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2018: The Year of Being "Generations Together"

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As each new year begins, I usually receive a series of phone calls in my office, each of which goes something like this: Caller: Hi Jonathan, it’s Father Fred from St Swithin’s here. We’ve just had a parish visioning day and we’ve identified youth and children’s ministry as one of our top three strategic priorities. We’ve looked around and realised we need to start a youth group and a kids club ASAP, so how do we do that? Me: This is all good to hear but let me ask you this: how often in your church do you have different generations doing something together at the same time? Caller: Basically never, because people wouldn’t enjoy it. Each generation wants to do what it likes doing. Kids want to run around, oldies want to sit and chat. You know how it is – they all have their own needs! Me: Do you remember doing good things at church a long time ago where all the generations were together? Caller: Sure, we used to do all kinds of things – all-age Mothering Sunday services, p...
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Let's get Messy!

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A couple of weeks ago I had the great pleasure and joy of attending my very first Messy Church at Sherwood Anglican Church. Sherwood Anglican is well known for being champions of Messy Church with Sue and Glen Taylor being strong advocates and trainers for many years of this form of Church Service. Ever since I started this job, Messy Church has often come up in conversations when discussing ways we can become more intergenerational and how we can reach families to share the Gospel in ways and formats that are engaging and welcoming. Messy Church started back in England in 2004 and has since grown and spread across many different countries worldwide. This expression of church at its very heart is about family, to share the gospel and pass along the faith through a service that allows everyone of all ages to come together to learn and worship. I am not an expert on Messy Church so if you are interested in exploring it a little more head straight to their website at www.mess...
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Happy New Year and Happy Planning!

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It's 2019, I'm back in the office for my first week back at work and I'll be honest, I'm already feeling a little overwhelmed by everything that we have planned for this year. It's a good sense of being overwhelmed though because we have planned and started laying the groundwork to hopefully achieve good things this year. And for me, planning makes the big mountain of dreams and visions feel a little more like hills that we just possibly might be able to pull off with some hard work and a lot of prayer. I know for many of you involved in Youth, Children, and/or Family ministry, you've already mapped out your year, and if you haven't already there is no time like the present to start considering where God wants to take you and your people in 2019. Below I've outlined four steps that I tend to take when I'm involved in a planning process. I decided to share my thoughts in case it helps you, or for those of you have planned out 2019 already, to take ...
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