Who is it for?
Ten one-hour sessions for churches to use in an intergenerational setting
I have come to expect great things from them but this album was predominantly made up of old tracks and only a few small steps away from being a greatest hits. And the book, which promised a brand new innovative way of engaging people of all ages and abilities, appeared to be nothing more than a rebranding of Scripture Union’s Explore together. Though for those with none of Big Ministries’ previous tracks, or SU’s resource, this would not be an issue.
All that being said, Big Ministries have come up with some great ideas here; the activities were engaging, linked in well with the theme and created a great sense of flow. Many children passed comment on just how quickly the time flew. The teaching is split into two pre-written teaching slots, both around three minutes. I loved these: they had a great open ended style which allowed freedom for people to continue exploring the passage and theme as they felt led which was good as there was plenty of space in the service for this to take place. The story was in the form of a drama / sound action. However, it required seven actors and there was another drama later in the service so I had to replace this with my own retelling of the story. Beyond this there was only minor tweaking of the resource required to make it work for our setting. Each session is crammed full of activities; the participants were rarely left with only one option of activity which worked brilliantly for those of us that like to fidget constantly. There was a great balance of creative and contemplative elements which truly did create space in this service for everyone to feel engaged.
The service did feel a little rushed at times as there was so much happening and people had only just got into an activity when it was time to move on. I would seriously consider doing another session from this book, however I do think I would edit out some of the activities or extend the services length to allow more time on each element. Space could be a huge issue for people wanting to run this style of service: we are blessed with a large flexible building and were able to make this service work well with 40 people, but we would not have been able to fit many more people in.
Joel Botham is the children’s worker at Stanmore Baptist Church in Harrow, London
Main strength
All-age services are vital for many reasons but sometimes can be done in a way that doesn’t engage. This resource offers great creative ideas to engage multiple generations, abilities and learning styles all at once.
Main weakness
Sadly space will play a huge part in how far churches can take this idea; many may be restricted by the amount of workable space it requires.
The verdict
