Tring Team Parish Awayday Feb 2010

These are the= notes from the Tring Team PCC Awayday on Saturday 27^th Feb 2010. 27 of us had a gr= eat day , discussing the “big picture” about youth work in our Pari= sh, as well as planning some detailed next steps for some new ideas.

“Yoof!” – led by Huw Bellis, Jo Wetherall and Vivianne Child

Objectives:-

To develop a bit more detail around our focus on youth in 2010
To look at what we do that is good – to think about how we can do it better – to think about any gaps and how can fill them – to talk about how we can support what’s done.
To involve the people here today in deciding what actions we take first. =

9.30am &= nbsp; Coffee available

10am &= nbsp; Why are we here today?

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; Children’s Spirituality

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; Discipleship – getting people involved

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; Generating new ideas

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; Thinking specifically about the under 11s

12.45 &= nbsp; Lu= nch

1.20 &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Teenagers Spirituality.

= Thinking specifically about the over 11s.

= Act of Worship

4pm &= nbsp; &nbs= p; = Finish &= nbsp; &nbs= p;

&= nbsp; &nbs= p;

Tring Team Parish Awayday Feb 2010

Pre work – PCC January.

We started the day by looking at “what we alr= eady do”. Here is a list of all the things that we can celebrate achieving. Our chosen split is by “11+, Tring School and above= 221; and “under 11” because we see that the needs of the children (a= nd parents/carers) are different. We also split activities into two groups; th= ose run in schools and those run by the church (although not necessary in the church building)

0-11

11+

Church

Aldbury School visits the church

Sunday Schools / Clubs

Aldbury Junior Choir

Summer craft days 2009

Toddler groups in Long Marston, Tring and Aldbury.

Long Marston school visits

Long Marston Sunday Club

Christmas Crafts at Long Marston

Toy Bags

Children’s corners

Crib services

Christingle services

All Age Worship

Admission to communion before confirmation

Light up the Dark/Superhero/Mardi Gras type events

Pancake racing

Wilstone Easter Egg hunt

Wilstone Summer Fun Day

School carol services

Thinking Day Service

Flags and balloons

Remembrance Sunday – uniformed organisations

Labelling church “equipment” when children visit

Bishop Wood monthly assembly in church

St George’s Day service

Dressing up in church clothes

Having equipment to build a church

Parents

Godparents

Grandparents

Baptism

All Age Worship Tring Park School

Easter Pilgrimage

Palm Sunday Whipsnade

Invite to be Servers

Choir

Bell ringers

Involve them in services

Habitat for Humanties trip

Arts Ed Carol Services

Thinking Day Service

Aldbury light up the dark part II

Confirmation training

Confirmation

= IONA service – teen friendly

Labelling church equipment for a teenage visit

St George’s Day

School

Tring School assemblies=

Bishop Wood assemblies

After school club at B/W

Provide Governors

Long Marston assemblies

School visits to church as resources (history, science)

Christmas plays

Jill Smith at Tring School

Provide Governors

RE Initiative at Tring School=

We can see that we provide more for <11s than 11= +s and we want to redress the balance.

Children’s Spirituality=

Jo led us in a discussion about children’s spirituality. She started by challenging us to think about whether we consi= der children as empty vessels that need filling ……….. or full containers that we can help unpack.

Jo emptied out a container of toys and gadgets and talked about them.

C= ategories of Spiritual Sensitivity

T= hese are not exhaustive or easily defined, nor are they the restricted to childr= en but play a part in all our spiritual lives.

A= wareness Sensing

Here and now<= /span>= “Grass Daddy!”

Tuning= = – listening to music relationship with player and listener composer

Flow= – complete absorption in a task unaware of noise, time, hunger etc.

Focusing= - the felt sense of a situation, bod= ily experience of something – it gave me goose bumps – very natural= to children may explain why spiritual experience is more common among children=

Mystery- sens= ing

Awe and Wonde= r= – aware of magnitude of things, “profound moments”

Imagination= - is this just a stone a dinosaur egg, a sleeping giant woodlouse – your b= est friend! =

Value -sensin= g- = experience through emotion

Delight and d= espair – consolation the presence of God dark night of the soul

Ultimate good= ness= – reliance on parent to make things better can lead to a wider understanding = of trust in a “being” which transcends human experience.

