St Andrew's Church, part of the Chase team in Malvern, has a new worshipping community (NWC) on a Sunday morning called ‘Early Birds’ which is aimed at families with young children. They have songs, craft activities and a ‘Thought for the day’ for the adults. Recently, Claire, one of the parents that attends, shared her testimony on how Early Birds brought her on her own faith journey.
Claire said:
“We started coming to St Andrew's a few years ago when we were quite new to Malvern. At that point I was not a Christian, I was agnostic at best. I felt quite a fraud coming to church but a life-long Christian friend of mine had reassured me that everyone would be kind and no one would quiz me on my faith - we had a nice time and met some lovely people.”
“We tried out both the Early Birds service and the main 10.30 service, but my daughter was quite a lot littler then so if we came to the 10.30 service it meant I was predominantly with her in the kids group rooms, so it was nice to come to Early Birds together and listen to some of the Christian message geared to adults as well.”
“I found I wanted to know more, I felt a curiosity waking up in me, but I have a ‘fake it until you make it’ kind of philosophy, so then I didn’t really know how to ask questions or go about finding out more. Dave Bruce is very wise though and quite often in his services says ‘do let us know if you want any more information, you can come and talk to any of us’. I wasn’t sure about talking to anyone, but he also said ‘I have books’ so that was great, I borrowed a book from Dave and that was really life changing. I read that book and just felt a thirst to know more and more. I went to Dave and asked him if he had any more books. He said, ‘why don’t you speak to someone’ and so that’s when I started to meet with Ruth Wharton, one of the other Early Birds leaders, to explore Christianity in more detail together. I found Ruth and everyone else to be very kind, non-judgmental and very knowledgeable and there was no pressure to think a certain way or anything. I’ve also read a lot more books!”
“What I realise now is that everyone is very much still learning about their faith and on that journey, it’s not that you have it, or you don’t, everyone is on this same journey together.”
Children and Families' Minister Helen Attree who started the Early Birds NWC said:
"We have around 16 families coming to Early Birds, many of whom are new to church and faith. Sometimes it can be difficult to step
straight into a main service where you might feel you don’t ‘know’ enough, so the informal and relaxed environment of Early Birds is
much more accessible. It’s a place where we can all learn together and grow in faith as a family. It’s lovely to have somewhere to invite families who bring their children for Baptism or come to Messy Church as a starting place on their faith journey."
Children and Young People Worker Ruth Wharton said:
It's wonderful to hear this testimony! I was very happy to meet with Claire separately to explain my own faith journey and answer her questions. It was great that she was so inquisitive. I really enjoyed our discussions.”
Find out more about the Early Bird service here: https://chaseteam.org/early-bird-service/
