St John’s Greenlands in Redditch has a thriving New Worshipping Community for families and children called ‘Activity Church’ which runs at the same time as their traditional Sunday morning service, in the adjacent church hall.
‘Activity Church’ runs from 10.30am on the second and fourth Sundays of the month during term-time. It is very popular with local families, regularly attracting over fifty people including parents, grandparents and children.
There is a joyful energy in the room at Activity Church with a format that really works for those attending. Each session is split into three main parts. They start with crafts at different activity stations around the room for the first half an hour, all based on a theme, then everyone gathers on the carpet for the bible story and discussion. The organisers, Eileen, Vicky and Reg, take it in turns to lead this. They also sing Christian themed songs and often watch a video. The session then finishes with social time and sharing brunch together such as hotdogs.
They also give a handout to the adults that explains the Bible story and its significance in more detail. Recently they had some encouraging feedback on this; one of the dads from Activity Church shared:
“I look forward to my Sunday evenings when the kids have gone to bed, and I can read the printed sheet with the bible passage. It sets me up for the week!”
Activity Church in its current format has been running for around two years. Leader Eileen said:
“It grew out of the Toddlers group that I run at the church, responding to a request from parents to provide something for older children and their carers which would be geared to their needs. The group has grown as people have invited their friends and it has also increased in frequency from monthly to bi-monthly again at the parents’ request.”
Leader Vicky explains how they try to ensure there is some crossover with those attending the traditional Sunday service in the church. She said:
“Volunteers help Eileen to organise an egg hunt at Easter and the team and families from Activity Church also take Activity Church into the main building at Christmas and on Palm Sunday for all to share together. Throughout the year, everyone attending Activity Church is encouraged to write down prayer requests on craft leaves, which are taken across to the church building. Those attending the traditional service will take them home and will very diligently pray for those families, it’s lovely.”
On 23 March Activity Church organised craft activities relating to Mothering Sunday and shared the bible story of Ruth and Naomi. Everyone there was keen to share what they love about this form of church.
One of the parents, Laura said:
“We like the activities. It’s a fun way for the kids to learn about God in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. We made friends at toddlers.”
Another, Jenny, said:
“It’s about bringing people together and making faith accessible and easy to understand. It isn’t like school. My kids have to go to school but they want to come to Activity Church. It really engages them.”
Another parent, Katie, agreed saying:
“We’ve tried a few different churches, and this is the best one we’ve found! The kids love it and they’re the ones that want to come. Everyone’s so friendly.”
Eileen, Vicky and Reg are part of the Myriad learning community which launched in January 2024 and is for churches looking to establish or grow their New Worshipping Communities.
Leader Reg said:
“Being part of the Myriad learning community has been very helpful. It gives us time out together to reflect. The recent session on discipleship pathways particularly resonated especially as we have identified some adults at Activity Church who want to go deeper and explore their faith further, and there may be others too.”
He added: “We have been discussing with our Myriad mentor how we can incorporate exploring this into future sessions. Utilising the BRF Parenting for Faith resources, we have decided to spend some sessions after Easter looking at the questions Jesus asked and then exploring our own questions about life, faith and God. We can do that quite creatively with some speech bubble posters. We will also be exploring these questions through bible stories as well, such as the wise and foolish builders and the woman at the well.”
“We can then invite those interested to explore this further, perhaps over a pint or a coffee as they prefer. It’s good to have a plan in place for those that are ready for this next stage, and we’re excited to help people explore further the themes introduced at Activity Church.”
