We're at parish communion. I look down to find my four-year-old daughter, Natalie, and her little friend have disappeared under our row of chairs. They're lying with bottoms and legs exposed, pretending to be explorers looking for a treasure in a cave. I spend the whole of the pre-communion hymn and Eucharistic prayer trying to entice them out but give up when I see two six-year-olds trotting towards us on a hobby horse. No wonder the visiting celebrant looks totally bewildered when he glances over to our crazy corner of the congregation.

Maybe that's why some Christians are getting creative about fresh expressions of church for young families. It's a sad thing to see new families come to church and spend the duration of the service trying to keep their young children quiet. At a time of life when parents are exhausted, I'm not surprised people are looking ways in which children can explore spirituality at their level, while providing a short, safe, guilt-free environment for parents where little ones aren't demanding to take dolly and pushchair up to the rail for communion, or running helter-skelter round a hall during a 30-minute preach in a 'supposed' all-age worship service.

However, this type of fresh expression comes with a health warning. The spiritual needs of both children and adults need to be considered in the long-term. If these fresh expressions really are church and not just services, the discipleship of all is crucial. At the same time, we mustn't fall back into the trap of believing one gathering can do all that is needed, especially when such gatherings often happen only monthly.

As the new Share page on fresh expressions of church with children describes, creative responses to this discipleship issue are beginning to emerge. Some fresh expressions are using crèche facilities to enable part of their time together to be more focused on adult discipleship. Others are finding an evening meeting for parents' spiritual exploration over a glass of wine works well. Lastly, there are some fantastic 'faith at home' resources to encourage families to explore discipleship together on an ongoing basis between the large, occasional gatherings.

Faith at home resources: Posada, Families First magazine, Home is a Holy Place, Creative Ideas for Quiet Corners, The Godmother, The Faith 5 (Faith Acts In The Home) and Sleeping with Bread (practising the prayer of examen as families).

Claire Dalpra has worked in Church Army's research team The Sheffield Centre for ten years. Her role as assistant researcher involves writing, editing, consultancy and conferencing in the area of fresh expressions of church. Read Encounters on the Edge 31: Small Beginnings for a summary of her findings regarding church for under 5s and their families.

Claire is starting up an online discussion group on Share for those involved or interested in church for children. If you would like to join, email Claire here for details.

If you have something burning to say and want to contribute to the Share weekly guest blog, please contact Beth Keith.

 

This blog was sparked off by the two comment sections on Share - Things that went well and Things to learn from - and I'd be interested in knowing how other FXs (fresh expressions of church) overcome obstacles.

Both FXs we've set up have been in response to hopes in parish profiles that the church would become more inclusive and representative of its local community, but unfortunately a profile doesn't necessarily reflect the mind of the majority of the congregation so setting up an FX can be a bumpy ride.

Our FXs involved setting up weekly all-age Sunday worship at a separate time to the 'main' service. Neither church had much of a history of modern worship and both FXs were initially to meet the needs of younger members of the congregation who were drifting away.

I'm sure other pioneers find that an FX takes time to establish; the first took about two years and our current one has been going since September and is gradually finding its feet. This is part of the natural evolution of such services and is quite a gentle process, but we have found dealing with external factors more difficult.

My questions are:

1. Have other people experienced hostility, or indeed sabotage attempts, from established congregations when setting up an FX?
2. Do you find that most of your church cannot comprehend why people need to experience different forms of worship?
3. Is the reduction of clergy posts going to be a problem? My other half is about to become solely responsible for two sizeable churches with seven services on a Sunday, one of which is our FX. For us, and those who called us here, that is a priority, but the increase in clergy workload isn't going to help and means creating a much-needed FX elsewhere in the parish is impossible at this stage.

Kate Kendall has been doing children's work and worship in churches for nearly twenty years and is married to a vicar in the Worcester diocese. She helped set up two fresh expressions: one in Ely and the latest in the Worcester diocese, both aimed at widening the age profile in middle-of-the-road Anglican parish churches.

If you have something burning to say and want to contribute to the Share weekly guest blog, please contact Beth Keith.