New Creative Resource for Children’s Ministry
Five years ago, at three in the morning, you would have found me doing laps around my kitchen. You see, while I was pleasantly snoring through the night, God downloaded a small microcosm of His heart for children around the world. It was like having emergency defibrillators placed on my spirit. I was jolted to life and I jumped out of bed praying in the Spirit!
Much of my ministry life was about reaching Australian youth and children, and co-pastoring Good News Company, the church Julie (my wife) and I planted. However what God had downloaded in me was more than just a ministry adjustment. God was taking me into a whole new ministry.
After a short time of travel, God led me to make media that would creatively communicate the Gospel, capturing the hearts of children for Jesus. I chose to make several short stories using an animation called Stop Motion, which means to physically create the landscapes and characters and then photograph them. You then slightly move each model and photograph them again. You repeat this process over and over again until finally all the images come together and make a story.
God placed His favour on my life and this project. After 140,000 pictures taken, two thousand hours of modelling and storytelling, the efforts of two hundred volunteers, and four years of hard work, we finally completed forty-five episodes that weave their way from Genesis to Revelation.
Each episode is five to seven minutes long. Twenty stories from the Old Testament highlight the nature of God the Father, fifteen stories from the gospels tell about Jesus the Son, and ten stories from the New Testament teach about living a holy, Spirit-filled life and the return of Jesus.
We narrated the storyline in each episode so we can change the language, making it available for different people groups! At this stage, the “Encounter Series” is narrated in English. However, we have episodes rendered without any narration for the purpose of inserting a new storyteller in a different language, so to reach a new group of children with the Good News of Jesus Christ.
To find out more, please check out our website at www.iblaze.org.au.
Peter is married to Julie of 26 years and has five children. He has been in ministry for the past 24 years ordained as a minister with the Australian Christian churches. He has successfully lead youth and children’s ministries in local churches, given leadership to state ministry in his movement, produced outreach/ discipleship resources and an international award winning TV programme.
He has planted a growing church and is a much sort after public schools communicator with the Australian Bible Society. Peter has now begun to travel the globe to impart the heart of God to reach the next generation, train leaders and create gospel and discipleship media.