FAMILYLights - the next step in our Junior Church journey
Inspiring the next generation to seek out and follow Jesus for themselves:
Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, "Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children..” Luke 18:16
Unless children and young people meet Jesus how can they follow him?
FAMILYLights is a place to encounter Jesus and to learn about him in a safe and fun filled environment.
Building on good foundations….
We believe every child should have a chance to build their life upon the rock of good Bible teaching and Spirit filled encounters with Jesus.
Why FAMILYLights
Family is God’s very good idea, His masterpiece, His blueprint. God created family as the place where we all belong, where we can love and be loved, where we can care for and be cared for. Human families help us to see the ultimate family, God’s family, where God longs for all of us to belong.
The global pandemic that started in 2020 brought many changes and challenges, and we all suffered loss in one form or another during it. However God worked good things out through it as well and one of those was a strengthening of families as families were brought together during
lockdowns and grew in their reliance on each other; parents became teachers, children learnt to help at home, and families spent more time with each other than ever before.
Lockdowns meant our traditional Junior Church activities couldn’t continue so instead we produced materials for families to use together, latterly augmenting that by streaming worship and craft activities.
As we came into 2021 we reflected on what God had led us into and realised that God had
strengthened the dynamic of family and we knew that we had to build on that going forward, and so the next phase of FAMILYLights was born.
All too often our culture thinks of children as people “in-waiting” or those to be babysat, but God sees them as leaders, glory carriers, miracle workers, mission team members, prophesiers, bible scholars and evangelists and our desire is to see children and their parents/guardians released to be all that God has made them to be.
FAMILYLights isn’t just for children and their parents/guardians, it is for everybody who wants to explore their place in God’s family.
What do we do?
We go places and use spaces that bring God’s story alive.
We like to join with our church family at the Sunday Gathering at Ebe, meeting for refreshments at 10.30am and worship at 11am before we head off to see where His story will take us next - sometimes that’s just across to the church hall, sometimes it’s a walk, or we meet in a garden, or at the beach plus we often eat together.
Some Sundays our activities are at a different time of the day or elsewhere. Whatever we are doing we try to make it accessible for all and the ethos is the same, come as a family to be part of God’s family and expect to learn and grow together.
Creche:
Whilst little ones are very welcome at our FAMILYLights activities we realise that it isn’t always easy or practical to bring them so we have set aside two spaces for Creche in Ebe’s buildings.
In the main building there is an area with some toys and the young ones are welcome to run around and enjoy themselves; nobody minds noisy children in our Ebe family. If you prefer we also have a creche room in our hall with the Gathering streamed to it, and a coffee machine on hand!