We are excited to bring you a project we have been working on for quite some time now…the Whānau Friendly Process! 

In partnership with our sister department, PCFM (Presbyterian Children and Families Ministry), we have developed a process where a whole congregation is invited to discover six ministry priorities that will help a whole church to welcome and nurture the faith of children, young people and their families. 

The Whānau Friendly Process is an intentional journey with teaching and reflection sessions using our kiwi made film series which is aimed at all ages. It fosters an understanding of the collective power of the congregation discipling young people – together.  

By going through the Whānau Friendly Process your church will reflect on your congregation’s current ministry and discern in which way God may be leading you in the upcoming years. 

The easiest way to understand what this process looks like is to watch this short video. 

Our dream is for the local church to be a place where all generations are present: thriving, encouraging one another, and growing in faith, together. 

We are excited that this process includes your whole congregation, promoting the importance of ministry to young people and children which is a big win for youth leaders. 

If your church prides itself on being a Kids Friendly church, you are welcome to add the Whānau Friendly logo next your Kids Friendly logo in your church after going through this process if you wish. 

We believe the Whānau Friendly Process is a great “next step” for your church in prioritising ministry to the children, youth, and families in your midst!    

We invite you to visit the Whānau Friendly website  

We invite you to read the latest edition of the Buzz Newsletter

In this month’s Buzz:
:

• Connect – Save the Date
• Isolation care packages
• Easter ideas for your church
• Young Adult Ministry Cohort
• Recommendations for children’s and youth Ministry in the Traffic Light System
• NUA
• Safety WOF Refresher
• Emerge Leadership Formation
• No arms, oo legs, no worries

We have heard from many people who are hoping we can run our national youth ministry conference Connect this year. We communicated that we would be making an announcement about Connect by the 21st February.  

Well, here we are in February, and the Omicron variant of COVID is clearly starting its upward trend on the bell curve, which makes it’s it very hard to be certain about upcoming events. We believe we will be in a much better place in a couple of months’ time to make a decision about Connect 2022.  

What we can say at this point is that we have provisional dates booked for El Rancho, Wellington on the on the 22-24 July, and we ask that you put these dates in your calendar. 

As we discern putting on Connect ‘22 we will continue pray, pay attention to the news and experts, and engage our key stakeholders and colleagues.  

In March 2022, the Whānau Friendly process will be launched.

Our dream is that the local church is a place where all generations are present, thriving, encouraging one another and growing in faith together. The Whānau Friendly process has been designed to help your church move closer to this. 

The resource is available for churches to run in the new year. In this process your whole congregation will discover together six ministry essentials that can help ministry to children, young people and their families flourish in your parish. Your congregation will also discover that everyone benefits and grows when we are intentional about connecting across the generations. 

The resource has been created in partnership with Presbyterian Children and Families Ministry and includes a film series, intergenerational teaching curriculum, community surveys and resources to create actions and priorities for ministry.