Joining the family? exploring membership of the United Reformed Church

with Young People

Preparing Young People for membership of the United Reformed Church

Contents page

Information for facilitators page 4

Introduction: page 7

Believing: page 11

Belonging: page 15

Behaving: page 17

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Preparing Young People for membership of the United Reformed Church

Information for facilitators The Challenge of Membership

We are all members of different groups – some we chose for ourselves and some we have no choice about whatsoever.

Similarly, some young people have ‘grown up’ in the church attending with their family, so in some sense had no choice in the matter at first. Others have come to church through links with youth organisations. Whilst some young people make a conscious decision to go to church when they are older to explore their faith.

However you come to be part of a church it’s always good to be challenged on our faith journey to think about our commitment to our faith, and a particular congregation, and consider what membership of a particular group might mean for us.

This short course is intended to help young people to think through the particular challenges of what it means for them to be a member of the United Reformed Church.

The sessions are structured around the three B’s:

Believe

Behave Belong

Preparing Young People for membership of the United Reformed Church

The course begins with a short introduction, based around such questions as:

What is most important; that we Believe, that we Belong, or that we Behave? (the three Bs)

Are we welcomed because we Believe and, in believing learn to behave appropriately, so that we can belong?

Or is it most important that we feel that we Belong first, fitting in by behaving properly and, slowly, learning what it is the group believes?

Or must we first Behave – so that we are accepted and can develop our understanding of belief until we feel that we belong?

Or are there any other ways of understanding the three B’s?

This introductory discussion is followed by three sessions, focused on each of the three Bs, which can each last for 1 – 2 hours each, depending upon the nature of the group and the amount of discussion generated.

The sessions can be done in any order – but we suggest that the group begins with the conversation above about the ‘3 Bs’ and then offer the sessions in the order that the group has agreed.

Important:

Finally, it is important that the local church has thought through the implications of inviting young people to become members – as there is no point challenging young people to THINK about membership if they are then not allowed to DO anything about it.

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Preparing Young People for membership of the United Reformed Church

Introduction: Preparing Young People for membership

of the United Reformed Church

For this session:

You will need: Large paper and pens Post-it notes Copies of ‘The Blob Tree’ (page 9) for each participant

Welcome

Welcome everyone to the session.

Ground Rules

Invite the group to suggest some ground rules for the discussions that will take place on this course. Write them up so that everybody can see them. Examples might include:

Give everybody the opportunity to speak

Listen well to one another

Respect differences of opinion

Ask the group to cut down their suggestions to a maximum of five easy to remember rules which are practical expressions of a healthy respect for one another, combining suggestions which are similar and removing ones which are unrealistic of unhelpful.

Once the ground rules have been agreed by the group invite everyone to show their agreement by each signing them or adding a thumb print.

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Thought Shower: Membership

Invite the group to say what they think church membership is all about.

The aim of this opening session is to encourage everyone to share their thinking about membership in order that you can understand where people are at in their understanding. It’s not about ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers, so, try to avoid commenting on what people say at this stage.

As well as listening to where people are at in their understanding, listen carefully for the themes of believing, belonging, and behaving coming up in the conversation (though those words may not be used) and make a note of these ideas to refer back to in the next session.

Discussion: The three B’s

Invite the group to explore the Believing - Belonging - Behaving triangle, sharing what they understand each of the words to mean. As their shared understanding develops, move the conversation on to the importance of each and asking which order should they go and why?

The questions in the facilitators notes at the start of this booklet might help you to stimulate discussion if it does not flow.

Decide together the best order in which to run the 3 sessions with this particular group.

Believe

Behave Belong

Preparing Young People for membership of the United Reformed Church

Which Blob are You?

Explore the picture below, The Blob Tree, by Pip Wilson

Imagine the tree represents your church. Where would you put yourself in the picture? Why do you believe this to be so? What place would you like to have if not the one you have already?

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Preparing Young People for membership of the United Reformed Church

Believing: Preparing Young People for membership

of the United Reformed Church

For this session: You will need: Post-it notes and pens Activity: Do you believe in …?

This opening activity is a light-hearted way of exploring why people believe certain things. Read out the following list, item by item. For each item, invite people to move to one side of the room if they believe it or the other side of the room if they don’t: After each item explore with some members of the group why they are stood where they are.

The tooth fairy Monsters under the bed Going out with wet hair gives you a cold An apple a day keeps the doctor away Gravity Static electricity Life exists on other planets Global warming A person is innocent until proven guilty You should always respect your elders Lying is always wrong Prayer changes things

It is important to have discussion about belief. Through the conversation we will all learn more about what we believe, even when we disagree. What we believe often changes over time. What we believe today probably is not the same as we believed a few years ago!

In this session it is important to respect opinions and to be open to the possibility that our own opinions may change.

