Our children & youth groups are split up into 2 age groups with one group more aimed and primary aged children and another aimed at secondary aged children. On the weeks when these groups run, we start our Sunday worship as a whole church family before the children & youth head out to their groups after roughly 15-20 minutes. They then remain in these groups until the end of our services.
Our All Age or All Together Sunday worship service - for this service the children stay in the main church for longer, and we make sure the content of the service is suitable and engaging for all of the ages present. We often setup craft activites for the children, whether this some relatively simple colouring, or something a little bit more complicated and involved, so they have something to work on during the service and occupy them if they struggle to engage with some parts of the service.
On the fourth Sunday of the month, we aim to do something little bit different. On this week we meet as whole families (parents as well!) and try to find different ways to worship God. This has involved going out of the Church building & exploring nature (when the weather allows). We have been on walks through some local woodland whilst thinking about the abudance of God's creation or we have been somewhere further afield like the Wye Valley or Clevedon. We went for breakfast on the beach before going for a dip in the marine lake.
Going forward we will be looking at other creative ideas, such as using musical instruments, cooking food, & using arts & crafts to encounter God in different ways.
We find these weeks are really valuable to get to know each other a little better whilst learning more about God in unusual ways..