Welcome to our church!

 

These words from the Anglican baptism service are a commitment from the congregation to welcome the newly baptised. But church needs to be a welcoming place for all - visitors, baptism families, seekers exploring faith or young people 'having a look' - as well as regular worshippers!

So what might WELCOME look like? How can we make it warm, genuine and supportive so that children, young people and families feel they are cared about and will want to return?

WELCOME includes:  

• Worship
• Environment
• Listening
• Care
• Opportunities
• Mission
• Excellence

These pages offer some thoughts, suggestions and resources on how each of these can contribute towards making a church welcoming to children, young people and families. You might use them to: 

• to audit the welcome your church is already offering
• to start a discussion on what is working well and what might need to change
• to explore new ideas and possibilities
• to feed into your church Mission Action Plan (or equivalent)

Some Dioceses and denominations operate the Child Friendly Church award scheme. If you would like to learn more about it, follow the link on the right.