St Michael’s, Stoke Gifford, Bristol

We are a lively Anglican church of around 450 members with a passion for serving our community. We aim to be "a Christian heart at the centre of our communities," by focusing on "learning & growing together, sharing Jesus together and serving together." Over the past 10 years, this has led us to hearing God's call and building a new, state of the art community building for our growing congregations and community groups. Children's Ministry and Youthwork is a key part of our work and we have seen growth in a wide array of varieties over the past 5 years. We now work with roughly 100 children per week (post covid) and have regular contact with more children through our strong links with our local primary school and our pre-school and nursery.

In 2019 according to the Church of England survey we were the 25th largest CofE church in the country in terms of under 18's attending our church. Because of this we were asked to be part of a CofE think tank to help, serve and support churches around the country.

In Aug 2021 we also became the South West regional hub for the New Wine Discipleship Year which runs yearly for those that want to learn and grow.

Children's Ministry Vision

The vision for Children's Ministry dovetails nicely with the vision that St Michael's as a Church has, keeping the following values at it's core:

Learn: Evidenced through quality of teaching, discussion and discovery
Grow: Evidenced through knowledge, understanding and participation
Share: Evidenced through praying for each other and inviting friends
Serve: Evidenced through more young leaders serving

"Journeying with children and families as they learn about God, grow in their faith and serve and share Jesus with others"

The key word in the vision is JOURNEYING. Through every aspect of learning about God, growing in faith, sharing Jesus with others and serving one another, the role of the Children's Ministry team is to journey alongside children and their families in this, cheering them on, facilitating space for all these things to happen, teaching, demonstrating and encouraging as well as praying and listening.

As we continue to journey with children and their parents and carers, we want to help to bring about the confidence that parents are the perfectly positioned people to parent their child for a life of faith.

Often parents will feel the exact opposite, myself included, about parenting in general. However, while we may feel we are far from perfect in our parenting and we may not feel good enough, God shows us our position is indeed absolutely perfect, even when our parenting may not be.

This is how God designed it to be, e.g:
Jesus modelled walking, talking and watching with the disciples
God does not seek a perfect relationship from us, he wants us to show our children a real relationship with him; being perfectly positioned is not the same as being perfect!

Our desire is that the groups for Children and Families at St Michael's will also be places of encouragement and equipping for parents who want to help their children have a vibrant two-way connection with God. Parents are the biggest influence in their child's life, spend most of their time with their children. Life circumstances make this tricky however, and parents worry that
unless they have the right answers all the time their children won't connect with God in the future. Parenting children for a life of faith is not about having the right answers and definitely not designed to be done alone, that was never God's plan. It is much better to do this in community with people walking alongside you - Children's ministry at St Michael's is that community!

We are on the Northern edge of Bristol, and a literally next door to Bristol Parkway station. It is one of the fastest growing communities in the country, with 10,000 new homes planned in the next 10 years. There are excellent transport links into the vibrant city centre one way and the relaxing countryside the other.

Children's Ministry at St Michael's offers both Sunday morning groups as well as mid-week events:

Sunday Mornings Groups (Ten Thirty Celebration)

Creche: 0 to 2 years, Stepping Stones: 2 to 3 1/2 years, Bubbles: 3 1/2 to 5 years, Kidz Club: 5 to 11 years

Mid Week Groups

Bumps and Babies: Monday afternoon in term time

Beehive Parent & Toddler Group: Thursday morning in term time

Once a month Groups

Messy Church: Every First Wednesday in term time

Dad's & Kids Breakfast: Bi-Monthly on a Saturday morning

Schools Work

Weekly Act of Worship for Years 1 to 6

Bring It To Life Drama Group: Twice a term

Reserve RE: Once a term for Years 1 to 6

Year 6 Alpha Course: x6 sessions once a year

Leavers Day Activities & Service: Once a year

Summer Club

One week during the School Summer Holidays (200 primary school children)