CHILDREN AND YOUTH AT REDEEMER
Our vision is to see our children and young people grow into resilient followers of Jesus: growing in knowledge of and love for Jesus as they meet him in his word; embedded in church life; equipped to engage with our cultural moment and to share Jesus in the contexts they find themselves.
This is the aim: each step of the journey looks a bit different, as our amazing team of volunteers works hard to bring age-appropriate input for our under-18s.
All of our groups are grounded in teaching the Bible. We want to hear what God is saying to us and respond as we get to know him better. However, absolutely no prior knowledge of the Bible, or anything to do with Christianity, is needed to take part in our groups - we absolutely love having new children join us and they'll never be put on the spot or made to join in with anything they don't want to.
Here is what we offer in our different groups…
For 6 months to 2.5 years.
We have a short story from the Bible and a craft activity linked to our story, for those who are ready for that, and lots of playing and singing songs.
For 2.5 years to the beginning of Reception.
Every session is themed around our Bible story of the day. Through stories, craft, games, singing and playing we learn that we have an amazing God, who made us and loves us, and who sent his son Jesus to make us friends with him again.
For Reception - Year 3.
As well as taking part in learning a Bible story, playing games and singing fun songs, children in this group spend time in small groups to re-tell or talk more about the story, what it might mean for us, then pray in response. Redeemer Kids follows a three-year Bible overview teaching plan in which we see that the Bible is one big story of God's saving love, and that every story in every part of the Bible points to Jesus, the saving hero that we all need.
For Years 4-6.
Our teaching programme for Next Step Kids runs in sync with Redeemer Kids in overviewing the whole Bible in three years. In this group, the children are equipped to get into passages for themselves, together, and go deeper than they did in Redeemer Kids. Next Step Kids get used to asking questions of a passage and working out what difference its truths will make to their coming week. We also enjoy catching up and playing a couple of games.
For 11-18 years.
Every 4th Sunday the Youth stay in the whole gathering. The remaining 3 Sundays, we head off part-way through to Loaf (a cafe over the road) where we hang out, play a game or two and spend some time learning together. Throughout the year our series will be based on a range of approaches: studying through books of the Bible (eg Ephesians) or thematic series (eg Jesus' "I am" statements), apologetic or specific cultural issues, Question & Answer sessions and some seasonal specials (eg a Christmas event.) We offer our Youth 1:1 mentoring with an older member of our church family, and those who are Year 10+ also have a couple of Discussion Dinners a term.
Every Sunday the whole church family starts together, then children and young people split into separate sessions after around 20 minutes, and run until the gathering's end. Every 4th Sunday the Youth stay in the whole gathering.
If your child would rather stay with you for the whole gathering, they are completely welcome to. We welcome breast-feeding and we're very happy for babies to stay with you in the main gathering for the whole time too.
If your child or young person has any additional needs, we'd love to do all we can to help them thrive as part of our church family. They won't be the only ones, but every child is different and we'd love to know what we can do to be as accessible as possible for each and every individual.
For more information, or just to say hello, do drop Linda - our Children's and Youth Co-ordinator - a line at kids@redeemerleeds.co.uk. She'd love to hear from you.