Top Church: Building an intergenerational Church

Top Church in Dudley, a Resourcing Church with a congregation of over 150 have reported that around a third of their usual Sunday attenders are children and young people. 

They have found that focusing their energy on a few things that work well for their community, alongside whole-church support, has helped them grow as an intergenerational church.

Since the resourcing project launched at Top Church eight years ago, average Sunday attendance is regularly above 100, 30 of whom are children and young people. Clare Soar has worked as Youth and Children’s Minister at Top Church for over 7 years and has been reflecting with the Top Church team on what they have learned along the way.

Clare said:

“When we launched we experimented with an afternoon service as our main gathering. With so many sports clubs and activities running on Sunday mornings, our 4pm works well for families that want to join us and find out what we’re about.”

“With lots of younger families visiting we decided to put on a kids meal after the service given how close it is to dinner time, our families appreciate the hospitality and our kids see it as part of their Sunday activities. Hospitality has been at the heart of our Sunday worship and church life; we often hear from people how much they enjoy the welcome and invitation offered to them.”

As a congregation that is ‘growing younger’, Top Church has found that a lot of people in the community have busy lives and struggle to commit to lots of activities, although many are keen to volunteer in some way. The team realised quite early on that they couldn’t do everything, so rather than spreading themselves too thinly, they decided to focus their time and energy on a few things that mattered most to their community. 

“We have a parent and toddler group one morning a week, youth small group runs fortnightly, and then we focus the rest of the time on our Sunday services and thinking about how we put on a variety of activities, make the story of Jesus interesting and relevant, and help children and young people to play a meaningful role in church life.”

“It’s not always been easy knowing where to put our energy and a number of things have failed to get off the ground, nonetheless, we continue to actively try and support our local schools, and make our community events family friendly. We’re so grateful for the funding and support we’ve received and are very mindful of how this has allowed us valuable space to explore and experiment.”

The Top Church team work together with Clare to ensure children and young people are included in, and shaping, church life. Much of what they do is about the whole church making space for children, young people and families and finding simple things that work for their community – it’s about a shared vision for children and young people, which can be owned by everyone, through volunteering, praying, sharing with others and celebrating the younger generation.