. As part of Crossway’s celebration of 25 years of the ESV.

The First 250 Books for Your Church Library

Do you have a church library? Or a personal library?

Tim Challies has just published a suggested list.

“I am sometimes asked to help churches evaluate their libraries, and to suggest the books they should add and the ones they should take away. I thought it might prove helpful to put together a list of the first 250 books that can get a church well on its way to having a great library.

No one will agree with every book on this list. In fact, by this time tomorrow I probably won’t agree with them all either. But I think you’ll still find it a very good place to begin as you attempt to build a well-rounded, trustworthy church library. I will work on a list for the children’s portion of the library next.”

– See his selection here.

Whether or not you’re building a church library, it’s worth looking through the list to see what you might have missed otherwise.

And there will be local sources for many of these books. (Great to support local booksellers like The Wandering Bookseller and Reformers Books.)

Reformation Day 2026 event

Mark Gilbert, Certainty4Eternity and Evangelism and New Churches are running what promises to be a super helpful event.

A morning helping Protestant Christians to speak with people from a Roman Catholic background about Jesus with understanding, clarity, confidence, and wisdom.

Saturday 31st October 2026, 9:15am–2:45pm at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney.

Mark also writes,

As inheritors of the Reformation, Reformation Day is a great opportunity to celebrate our identity in Christ.

But as well as that, Reformation Day 2026 will help those that come to understand people from a Roman Catholics background better so they can have great conversations with them about Jesus.

Please consider coming and bringing a team with you.

• Bible Teaching
• Historical Theology
• Applied Theology
• Evangelistic Tips
• Wonderful Testimonies
• Stephen Shead playing the grand piano
• Curated Bookstall
• Free Food

What’s not to love?

See the promo video below – and reserve your spot.

A Toolkit for Preachers

Presbyterian Minister Dr Peter Moore (graduate of Moore College and Christ College, and well known to many Sydney Anglicans through his mentoring ministry) has begun publishing “A Preacher’s Toolkit” as an encouragement and help to preachers:

“Clarity is a great virtue in preaching. And for clarity in what others hear, we need to ruthlessly eliminate fog in what we say.

One technique that gets rid of fog is the use of antithesis. Antithesis is placing opposite terms or meaning in connected phrases. That is exactly what Paul does in 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 …” (from Principle Two – Opposites.)

– See the posts already published, and subscribe to be notified of new content.

Phillip Jensen and Tony Payne – new books

From Phillip Jensen at Two Ways News –

“Dear friends,

In this episode of Two Ways News, we welcome back Tony Payne, because each of us has published a new book this year.

Tony’s book entitled Let The Word Dwell Richly helps us understand the great importance of ministering the Word of God to one another.

My new book Written on our Hearts seeks to recover the Ten Commandments for those of us who are saved and live by grace.

This episode is not simply an advertisement for these two books, but a discussion between us about the central concepts of our publications. I hope you enjoy the discussion—and that you buy and read the books.”

– Listen – or read the transcript.

Encountering Jesus through The Mark Drama

From Moore College:

“Over two nights in Marcus Loane Hall, Moore College students performed The Mark Drama, a 90-minute retelling of the Gospel of Mark presented in theatre-in-the-round.

With no professionals, no props and no elaborate staging, the focus remained firmly on Jesus: his words, his actions, his death and his resurrection.

For the students involved, preparing and performing the drama was an opportunity not only to share the Gospel with others, but also to encounter its message afresh themselves. …”

– Encouraging news.

Giving thanks for 100+ years of The Australian Church Record

“The Australian Church Record celebrated a significant milestone at this year’s Sydney Synod, with a motion recognising 100 years since the publication adopted its present name in 1926.

Giving thanks for the ACR’s ministry as an independent theological voice for Reformed Evangelical Anglicanism, the Rev Dr Mark Earngey reflected on its long history of defending biblical truth, encouraging gospel ministry and supporting evangelical work across Australia.”

– Read Mark Earngey’s encouraging speech.

Grace in action — 1 Timothy 1:1–11

Here’s a sermon preached a few weeks ago by Lionel Windsor at Coogee Anglican Church – on 1 Timothy 1:1–11.

– Listen, or read the transcript, at Forget the Channel.

Not all Christian websites are good for your health

Murray Campbell in Melbourne has some thoughts of what is helpful and what isn’t –

“I wonder what the Apostle Paul would say about online Christian discourse? What kind of encouragements and warnings would he give followers of Jesus as we hear and discern and collate the vast quantities of religious speech that’s available on YouTube, Facebook and X?

What online content are you regularly feeding on? …

Here’s the problem, the internet and social media create millions of tribes where people can appoint themselves as leader. …”

– Read it all here.

Book Review: Carl Trueman, ‘The Desecration of Man’

At AP, the Presbyterian online journal, David Palmer reviews Carl Trueman’s The Desecration of Man: how the rejection of God degrades our Humanity –

“Carl Trueman, an Englishman, currently Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, has proved to be a prolific author covering Reformation history, theology and now more recently has written with well-grounded authority on contemporary cultural issues. His first foray in this direction was the widely acclaimed, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution. This explains how, in modern culture, the sense of self has involved the rejection of the impact of religion, tradition, and community in favour of the elevation, indeed glorification of individualism, emotion, and sexuality.

The Desecration of Man is a book rich in illustrative material for preachers anxious to relate Biblical material in meaningful ways into the lives of their people; indeed, for Christians generally to have a better understanding of the world they inhabit. As an encouragement, it is an easier book to read than The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self!

In The Desecration of Man, Trueman describes this move to desecration as a self-inflicted and seriously punitive action, not just in relation to God, but to us, as well. Trueman illustrates this desecration in three areas: sexual morality and behaviour; technology and reproduction; and death as the final enemy. …”

– Read the full review here.

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