Christ Church Youth and Children’s Ministry Report May 2007
This is the youth and children’s ministry report for the Christ Church AGM, May 2007.
Youth Ministry
Some of the key aims of the youth ministry are as follows:
· helping the young people grow as disciples of Jesus
· giving emotional and spiritual support for young people
· encouraging the young people to develop their gifts
· providing fellowship
· engaging young people in worshipping God
· seeking opportunities for young people to hear the ‘Good News’ about Jesus
· developing a sense of ‘Global Awareness’
· training in Christian service
These aims are met through the various activities and groups that take place at Christ Church.
Re:vive is our Sunday morning youth service for young people of Secondary school and University age.
Re:ality is our fortnightly ‘open youth club’.
Re:action which aims to encourage those who come to Re:vive to think about those who are in need both globally and locally, and to do something to help, whether through fund raising or going out to help, and demonstrate God’s love in practical ways.
Cell Groups are where the young people can receive pastoral support, Bible study, and discipleship training
MAD group for young people who are in Year 11, 6th Form, college or working, which meets on Sunday evenings, with the aim of involving the young people in projects that will ‘make a difference’.
Schools Work – running lunchtime clubs and taking assemblies.
QUEST - Quest is a series of 7 videos, that encourage young people to think about and discuss issues of spirituality and the Christian Faith in a safe, non-threatening environment.
In the last year in Re:vive it has been encouraging to see more young people becoming involved in leading worship and taking part in Re:vive using and developing their gifts. We have seen the Re:vive band growing during this time, not just in numbers, but in their competence and ability. It has also been encouraging to see the young people leading the Revive Services at 10.45am in church.
During the past year we have been studying the book of Acts and the 10 Commandments. We have also had a number of more reflective times of alternative style worship, where we have not used the band but encouraged the young people to spend time in silent prayer and meditation. Using a number of ‘stations’ the young people move round to each one, where they spend a few minutes reading a passage from the Bible, or watching a short video clip, or perhaps eating some fruit, that helps them focus on some spiritual truth or challenge.
RE:ACTION
Following it’s launch last year we have been looking at ways in which the young people can get involved in helping those in need, both locally and globally. On Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday they organised a big clear up of the area around the Church and the Scout and Guide HQ, picking up litter and rubbish. The young people are continuing to sponsor a child, Carla in Chile, through World Vision. In February, many of them took part in the 24 Hour Famine to raise money for young people in Africa.
CELL GROUPS
During the last year we have seen a number of new people attending our cell groups, which has been very encouraging. At present we have four cell groups that meet fortnightly during term time and on occasional Thursdays during the summer holidays. The cell present cell group structure is as follows; Cell Group 1 for young people in school years 7, 8 and 9, led by Pete Stewart, Debs Raynor, Naomi Price and Suzanne Knowles; Cell Group 2 for those in school year 10, led by Jane Lake, John Raynor, Emma Hall and Andrew Lea; Cell Group 3, for those in year 11 and 6th form led by Jonathan and Rachel Edwards; and Cell Group 4, for young people who have left school, led by Jeremy and Sue Thomas. We are grateful to Lisa Matthews and Andrea Price who stepped down from helping with the Cell Groups in the last year. The Cell Groups have following up the teaching that has taken place in Re:vive, giving the young people an opportunity to discuss the various subjects in more detail. At Christmas all the cell groups went to the Cinema to see the film “The Nativity Story.
MAD
During the last year the young people who attend the MAD group have been involved in a number of different activities. In the summer we took another large group to the Soul Survivor Christian youth festival in Somerset. Everyone who went had a really good time, with some excellent speakers and times of worship in the Big Top, where around 10,000 young people gathered each morning and evening. The MAD group led one of the Informal Worship services, when we gathered together to pray for persecuted Christians, as part of the Open Doors Shockwave event. At the beginning of 2007 the group were very involved in producing a video of the story of Nehemiah for Splashdown. We spent a couple of Sundays filming in Chester, all around the city walls.