Meaning – Anything is possible.= .. the search for and discovery of meaning may directly form an aspect of developi= ng spirituality

What might it mean for our children's w= ork ?

Context=

No culture of spirituality/ mystery - educated out.

No vocabulary= to describe it.

Research show= s children have made up their minds about church and God by the time they are ten

Tools we can = give our children

Open mind

Explore ways = of seeing things – causes for wondering not just closed answers.

Encourage sen= se of self and relationship to others

Become aware = of social and political dimensions of spirituality.

From The Spir= it of the Child, David Hay with Rebecca Nye

We were then invited to choose a picture from a wide variety that appealed to us. And then three words, from a large selection, = that summed up how we feel about children in church. We were asked to hold onto these words to use later.

Discipleship

Huw talked about the discipleship of working with young people. We should encou= rage a broad group of people to be involved, not because we need their he= lp, but because it is important for their spiritual development that they are involved.

Huw asked us what this means for our work with youth:-

“Being involved” is great – and it is how many of us started on o= ur church journey. We should think all the time about how to involve othe= rs in what we do.

Being involved leads people to experience God.

We must be welcoming

Accept change. If we do new things it is us who have to “let go” = of things that we do at the moment.

We may have to do things at different times and in different places to wh= at we do at the moment.

Perhaps we need to attract the parents first and then they will bring their children?

Recognise the activities like Sunday Clubs now have a huge amount of competition from other activities (especially sport). A club is now like a commodi= ty that has to demonstrate something different and special to attract children.

Food is always an attraction – and we are good at food!

It feels as if the national Church of England only brings us bad press. <= o:p>

Our ideas for new activities can be to improve what we already have, to fi= ll gaps or to support the people who lead youth activity at the moment. <= o:p>

Ideas we talked about to fill the gaps / make improvements.

We asked everyone to put their idea onto post it notes and then bring their id= eas to the front, tell the rest of the room about them and put them on the flipchart.

Outside of school - Age 0-11 (but lots of cross over into 11+)

Support the people who lead

Messy Church - once a month at Wilstone in the afternoon

Holiday Days (see Messychurch.org.uk)

“Things other than Sunday School on a Sunday”

Dads and Lads football / BBQ/ sleepover

Learn the children’s names

Run some sports events

Attendance, reward club

Get names in print; children and parents love it

“Wear what you like Sunday”

Children having a role – collection, hymn books, putting up the hymn numb= ers etc.

Work with children in church, but outside the building
Create a service booklet for toddlers that parents can take home. =

Involvement in sports clubs

After school club

Socials

Invite a friend (adult and child)

Marketing what we do already

Church football team

Image of the church (i.e. the national image of the CofE is not helping us)<= o:p>

Sunday club liturgy

Children’s order of service for Holy Communion

Get more children involved in planning AAW

Getting committed parents more involved

Drama – not just in formal worship

Puppets – ditto above

Get parents to plan Toddler Worship

Get parents to help at Sunday Club

Story time (a possible new initiative in Puttenham)

Posters telling people what we do (.. when people come into the church for cof= fee, they seem totally unaware of what we do!)

At school - Age 0-11

“Open the book” (openthebook.net). Volunteers come to school to tell b= ible stories. Perhaps we should look at this and then recommend it to our primary schools.

Communion before confirmation courses at school

Messy Church in Bishop Wood

AAW Planning

Offer major festival resources to schools and pre-schools (ask Afra for her Christmas pre-school story!)

Non church schools (still required to have an act of worship every day)

Assembly preparation team to help Huw, Jane and Jo

Tell the congregation what we are doing in schools

Run school clubs

And a final thought, linking back to the Seven Marks of a Healthy Church, we should “do a few things and do them well”.

We had lunch and then table groups talked in more detail about:-

Messy Church

Jo spoke about Messy Church. =

Messy Church is an = idea developed by the Bible Reading Fellowship. The idea is to attract families to come to church together at a time not during the regular services. It appeals to families who want to do things together rather than the adults coming to church and the children going to Sunday sch= ool.

