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08 July 2016

Children Matter

Kay Morgan Gurr is chair of Children Matter, a coalition of people and organisations who are passionate about children and family ministry.

Tell us a little about the Children Matter initiative.

Children Matter works to inspire the UK Church, church leaders, families and children to develop ministries that will allow children to grow in their faith from childhood to adulthood. It's a coalition of different ministries including Scripture Union, Urban Saints, Children Worldwide, the Global Children's Forum and the Hand in Hand conference. It's a place where Christians can be equipped in their work with children and families, finding resources and encouragement from what so many people are doing not just around the UK, but globally too.

How are you supporting children and family ministries?

We have an information email, sharing different stories about what's going on in children's ministries, which people can sign up for on our website. We've also got a Facebook page that shares more about what churches and organisations are doing to support children in their spiritual growth, as well as a Twitter account - @childrenmatter

We do regular projects and forums to both equip those who influence those in family and children's work, and those who work as week by week volunteers.

These are all great ways to get inspired by resources and ideas for children's ministries, and to get support in the things different churches are doing with their children and families.

You're working on a project called Faithful Generation – tell us more about that.

Faithful Generation is a five-year project supporting the faith formation of children and church communities. It's a collaborative national conversation about life-long faith formation for children in families, churches and communities.

We've drawn on the excellent Sticky Faith research from the Fuller Youth Insititute and the hugely helpful Here2Stay initiative from our friends in Australia, and will be looking at how we might reimagine how we  develop resilient faith formation in every sphere of life.

There are five themes to work through: community, encounter, dialogue, milestones and action. These are five insights to help churches and parents develop their thinking on faith formation. We are in the early stages of putting this project together, so this is very much a preview of the project ahead, but want people to follow us online or via email to keep up with the biblical insights and practical resources that we'll be sharing on each habit over the coming months and years.

How can the UK Church be praying for Children Matter and Faithful Generation?

We want to see the culture of Church challenged to support and include children and families better. We're not talking about just changing meetings or events, but seeing churches develop community, faith and action across an intergenerational Church. We want Christians to be praying for these initiatives to encourage and equip churches, leaders and parents to create a Church culture where children can grow to be lifelong disciples as they journey into adulthood.

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