Our seminars are designed to equip and inspire everyone working with children and young people. Across the day, there will be three seminar sessions, with four choices available in each session, giving you the opportunity to shape your day around what will be most helpful for you and your context.
These seminars cover a wide range of practical and thought-provoking topics. Each session offers new ideas, strategies, and insights that you can take back to your ministry straight away. Whether you’re looking to deepen your understanding, develop new skills, or explore different approaches, there’s a session for you.
Have a look below to find out in more detail what each of our seminars is going to be covering.
Seminar 1 – 11:30am-12:15pm
Rachel Turner – Creating a culture of relationship
If we are called to build relationships between the generations, how do we lead this shift within our church cultures? What structurally do we need to change, and how do we shift the attitudes of both the younger and older people to learn to value and seek each other out? And where does safeguarding come into all of this? Come explore the answers to these questions and more.
Luke and Katrina Boulton – Mentoring with Young People
We will share our learning and insights into how we successfully created and implemented our mentoring programme in schools, including the key steps, challenges, and outcomes involved.
Anna Bousfield – Worshipping Communities in Schools
I am a mom of five wonderful boys and Flourish Location Lead for a CofE primary school in Solihull. In this seminar we will be thinking about how to grow young leaders to enable them to flourish and start a new worshipping community within a primary school setting with the children at the heart of it all.
Beth Gilbert – Worshipping Communities in Schools
I am the Creative Schools Missioner at St George’s Church, Edgbaston. I work with our parish primary school to set up Saints – an onsite worshipping community full of fun, learning and friendship. In this seminar we will be thinking about how to grow young leaders to enable them to flourish and start a new worshipping community within a primary school setting with the children at the heart of it all.
Mike Down – How to… Run a great Prayer Space in School
Prayer spaces in schools enable children and young people, of all faiths and none, to explore life questions, spirituality and faith in a safe, creative and interactive way. Come and explore a live prayer space, learn about best practice and find out what to expect when running one. Whether you’re thinking about running your first space, have run several or just want to ask questions, this is the place to be!
Seminar 2 – 1:00pm-1:45pm
Becky Sedgwick – What have Grandparents got to do with it?
We’ll be exploring how to leverage the incredible power of grandparents in your parishes and kids and youth ministries, unlocking a secret weapon you might not have known was there!
Jon and Julie Wetherell – Setting up a Youth or Children’s Missional Community
The words ‘missional community’ describe a group of people committed to a task/mission and to each other – and that mission for us was to engage with young people under 25 in our parish – introducing them to Jesus and helping them to become lifelong disciples. This seminar is our journey and how you might begin to build this in your setting.
Matt Long – Listening to Young People
In this seminar, Matt will help us to think about how we authentically hear and respond to the voice of children and young people in out churches.
Jane Bulter – Intergenerational Discipleship
Come along to find out what Messy Church is learning from our latest research project Messy Momentum, engaging teenagers in intergenerational worship.
Seminar 3 – 2:00pm-2:30pm
Rachel Turner – How to… Empower children and young people to lead
Opening established church teams to children and young people. What does it look like to create teams that empower children and young people as peers of adults in a church environment, to foster relationships and equality within the body of Christ?
Hannah Kennedy – Where Two or Three are Gathered
Exploring Children’s and Youth Ministry in smaller churches, looking at the reality and blessing that smaller numbers offer us. How can we make it an advantage and do things differently?
Tom Spicer – Help, The Service has gone on too long!
You’ve planned your children’s or youth group for a 20 minute sermon, but the preacher is on fire this morning. What do you do with those little pockets of time when you’ve run out of content. Come for a practical, hands-on look at a few ideas you could (maybe even literally) have in your back pocket to pull out when you need it.
Members of the C of E B Youth and Children’s Hub – Q&A
Got questions? Something in your youth work you just can’t work out? Need to know what someone else thinks is the best cheese for cheese on toast?
Come and ask our panel of resident experts their thoughts and ideas about anything*.
*mostly they’ll want to talk about youth and children’s work.