The format of the afternoon mirrors that used at the Mardi Gras and Panca= ke Racing/Eating on Shrove Tuesday at Aldbury. A bible theme is chosen a= nd craft activities are designed to support the theme. (E.g. make rocky = road cakes, and explain how rocky road cakes are linked to the story of Ea= ster ….). The children circulate round, doing as many activities as = they have done to do. The group then eats together.

How to get parents more involved in toddlers, AAW, Sunday club etc. <= /o:p>

Sandra spoke for the group.

Sunday clubs and AAW. Aim at all ages. Encourage youngsters to do the collec= tion / carry the cross / carry candles. Encourage them to use their skills, e.g. music, sing, instruments. Possibly get youngsters to be more involved in July worship with singing, reading, instruments – a= sk Jenny to be involved.

Send emails to parents as reminders. Kids to send emails as reminders for friends. Invites to special services.

Joint choirs with different churches in the team.

Preparation from baptism onwards – invitations and birthday cards.

A team attendance reward scheme

Afra spoke for the group.

Stickers on door. Badge / tee shirt. Gain a sticker for whatever service / activity you do, all over the Parish. Fish badges. Think of a name – ask the children? “Secret Fish Club” <= /span>

Team of supervisors

Books kept at “home” church to be filled in
Ten stars in each level

Colours

Earn rewards – button badges, fish badges, baseball capc<= /span>

Launch on Palm Sunday

Buy resources / deliver to churches / explain (posters, pew notices, handouts, schools). Aldbury Afra, Tring Pam …. Tim will get car= ds and stickers.

Dads and Lads fun event

Huw spoke for the group (Lee had run away!)

August Bank Hol Saturday – the date is set! Football tournament, wear = your kit, BBQ, campfires and bible stories. Sleep in tents. Sunday morning walk to Wilstone and join the Team Service at 10am. Then the Dads leave the chil= dren with the Mums and go to the pub!

Drama

Janet spoke for the group

Reintroduce drama into services

Also think about starting a drama club.

Drama is a brilliant way of involving people with low levels of confidence because there are so many ways to get involved.

Children’s liturgy

Jo spoke for the group.

Make the last hymn the children’s choice

Use children as sidespeople, flower arrangers, candle carriers.

Children’s communion books

Colour

Illustration

Explain / role model prayers after communion

Child friendly blessing

Celebration and prayer

Tring Team Youth Work aimed at 11+

Huw showed us a web clip called “shift happens” to whet the appetit= e.

You can find this at h= ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DQeoKQbT8BKs

He went on to say:-

We aren't exp= erts in this subject but in the context of unparalleled pace of change of societ= y a teenager’s spirituality might be clouded by:

Question= s of identity - who am I? (we are all self obsessed, but with adolesc= ence that is a real issue) and the church has a narrative to offer in that context.

Whereas = we have a sense of past and toddlers / young children live in the present teenagers are always encouraged to look to the future. “Tr= ing school GCSEs are your passport to the future.” “Work= now for your future” etc.

New age = and alternative spiritualities are sometimes portrayed as more appealing t= hat 'traditional Christianity'. The theologian John Drane suggests though that at the heart= of these is often people expressing their loss / pain and the brokenness = of society. Christianity still has a narrative of healing to the br= oken which can appeal. However we need to find ways of communicating = it.

We split into 5 table groups to think about 11+, and answer these questions. <= o:p>

What is your vision of how we can help 11+s?

What’s the first thing we should do?

Huw, Janet, Rosemary, Afra

What is your vision of how we can help 11+s?

“Step into their shoes&#= 8221;

Church is not cool. We’ll never be cool, but we can try and be not tota= lly embarrassing.

Discuss confirmation with them

Facebook and Twitter – modern communication

Not through their parents (unlike the <11s)

Pack animals

Food and Fun

Text a prayer

Respond to issues – listening to them.

The first thing we should do:-

Get our contact details into CONNEXIONS at Tring School so youngsters know how to contact us.

Jane, Sandra, Jo, Didier, Clive

What is your vision of how we can help 11+s?

Worship

Social – chilling, fluid space

Church open in the evenings

Town centre chaplain

Coffee shop culture

Cyber presence

Debate – political and social

Acoustic worship – maybe in our “loud” age, silence and quiet will be appreciated.

