Holiday Clubs & Church Weekends
Groundbreakers suitable for primary children & families
Sprowston Methodist Church Holiday Club in September, proved to be a lovely mission opportunity to children & families in Norwich. A fine team worked in partnership with Kevin from Face2Face Educational Trust to deliver ‘Groundbreakers’ the building themed resource Kevin and his wife, Val had co-written some years ago.
The Bible based material is undated, creative programme that provides the opportunity for churches to teach on important building stories like Nehemiah, Hezekiah, Elijah & Jesus The Cornerstone in the Old and New Testaments. Groundbreakers was well received & a good amount of families were befriended in the local community. Kevin had a great tine working with the Sprowston team of volunteers and the various families involved and was made very welcome.
The Groundbreakers holiday club gave the church the opportunity to build with a number of primary aged children & families in the local community in Sprowston. Two ten year old girls asked deep searching questions about God after the first meeting! Kevin talked with them & gave them a suitable booklet about the Christian faith. Later on that day they were reading the booklet as they walked up the road! The potential for the Kingdom of God in these missions is enormous. In the photos above you will see in middle a child walking on my 30-foot parachute. This was a great demonstration of what it would have been like for Peter to walk on water! The other shots show children learning in small groups & children in prayer.
Families were invited to join in an all-age junk modelling challenge. Construction inventions were to be created & presented in dynamic ways to multi-millionaire investors who had flown in from major cities!
The positive ripple effect following evangelistic programmes
A celebratory all-age service finishes the mission week that stimulates faith and helps to build up the church. New contacts are made to follow up in the children’s work. Families are befriended and can then be invited into suitable family events in the future. Team are encouraged, albeit tired after an exhausting week of giving out! The church is seen as relevant, connecting with families in their community, offering something positive during the holidays which present opportunities for the church to get alongside people.
Specialist events can be designed into your programme
Groundbreakers material is suitable for primary aged children and reaching out to families. Other specialist events could be linked into the mission programme to reach parents, young people aged 11-14, men, under fives etc. This is normally decided at the planning stage 6-12 prior to the mission date. The exact range of events one offers depends on the team size and abilities in the church. If the skill mix and resource is such that specialist events are appropriate to put on then it can be good for a church to use the mission momentum gained from such a week. A quality men’s event around a meal at a suitable venue can work very effectively. A well done youth event for young people can be well received. This depends on the target audience the Church wants to build with.
A suitable mission budget needs to be prepared & acknowledged a year before the mission events take place. The church is then realistic about the costs of investing in evangelism & the resources, both human & material needed for such programmes.
Evangelistic mission in the rural context
In the rural context, mission events can be adapted to be practically attainable with fewer available resources in terms of finance, manpower & energy. Mission weekends are very practically attainable and could be done on two or three times in a year with careful planning. Churches could work together in partnership to make up a viable team of people to enable an effective Church team.
Kevin has worked in both contexts, with larger churches able to put on a whole week of evangelistic events, & to smaller churches offering weekend missions. The starting point to determine the right way to go is to ask Kevin to come and meet with the Church and conduct a consultative meeting in an evening or morning as appropriate. A recommended course of action is put forward at the end of the meeting & then there is a time of some weeks of prayer and if possible fasting by the church for the Lord to confirm the way forwards. Kevin would have put something practical on the table for the church to prayerfully consider. Sometimes of course, the outcome is that it is not right to mission, not every church is ready to take on such a programme. However, if churches are grappling with the issues to reach out into their community, are prayerful, willing and committed to getting stuck in, owning the vision in practical and spiritual ways then I believe there is often a way forwards for God to move amongst them.
If you are interested in booking Kevin for a consultancy meeting please contact: 01842 750060 or email: kevinmoore758@btinternet.com
