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New Wine
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What is Raising Generations?Raising Generations is a movement started by New Wine to raise up a new generation. The aim of the movement is that across networking, training and New Wine events to ENCOURAGE children, young people, families and leaders in what they are doing, their leadership and faith. To be EQUIPPED with the tools and resources they need through networking and training on offer. Then to EMPOWER everyone to go and do the things of kingdom.
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Why now?
The Church of England take stats on Sunday attendance and church attendance, called the "Stats for Mission”. The number of under 16’s in Church of England churches is halving twice as fast as the number of adults. In 2018 they made a list of the churches with 25 or more under 16’s in and that list had 903 churches on it out of about 16,500 churches in the CofE that’s only 6% of the churches. That 6% had 44% of ALL the children and young people in the whole of the CofE. In 2021 the number had reduced to 396. Of those 396 a third of them were New Wine churches. Which is what has lead to the Minster project starting up.
What is the Minster?
The idea is what if a church with an established youth or children’s ministry was able to draw alongside and support a church that didn’t, resourced and enabled them to start up some form of children’s or youth work would we be able to stop the curve of decline?
Raising Generations Minsters are churches within the New Wine network who have been identified because of the large, established, growing youth and children’s ministry’s they run. The word minster is used in the traditional sense, denoting a large church of significance, made up of a group of clergy or cluster of churches with a shared communal life.
The concept of minster churches within this pilot centres around 10+ churches with experienced and established ministries amongst children and young people. Each minster church is asked to select 2-4 local churches who currently do not have any established youth and children’s ministry. The minster church will then invite these churches to become part of their Raising Generations Minster.
The minster church and its youth and children’s team will then act as a support to help the small group of churches local to each minster to establish and grow youth and children’s ministry for the first time.
The best analogue for how this will work is like scaffolding we will help you with structures and support for starting up something new growing your ministry with a support that one day can be taken down so it can stand on its own..
Our intention is that each of the Raising Generations Minsters will do three things:
1. The support from the minster church will offer a critical mass of young people, an established programme, and a support network, all of which offers a support structure for the smaller churches within the minster to utilise and help establish ministry with children and young people
2. Those leading the ministry in the smaller churches within the minster (who we fully expect to be volunteers) are given access to experienced, senior salaried youth and children’s ministers, alongside a wider team of volunteers from the minster church. This offers support and encouragements, alongside opportunities for training, mentoring and development.
3. Opportunities for collaborative ministry opportunities, such as minster wide socials, worship events and residentials. This offers the smaller churches in the minister who may lack a critical mass of children and young people, community amongst a larger group of children and young people, offering a greater chance of growth, with children and young people feeling more confident to invite their friends to events attended by a larger group of peers.
Our hope is that through this pilot, we can establish a clear correlation between Raising Generations Minsters and new churches running youth and children’s ministry, led by new volunteers, reaching new children and young people.
Raising Generations Minsters are churches within the New Wine network who have been identified because of the large, established, growing youth and children’s ministry’s they run. The word minster is used in the traditional sense, denoting a large church of significance, made up of a group of clergy or cluster of churches with a shared communal life.
The concept of minster churches within this pilot centres around 10+ churches with experienced and established ministries amongst children and young people. Each minster church is asked to select 2-4 local churches who currently do not have any established youth and children’s ministry. The minster church will then invite these churches to become part of their Raising Generations Minster.
The minster church and its youth and children’s team will then act as a support to help the small group of churches local to each minster to establish and grow youth and children’s ministry for the first time.
The best analogue for how this will work is like scaffolding we will help you with structures and support for starting up something new growing your ministry with a support that one day can be taken down so it can stand on its own..
Our intention is that each of the Raising Generations Minsters will do three things:
1. The support from the minster church will offer a critical mass of young people, an established programme, and a support network, all of which offers a support structure for the smaller churches within the minster to utilise and help establish ministry with children and young people
2. Those leading the ministry in the smaller churches within the minster (who we fully expect to be volunteers) are given access to experienced, senior salaried youth and children’s ministers, alongside a wider team of volunteers from the minster church. This offers support and encouragements, alongside opportunities for training, mentoring and development.
3. Opportunities for collaborative ministry opportunities, such as minster wide socials, worship events and residentials. This offers the smaller churches in the minister who may lack a critical mass of children and young people, community amongst a larger group of children and young people, offering a greater chance of growth, with children and young people feeling more confident to invite their friends to events attended by a larger group of peers.
Our hope is that through this pilot, we can establish a clear correlation between Raising Generations Minsters and new churches running youth and children’s ministry, led by new volunteers, reaching new children and young people.
What will our Minster look like?
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The plan in its current form will be that me (Sam Clarke) will chat and meet with you guys and see how we can support you in setting something up. For the pilot the bar is low in term of what they are looking for you to start up. It needs to be a regular discipling community. This could be once a week or twice a month meet up. It only needs to start with who you have, your core young people and that could be a tiny group of 2-3 young people.
Within our Minster* we will be mainly focusing on Youth work as that is what I have expertise in however if you want to start up children’s work as well then we can definitely help with that too. Our plan for what the minster will look like is as follows: Training: Any training we put on for our team here at St Michaels we will invite you and your team along to. e.g. first aid training, leadership & small group discussion training. Termly Socials: As part of the Minster Pilot we will hosting termly socials which will look different each time. Termly Worship Evenings: We will all head over the Mix which happens four times a year (Sep, Dec, April & July). The Mix happens on Fridays 7-9pm at Woodlands Church in Bristol and is an interdenominational youth worship and prayer gathering for churches across Bristol. For more info head to www.themixbristol.co.uk Termly 121 Meet up: I (Sam) will be available for chats over coffee and well up for helping you think through ideas. You can ask all the questions and I’ll try and answer as many as I can. Resources sharing: The plans and games and resources we use we share as much as we can with you so you have plenty of stuff to go on and get you started if you are stuck. We can share our policies, risk assessments, session plans and more! Yearly Weekend Away: The plan is that as a minster we all head to Spree SW at the Exeter Westpoint (2025) it won’t be mandatory to come with us but we will be going and you are welcome to come and join us. (* we are one of 14 churches currently running the Minster Pilot and each minster is doing it slightly differently depending on their context) |
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We want to be transparent…
We want to be honest and up front with you as we will be the minster church in return for our involvement,”each minster church will receive investment in 2 ways: financial investment, and developmental investment.” Each minster church will be offered a financial compensation package to help towards the cost of both the senior youth and children's workers time and the wider investment offered by the minster church. The pilot has been designed for 10 minster churches, who would each receive up to £15,000 over a 3- year period (£5,000 per year). If more than 10 churches are accepted, this amount will reduce but would remain at least £3,000 per year. The maximum number accepted will be 15 churches. We have 14 churches signed on currently.