Fun

Transition

Be there ……. wh= ere they are

Upper room?

Remember that we all used church youth groups to find a girlfriend/boyfriend!

Jeanie, Roy, Mike, Margaret
What is your vision of how we can help 11+s?

VALUE, INVOLVED, TIME – three words that Roy chose this morning and matched= well with the discussion of this group.

Listen – this what we, as a Christian community, must do

The first thing we should do:-

Plug the gap for a 10-14 year old group. (10 because they can then be settl= ed into this new group before the upheaval of a change of school)

Helen, Marjory, Sally, Pam, Moira=

What is your vision of how we can help 11+s?

Sally modeled the youth uniform of the hoody, together with a good imitation= of their body language!

Offer love – avoid mentioning God but show love. “Good Samaritan”

Listen

Be there – not judge

Perhaps get involved at the Temperance Hall – open door, listening<= /o:p>

Get over the generation gap

As long as we have the right attitude, it doesn’t matter that we se= em old to them. We have life experience.

The first things we should do:-

Be there.

Tim, Carole, John, Dorothy

What is your vision of how we can help 11+s?

To connect with them

Get serious at Tring School –= get a chaplain

Don’t start off by talking about God.

The first things we should do:-

Tring school chaplain

Here are the other ideas, specifically for 11+s that we had on the day.

11+

Church

After school club in Tring (central)

Evening club at Wilstone (good space)

Work to keep the ones we have first … and (later) get them to bring their friends.

Readers

Junior church warden

Get them to help run a group

Chaplaincy

School

Confirmation classes

Communion for teachers and pupils.

Go into school for lunch with the pupils.

Chaplaincy at Tring School

What next?

Get going with the things we agreed on the day.

“Hot chocolate and pizza session” with the 11+s we do have to talk through our ideas with them.

Plan for 2010

Palm Sunday 2010

Launch of the Secret Fish Club.

After Easter 2010

First Messy Church at Wilstone

Sunday afternoon

Family Fun …….. and then food

(NB Could involve a drama session/club)

Other 2010 activities

Get our contact details in Connexions at Tring School

Get a presence at the new youth club in the Temperance Hall=

Start a group for 10-14 year olds.

Sat 28^th August

2010

Dads and Kids Camping C

Fun day on the Saturday, including football, camp fires and marshmallows= .

Camp overnight in Puttenham church yard.

Walk to Wilstone for the 1= 0am Team Service on Sunday

12noon – Dads to the pub!

… and we want to

Progress a Tring= School Chaplaincy

Act of Worship

Huw led us in a communion service, as we could run them at Tring School. This included using powerpoint for the liturgy, images for the prayers and a video for reflection.

The group then all rushed home to watch the rugby.

If you want to know any more talk to anyone who was there:- =

Huw Bellis

Janet Goodyer

Rosemary Carpenter

Afra Wilmore

Jane Bannister

Sandra Luddington

Jo Wetherall

Didier Jaquet

Clive Russell

Jeanie Jenner

Roy Hargreaves

Mike Watkin

Margaret Gittins

Helen Reynolds

Marjory Forman

Sally Smith

Pam Russell

Moira Hargreaves

Tim James

Carole

John Reynolds

Dorothy Townsend

Christine Rutter

Lee Dimond

Mary Haywood

Sue Tarbox

Sandra Luddington

Vivianne Child

Copies requested for

Shalini and Joe MacGregor

Hayley and Richard Abel

Gill and Andrew Kinsey

NB

Paper copies to Margaret Gittins and Rosemary Carpe= nter

Palm Sunday 2010	Launch of the Secret Fish Club.
After Easter 2010	First Messy Church at Wilstone Sunday afternoon Family Fun …….. and then food (NB Could involve a drama session/club)
Other 2010 activities	Get our contact details in Connexions at Tring School Get a presence at the new youth club in the Temperance Hall= Start a group for 10-14 year olds.
Sat 28^th August 2010	Dads and Kids Camping C Fun day on the Saturday, including football, camp fires and marshmallows= . Camp overnight in Puttenham church yard. Walk to Wilstone for the 1= 0am Team Service on Sunday 12noon – Dads to the pub!
… and we want to	Progress a Tring= School Chaplaincy