Navigating ministry

Mark 2:1-5 tells us the story of a paralysed man whose four fabulous friends were completely convinced that he needed to meet Jesus.  But there were so many obstacles between their friend and Jesus that you might have thought they’d just give up. Not these guys!  Full of tenacity and deter…

Sticky fingers, wobbly stares from googly eyes, glitter clinging to everything, and so much to cut out! Crafts… why bother?   Well…God loves making things! From stars to starfish, from quantum mechanics to unquantifiable forgiveness, he made it all. And he’s created YOU, so YOU can do go…

My phone lit up on the drive home from our church weekend away with a message from one of the parents – ‘Our children loved the keepsake boxes from the weekend away. The boxes now stay beside their beds and the clues inside have been a great talking point and a reminder of what they learned. The clu…

‘That worked really well, Mum’ was the feedback from my daughter after I’d tried something different in Sunday School for the first time. This was not in line with her usual, occasionally indifferent, often critical, always brutally honest critique. I’m not sure how others measure what a good sess…

STOP PRESS! 29th June- Recent government guidance states that there must be no shared equipment for childcare (so crèche is still unavailable) and childcare needs to comply with Department of Education guidance (so most of our Sunday Schools can not meet in their previous formats). The n…

These are strange days. Here in Chicago, we’ve been “sheltering in place” for a couple of weeks. Just like you, we’re alone in our homes, church isn’t meeting and this could be our new normal for a while. It also means our children’s ministry is being stretched in…

Please don’t panic. Please read on. I know that question induces a similar emotional reaction to, “Are you praying enough?” and “How is your personal evangelism going?” I promise to be gentle with you. I want to encourage you, help you and finish with a few quick practi…

One way to make an all age service truly ‘all age’ is to ask a family, or an extended family, to lead the prayers. Everyone loves hearing a family pray. But some children (and their parents!) find standing at the front of church and leading prayer frightening, so we want to encourage you…

I had a text from a mum friend before church, “Have you got crackers – I can’t survive church without them, and we are out.” I didn’t have any, but I totally understood the question. Church with little ones (and particularly under 3s) is hard. Round 1 - getting out the …

It may come as a surprise to hear that the midweek toddler group is the London Marathon of outreach ministries. These groups take months and months of slog to get anywhere worthwhile as relationships are never built quickly. The preparation of the fiddly craft, the set-up of all those plastic toys a…