St Lawrence Church Gnosall

Help!

I’ve brought

a child to church!

PARENTS’ SURVIVAL GUIDE

Welcome to St Lawrence, Gnosall

We want you and your children to enjoy worshipping with us. Please take this booklet with you, it will help you all as a family get the most out of your time worshipping together with us.

Jesus said ‘Let the children come to me and don’t try to stop them’. We want to follow Jesus’ example in this as in all things, so you will find that children have a special place here and we love to have them with us.

We plan our worship with material suitable for children, as well as for the other age groups present, every week and not just at our All Age service. Most weeks there are special groups for your children and there is some information on these at the end of this booklet. But first, some help while your children are with you in a service.

Things to do with children before worship

· On the way to church talk about what will happen when you get there, what it will be like and any expectations that you have.

· Point out the banners on the walls and any other interesting items.

· Look for colours and symbols in the windows, banners and pictures. Explain that all of these things remind us of God's love and care.

· Count all the crosses in the church. Tell your child that the cross reminds us of Jesus.

· Talk about the people who help during the service and the jobs they do. (Vicar, choir, organist, etc)

Where should I sit?

· Sit wherever you like. Somewhere towards the front is best; children feel more involved and are less fidgety if they are close to the action and can see what’s happening at the front.

· Please sit where you can keep an eye on them and intervene if necessary.

· If your little one is in a buggy, please don’t block the aisle with it. Feel free to leave it at the back of church; one of the people who gave out the books to you as you arrived will help you.

What if they won’t sit quietly throughout the service?

· We don’t expect them to; we don’t, do we? So don't worry if your child wriggles; adults wriggle, too!

· Try to be consistent in what you expect of your child during the service.

· Allow your child to sit comfortably

· Your child will be watching and copying your actions. Try to relax and enjoy yourself.

· Be gentle and forgiving towards your child.

· Listen with your child for a key word, such as 'Amen'.

· Encourage your child to join in the worship. Hold the hymn book together. Fold your hands for the prayers. Stand and sit at the appropriate times.

· Briefly explain what is happening as the service progresses.

· At quiet times please get your children to sit quietly with you. These times don’t last long so try to involve them in these too; it will soon be time to sing again or to move on to other activities.

· Some children enjoy the children’s groups. Others prefer to remain with the adults. If your child chooses to stay in the service, please provide quiet activities.

What if my baby cries?

· Don’t worry, we all know that’s what babies do!

· If your baby gets the shrieks and is beyond calming down in your seat (we’ve all been there!), feel free to take them out into the vestry, or the porch until they have calmed down.

· Don’t feel embarrassed about this, it’s quite normal and we all understand.

Can my child bring toys?

Yes, if you really think this is necessary and, obviously, soft toys for babies to hold are fine, but think about the following:

· The more children play with toys the less they will realise that they are part of the worship too.

· If they are playing with toys it will make your job of helping them join in the worship more difficult for you (you wouldn‘t want to be disturbed in the middle of a game, would you!).

· If you feel you do need to bring toys, please bring soft, quiet toys that encourage them to play quietly by themselves (e.g. books, crayons and colouring books)

· Please don’t bring toys that make a noise or involve other children (e.g. cars, games involving toy figures, etc.). This may distract children whose parents are working hard to help them to join in.

· We also have a selection of toys, and books in the children’s corner at the back of church if you need them.

Although we want church to be fun and want children to enjoy it, our time in church is for worship, not play!

· If all the children decided they wanted to play and run around it would be chaos!

· We have found that even quite young children learn to worship with a bit of help, so please help them to join in.

· If your children are not where you can see them you can’t keep them under your control.

What if my child wants the toilet?

This happens, and not only to children!

· There are toilets in the passageway between church and the vestry at the rear of church.

· Toddlers and slightly older children seem to find toilets fascinating and sometimes use them as an excuse to avoid doing what you want them to do (or was this only my children?).

· Please use your discretion and supervise their use of the toilets so that they don’t end up just running in and out.

Things to do with children after worship

· Walk around the church with your child, so that you can both explore together all the things inside.

· Greet those who led the service, at the door. Encourage your child to say hello and shake hands.

· Talk about the service by mentioning things that you particularly enjoyed (the singing, prayers, communion, etc) or something that happened during the service.

As we hope you can see, we don‘t expect anyone, especially children, to just sit quietly as spectators, we want everyone to be able to join in with our worship and we want it to be fun as well as being a meaningful meeting with God. Helping your children enjoy our worship in a way that doesn’t disrupt everyone else while they do so is your responsibility. Please try to encourage them to join in with the singing, to listen to the readings, the talk (when they are in for it), and the prayers by not letting them run around but getting them to come and sit with you at appropriate times and learn from your example.

We hope you find the suggestions in this guide helpful. We are not trying to impose rules but simply to help people think about how we can all include children and young people in our worship in a way that is right for everyone. We want our times of worship to be positive, uplifting experiences for God’s people whatever age they are.

Children and Young People’s Groups.

At present we have two groups on Sunday mornings:

Children’s church for those of primary school age, meet from 10.15 am in the Parish Rooms and come across to church to join the worship during communion.

Youth church for those of secondary school, meet from 10.15 am in the Lady Chapel in church before moving into the vestry during the singing of the first hymn. Youth church rejoins worship during the offertory hymn.

On Sunday mornings (except at the All Age service) the children’s and young peoples groups provide fun activities, worship and teaching designed specifically for their age group.

Here is a little more information about the basic principles on which we work and on the activities of each of the age groups:

We believe that our children and young people are an integral and important part of our church here. The principles we apply to ourselves we also encourage in them, helping them by our example to learn what living as God’s people, in obedience to his word and in the power of his Holy Spirit, means today.

When planning our Children and Young People’s programme and each session within it, we try to keep the following aspects in mind and in balance:

Relationship: We teach them that they can have a relationship with God, to experience the reality of his love and guidance in their lives and we try to build up their relationships with him, with us and with each other.

Resource: We help them to receive and use all that God has in store for them to equip them for life as disciples. This includes general teaching about a Christian way of life, helping them to learn to pray for themselves, each other and the world around them, and to use the gifts of the Holy Spirit in God’s service.

Relevant: We ensure that our teaching and activities are relevant to their everyday lives. We try to keep up to date with issues facing the various age groups and plan our teaching so that the children and young people will understand it, enjoy it and find it helps them grapple with these issues.

Really good: We make sure that everything we do and all the resources we use are of the highest quality as a way of showing our young people that we love them, that they are important to us as a church and, more importantly, that it is honouring to God when we do our best for him. In short, only the best is good enough for our children, our young people and our God!

Other Activities for children and young people

Throughout the year we hold various other activities for children and young people, the following are a sample of a few things we do.

Play and praise weekly service for Parents and Toddlers

Shrove Tuesday pancake praise party

Good Friday Workshop and worship morning

Gnosall Carnival

Summer Holiday club

Bright and light alternative Halloween party

Christmas Christingle Pantomime

Crib service

We hope that this brief summary has helped you understand where we are coming from and how we care for your children. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to speak to Mark Bridgen (Priest in charge), Diane Woolridge (Lay Pioneer Minister) or any of our children’s and young people’s team who will be pleased to explain further.