St Andrew’s Waipukurau’s booming youth ministry is being supported by Press Go.
A new role focusing on “faith-based” work with children has received a $60,000 grant plus a $60,000 interest-free loan over six years.
About 200 children and young people are involved in St Andrew’s Sunday school and youth groups and an additional 200 take part in the church’s community-facing work, which is managed, together with the ministry work, under the umbrella of Epic Ministries.
David and Kirsty Tilyard are sharing the new role, with David working 32 hours a week and Kirsty 16 hours. David coordinates “everything overtly faith-based” that the church does with children, from youth group to Bible in Schools work, while Kirsty focuses on the Sunday morning children’s programmes. Both play hands-on roles, as well as managing the 40 volunteers involved.
Minister the Rev Ian Pimm says the new approach is going really well. Sunday morning children’s ministries are being refocused into an outreach programme; “it’s not just a nice, neat thing for Christian kids and families”.
About 50 children are part of St Andrew’s children’s church, another 70 come along to its intermediate-age programme and 70 are part of its high-school-age youth group.
David and Kirsty have also recently started a new youth service called Fuel on Thursday evenings, with 50 young people taking part. Held in the hall rather than the church, Ian describes the service as “a bit different”.
More young people are also starting to come to church on Sunday mornings, “because their friends are there”.
Ian says that while David and Kirsty’s initial contract is for three years, it’s hoped that as St Andrew’s continues to grow, the new role will be funded from its
operating budget.
Epic has five full-time youth workers, including Tama Bucknell who coordinates the community side of the work, which Ian describes as about building relationships and values. “It’s huge in terms of the opportunity we have to work with a whole lot of kids in our area,” Ian says. “The credibility we have developed is stunning.”
The church has a good relationship with Waipukurau’s high school, including mentoring students, and with the local primary schools. It runs a Bible in Schools style programme for years seven and eight at three schools.
About 200 adults attend the church’s Sunday services, although about a third will be away on any given Sunday, Ian says.
St Andrew’s has doubled in size in the past 10 years, and aims to double again in the next five years.
The church can seat only about 120 comfortably; more than that and people are put off, Ian says. At the moment, the church is full enough to inhibit further growth. But this doesn’t mean leaping into a building programme, he says, and the church will continue experimenting with multiple services.
“We want to put our resources into people.”
By Amanda Wells