Some notes on my visit to the CYP (Children and Young People’s Conference) at St John’s Church Waterloo 9th November 2024
The CYP Ministry Conference at St John’s Waterloo opened with the theme of
Small Changes BIG IMPACT
They aim to make our churches places where young people can feel welcomed and valued and they set up a number of seminars to address some of the issues raised in a recent survey they did on how parishes are engaging with their children and young people.
Their emphasis on small changes is to introduce initiatives that won’t frighten the horses but nevertheless have a big impact on the children and families we are looking to encourage in our parishes.
The listed seminars were
- Starting a CYP ministry from scratch
- Finding volunteers
- Working with schools
- Messy church & fresh expressions
- Music and young people
- How the diocesan investment programme can help with CYP ministry
We watched a video outline the CofEs initiative to Double the number of children in our churches by 2030.
It introduced the PRAY initiative –
Prioritize – children’s and families with committed leadership
Resource – growth through toddler groups, messy church, youth, and parent groups
Adapt – to change to ensure worship is welcome for all ages
You – engage everyone in the church to play their part
Link to video at the end of this session.
Our church at St Paul’s has a selfish interest in the conference as one of our youth leaders has just started a toddler group and the other one has just completed a youth ministry course in Cambridge
I personally exchanged with just three of the courses – 2 ⅖!
Finding volunteers
Messy church
DIOCESAN investment programme
All in all a very useful day! But don’t take my word for it :-
Follow this link for a more comprehensive report on the conference by Southwark Anglican
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