Christ Church Bromley

Over the summer holidays many members of the church family have been away on summer camps and ventures. In the middle of August, a large group of Pathfinders and Explorers went to a Pathfinder venture called Bredon 3.

Bredon 3 is for any children aged between 10 and 13 who want to get to know Jesus better whilst having a brilliant holiday. The theme for the week was ‘superheroes’ and the young people had great fun, playing games and making new friends. In particular, the members discovered throughout the week that Jesus is greater than any superhero and that he wants to be friends with us.

Bredon 3 is a fantastic holiday with a purpose for our young people and the dates for next year will be appearing in News & Information later in the term. If you or your children know of someone who might like to come to Bredon 3 next year, then speak to Alison Howard-Williams, Liz Davidson or Alan Witchalls.

In all areas of Youth and Children’s Ministry at Christ Church we value feedback from parents and guardians, as well as from the young people themselves. Recently, the 14-18s group received lots of really helpful feedback which has been useful in implementing new developments for this new term.

From September the format has been modified to help draw in fringe members and new people whilst still maintaining the group's focus on helping young people to trust and follow Jesus.

The main meeting of the group will be on Sunday evenings from 6pm. During the week, members will belong to small groups of other 14-18 year olds which will meet at a time and a location that best suits each individual small group. In addition to this, the group will meet for socials and outreach events throughout each term.

This new format is the next step in developing the youth ministry at Christ Church Bromley, and is a great example of how valuable the feedback from members and parents or guardians can be.

On Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 February, the leaders of the two youth groups at Christ Church (11-14s and 14-18s) met with parents to share with them our vision and ideas for how we can develop our ministry to be more effective in our task of making disciples amongst 11-18s in Bromley.

The evenings consisted of three parts: looking at our vision and ideas, a time for questions and comments from the parents, and time spent praying for the young people and the work of both the parents & the leaders. They were great evenings, not least because they helped to forge and strengthen the relationship & partnership between parents and youth leaders which is so vital yet so often left out in Christian youth work.

For us leaders, the evenings were both a challenge and a massive encouragement. It was a challenge because it forced us to keep our feet firmly fixed on the Lord Jesus and his commission to us that requires us to keep reaching, growing and spreading the Gospel until he returns (Matthew 28:18-20 ). It was also helpful to be asked tough questions, which help us to see things from a parental perspective that most of us leaders are unaware of. The encouragements were just as important, as they confirmed to us that we are heading in a good and faithful direction.

As we stand on the verge of a period of thinking about our youth ministry and taking it forward, I am really excited about seeing our young people grow in their faith and be equipped more and more to reach their friends with the good news of Jesus.

I hope that you are, too.