Café Re:play / Re:ality
During the summer term of 2006 we invested in some basketball equipment which enabled us to do some outdoor activities at Café Re:play. This has proved very popular. At the end of the summer term we had our last ever Café Re:play. After nearly 6 years we felt it was time for a change. So in October 2006 Re:ality opened, after several months of preparation and planning. The aim of Re:ality was to provide a place for the young people in Re:vive to bring their friends to, particularly those in school years 10 and 11 who had ‘grown out’ of Cafe Re:play. We have done this by creating a new coffee bar area called “Re:ality Bites” that is a bit more ‘grown up’ than the existing non-alcoholic cocktail bar. We have also given what was the “Faith Zone” a complete makeover, and this is now called “Re:ality Check.” The numbers attending has gradually been growing since October, with around 50 to 60 young people regularly attending, including a number who had stopped coming to Cafe Re:play. It has been really encouraging to see a number of young people coming to Re:ality who got to know us through Splashdown when they were in primary school, and who volunteered to help with this years Splashdown.
QUEST
Our QUEST series finished in the Summer term of 2006, after 7 weeks. It was very encouraging to see so many of the young people from Re:vive inviting their friends along, to discuss the Christian faith. We plan to run another series in the Autumn of 2007.
Jonathan Edwards April 2007
Children’s Ministry
Some of the key aims of the children’s ministry are as follows:
· To provide Bible based teaching for children.
· To help the children to become and grow as disciples of Jesus
· To treat each child as special and show them practical care and love
· To engage children in worship and teach them to become worshippers
· To reach out into the community with the Good News of Jesus.
These aims are met through the various activities and groups that take place at Christ Church.
Creche This is our Sunday morning group held in church during the 10 45 service for babies and children up about 3 years of age.
XPLORE This is our Sunday morning group run from 11.15 a.m. to 12 15 p.m. in the old school building for children from about 3 years to school year 6.
Family Service A special spot during the 10 45 am service for a talk or a song together.
Toddler Group Held in the old school building on Tuesday mornings from 10.00 to 11.30 a.m.
Jaffa Club A lunchtime club Held weekly at Christ Church school.
Our Sunday morning groups have continued to work through our aims for children’s ministry, with the crèche providing relevant teaching as well as an opportunity to reach out to families especially on baptismal Sundays.
Xplore has seen encouraging numbers as we meet together for our worship times, then breaking down into two groups for age related teaching. We are continuing to write our own teaching syllabus for Xplore. It has been encouraging to see more children attending Xplore whose parents do not attend Church.
The parent and toddler group continues to thrive and grow, with some weeks over 50 adults, each with at least one child, and some with quite a few! It has been encouraging to see the links between the church and those attending the Toddler group growing, with a good number attending the Christingle service, and quite a few ex-toddlers came to this years Splashdown, so we are continuing the links into the primary school age group. On the team side, Sue Thomas and Suzanne Knowles have joined us, and unfortunately Liz White has been unable to help while Alan has been ill.
Main Aims of Splashdown
· To present a positive view of Jesus and the Christian faith.
· To show that the Bible is relevant today.
· To show children they can have a friendship with God.
· To inspire and train young people (under 18’s).
· To work together as a fellowship, reaching out to local families with God’s love
· To encourage families to come to the Easter service in church.
· To build relationships to encourage an ongoing involvement in the children’s groups on Sundays.
· To have a fun serving God!
This year we learnt all about Nehemiah, who returned to his home city of Jerusalem to rebuild the city walls that had collapsed following years of neglect. The MAD group produced a video of the story, filmed around the city walls of Chester earlier in the year. This year’s Splashdown therefore had a building theme, with the children put into teams: the Builders, Carpenters, Decorators, Electricians and Plumbers, with older members of Re:vive as team leaders. Each morning’s main sessions were run like a Saturday morning kid’s TV programme, with the main hall in the Old School building set up like a TV studio, with lots of singing and dancing, videos, games, puppets, and the Bible story, plus a Gunge tank that the team leaders had to go in each day!
Along with the main sessions the children were also able to take part in different workshops - craft, science, drama, dance, and new for this year jewellery making. There was also time for them to get some fresh air playing a variety of games and outdoor activities.
A great time was had by all; the 140 children who attended plus the 90 volunteer helpers!
Rachel Edwards April 2007