As 165,000 Colin Buchanan DVDs are sent to Sydney Anglican churches this week, Connect09 executive director Andrew Nixon has asked that they not be handed out at church just yet.
As the DVDs are still "shiny', Mr Nixon is calling on churches to launch the DVDs at their local schools.
The Good News Parcel Company DVD is the official Connect09 gospel presentation for kids, featuring the former Play School presenter and popular children’s entertainer.
"The intention is that these be a gift to non-Christian kids and families, and that's going to happen in schools first and foremost," Mr Nixon says.
"The temptation is to want to hand them out at church or church events as soon as they arrive " and there will be time for that down the track " but let’s make the most of the opportunity to make new contacts."
The song-based DVDs have been enthusiastically supported by churches aiming to connect with children, families and local schools in their communities, says Mr Nixon.
"I had thought if we got to 150,000, that would be fantastic " it's 165,000 so far and no doubt churches will keep using this resource throughout 2009, so we expect numbers to continue to roll out," he says.
"I've been encouraged by the way SRE teachers and ministers have made the most of the opportunity to connect with local schools " in some cases one or two individuals have been able to tee up amazing things.”
How the school handout will happen
As churches receive the DVDs, Mr Nixon says the ultimate goal is for them to be given to every child in the community.
Whether through Anglican schools, or through ministers and/or SRE coordinators at public schools, Mr Nixon hopes many children will receive them at Easter assemblies, or SRE classes.
"We want people in churches to work hard to contact local schools and encourage them to give one of these DVDs to every child," he says.
"85 percent of kids at our Anglican schools are non-yet-Christian, so getting them into their hands is also a priority."
Connect09's children's coordinator and former Claremont College principal, Lesley May has paid particular attention to helping churches to work with schools in a positive way.
“We need to do this the right way because SRE is a great privilege and responsibility," Mr Nixon says.
He believes Colin Buchanan's track record as an entertainer will help to make the DVD an effective way of enlightening children with the gospel.
"He is a great gift from God because he is well-known and loved in our community," Mr Nixon says.
"Colin himself is excited about the opportunity to explain the message of Jesus to kids who've never heard it " he's a great communicator."
DVDs to draw Penrith kids to concert
Mark Bonnici, of Christ Church @ the College, together with Barry Roots from Penrith Anglican College has ordered 500 copies of the Good News Parcel Company DVD.
The church is aiming to hand these to parents and students in conjunction with the college, where the church is based.
The DVDs will be included with an invitation to a concert which all 10 churches in the Penrith area deanery " including CCAC " are involved in running.
"We have a good network of contacts with students and therefore mums through the chapel service and Scripture classes, so we'll distribute the DVDs to children using those means," says Mr Bonnici, who is also a chaplain at Penrith Anglican College.
The concert will be held on Saturday May 9 at St Paul's Grammar School.
"We tossed up the importance of doing something together as a deanery " it will be bigger and better and it means we can promote the event better and raise the profile of the DVD, so we thought let's do one really good event together," Mr Bonnici says.
A women's event will be planned afterwards, catering especially for school mums.
"We are engaging with a particular demographic " young families, mums and bubs " and in my mind, a Colin concert is a really obvious and non-threatening place to connect with non-Christian women," he says.
"We know what Colin puts out will be quality, engaging and non-threatening " this gives Christian mums confidence to invite their friends."
