Transforming Our Thinking

Here is the programme for Transforming Our Thinking:

The following workshops will be on offer:

Marketplace & Prayer Space
Information about organisations that could help you reach out to children and young people and a demonstration of an approach to prayer with unchurched children and young people that can be used in a school or community context.

Joining the dots: all-year round outreach to your community
How do we make sure that our outreach is not just ‘hit and run’ but instead purposefully builds positive relationships which enable the effective sharing of good news in our communities? This workshop will help us to think of a range of ways that we can begin to do this.

Missional Messy Church
Messy Church has been significant at attracting families outside of the church. This workshop will help us to consider how we can be effective at laying hold of such opportunities to share the good news about Jesus.

Guardians of Ancora & GoA Clubs
Children spend many hours online often playing games on tablets. Guardians of Ancora is a fun, quality bible-story based game that seeks to meet children in this context. GoA Clubs are a way of connecting with kids using the exciting opportunities afforded by the game to reach children beyond the church. This workshop will equip us to set one up and run it in a school or community context.

Open Space
Too often people have great ideas many of which may be really helpful in other contexts but others never get to hear about them. Open Space provides a way for us all to share and discuss what we have discovered, to be inspired by the ideas of others and to develop our own ideas.

Using ‘Shine’ to inspire young people
Shine is an exciting new approach to school clubs helping young people to be empowered to live their faith out every day. This workshop will help us to unpick how it works with loads of practical ideas and advice.

Using the bible well in outreach
If ‘faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God’ then God’s word needs to be central in our outreach, but how can we handle the bible with integrity in our work with unchurched young people? This workshop will give us lots of practical ideas and advice to help us to be more effective at doing this.

Help! I can’t do this by myself! – Sharing the load with others
This workshop will help us explore what it means to be partners in the gospel by exploring how we can be effective in working with others especially those from other churches.

Sacred Spaces and Holy Moments – Transforming school assemblies
This workshop will help us to explore how we transform assemblies into genuine acts of collective worship by providing children and young people opportunities to experience a sense of awe and wonder.

Missional Schools Ministry
This workshop will help us to explore how we can engage with schools as a key mission field yet do so with integrity.

Involving young people in mission in their community
Young people are key in reaching other young people so how can we help them to be effective in being a witness in their everyday lives? This workshop will help to explore this. It will be suitable for both young people and those involved in their discipleship.

Managing Behaviour in a mission context
The fear of difficult behaviour can sometimes hold us back from reaching out to children and young people beyond the church. In this workshop local practitioners will share practical advice and experience about how to manage behaviour in such contexts.

Sports & Games
At the end of the nineteenth century, sports were a significant tool in mission. This workshop will help us to rediscover how we can use not just elite sports but everyday sports and games to connect with many children and young people.

Connecting with local authorities
Local authorities often struggle to make adequate provision for children and young people and are therefore keen to connect with those already engaging with them. This workshop will help to give us the confidence and skills to link with local authorities and to explore how this can benefit both them and us as we reach out in our local communities.

We are working hard to add even more workshops to the programme and some of the following may be offered:

• Chaplaincy
• The Idiot’s guide to running a drop-in youth club
• Making the most of year out volunteers
• Park ministry
• Detached youth & children’s ministry
• Running events for your community
• Getting involved in school RE lessons
• How to run a lunch club in schools
• Community Chaplaincy
• Funding your outreach
• Holiday Clubs
• Mentoring