St Laurence Church in Alvechurch, just outside Redditch, has a group of young people who attend church with their families. The Ministry team has been working with the group to explore ways of helping them feel that it’s their church too, involving them with different ministries.
A few years ago, the parish joined with St John’s Church in Greenlands to run a Lent group for the young people. This explored themes of belonging and although the young people named lots of groups they belonged to, none of them mentioned church. This began a discussion about the kind of things that would help the young people feel more as if they belonged.
Vicar Gail Rogers said: “They all commented that although they attend church regularly, they themselves didn’t feel that they were part of the church. When we asked what might change that, it transpired that they didn’t want a youth group but wanted to get more involved with our ministry and to feel that when preaching, people were including things that were relevant to them. We took the feedback to the Ministry Team to find ways of making that happen.”
The church looked for different ways they could involve young people – helping with the audio tech, reading from the bible, intercessions, the music group and hospitality. Rather than doing things as a one-off, the young people became part of the regular rotas.
“It was a small change, but had a significant impact,” said Gail. “It has become important for us as a church community and who we are saying is part of that. It is often quite moving for the wider congregation, particularly when young people are leading intercessions or helping with communion, and I have seen the confidence and faith of the young people really grow over the time we’ve been doing it.”
More recently, three younger people were confirmed and the eucharist became more important to them. As a result, two young people were formally authorised as Chalice Assistants alongside a wider group on Pentecost Sunday.
“We’ve been very intentional in encouraging young people to get involved in different roles and hope that this will become more embedded. We want to continue growing involvement - perhaps one or two might want to become part of the PCC. If you come to church and see someone like you living out their faith through a key role, it becomes a much more attractive proposition and will hopefully help us see more young people come to and grow in faith.”