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Discussion: Statements of faith

Statements of faith try to capture in words the most important beliefs for a particular group. This activity aims to help people explore what they believe and in the light of the United Reformed Church statement of faith.

Invite each person to write down three things which they as Christians believe, each on a separate post it note. Put these up on a flip-chart or on the wall and invite people to group them together into themes.

Get into small groups and each group write a statement of faith. It should include something from each of the themes the group has identified.

Share your statements of faith with the rest of the group.

Compare these with the URC Statement of Faith (see appendix)

in different colours highlight things in common with your statements

highlight things you don’t really understand

highlight things which you find inspiring

note any questions you have

As a whole group, discuss what you have discovered through this exercise.

Preparing Young People for membership of the United Reformed Church

Worship: More than words

Ask the group if they can imagine other ways of stating the faith other than by writing or by saying a statement of faith or a creed?

Put on some quiet background music and make materials available for people to express an aspect of their Christian faith through art, sculpture, poetry, or movement.

Next steps

Ask the group to think about what they each could do to help develop their understanding of Christian beliefs? This might be an appropriate time for the course leader to share what they have found most helpful. You could also encourage the young people to ask other Christian people about this over the next week.

Ask the group: How might ‘believing’ be linked with ‘belonging’ and ‘behaving’?

Share with the young people details of URC children’s & youth events, which might encourage them in their faith. If you are not sure, you could contact your Synod Children’s & Youth Development Officer or the Assembly Youth & Children’s Work Office.

N.B. If this is the final session, invite people to reflect on what their own next step might be as a result of the session.

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Appendix:

What the URC Says...

Statement of Faith (The Manual – Paragraph 17)

At the General Assembly of 1997 the United Reformed Church adopted the following alternative version of the statement to be available alongside the 1972 statement:

1. We believe in the one and only God, Eternal Trinity, from whom, through whom and for whom all created things exist. God alone we worship; in God we put our trust.

2. We worship God, source and sustainer of creation, whom Jesus called Father, whose sons and daughters we are.

3. We worship God revealed in Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God made flesh; who lived our human life, died for sinners on the cross; who was raised from the dead, and proclaimed by the apostles, Son of God; who lives eternally, as saviour and sovereign, coming in judgement and mercy, to bring us to eternal life.

4. We worship God, ever present in the Holy Spirit; who brings this Gospel to fruition, assures us of forgiveness, strengthens us to do God’s will, and makes us sisters and brothers of Jesus, sons and daughters of God.

5. We believe in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, united in heaven and on earth: on earth, the Body of Christ, empowered by the Spirit to glorify God and to serve humanity; in heaven, eternally one with the power, the wisdom and the love of God in Trinity.

6. We believe that, in the fullness of time, God will renew and gather in one all things in heaven and on earth through Christ, and be perfectly honoured and adored.

7. We rejoice in God who has given us being, who shares our humanity to bring us to glory, our source of prayer and power of praise; to whom be glory, praise and adoration, now and evermore.

Preparing Young People for membership of the United Reformed Church

Belonging: Preparing Young People for membership

of the United Reformed Church

For this session: You will need: Post-it notes and pens Icebreaker: Odd one out

Play one of the games below in which some people are made to feel excluded from a group.

A larger group could play ‘clumps’ – the leader calls a number and people have to get into groups of that number as quickly as possible. Anybody leftover is ‘out’.

A smaller group could play ‘odd one out’ – the leader calls out a characteristic which a number of the group will have in common. Those who can prove that it is true of them win a sweet, while anybody else is left out. Examples: colour of hair; birthdays in a particular month, etc.

This should lead into a discussion about how it felt to be excluded – how did people let them know they had been excluded? How did it feel to exclude someone? How did they choose?

Activity & Discussion: Where do I belong?

Invite people to write on post-it notes, (one per note) any groups they belong to. For example, their family, school class, social groups, clubs, fan clubs, Facebook groups etc.

Ask the group to sort the post-its into 2 piles:

those groups to which we choose to belong

and those groups about which we have no choice.

This should lead into a discussion: what influences our decision to join something? (e.g. friends are in it, it’s near where I live, it’s something I enjoy, it’s a skill I’d like to learn.)

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Discussion: Giving and receiving

Ask people what they GIVE to the groups to which they belong and what they GET from the groups to which they belong?

Ask the group to take a moment to think about what they GIVE and what they GET from belonging to the church.

On flip chart paper, draw 2 columns, one entitled GIVE and the other entitled GET and invite people to add their responses to the appropriate column.

Discuss these questions:

Which column has more comments at the end of the activity?

Is it more important to give or to receive? Or are they equally important?

Bible study - The cost of belonging

Ask people what sort of things they would ‘give up’ when they choose to join or belong to a group? (e.g. You might give up money, time, the opportunity to do another activity, etc..)

Split the group into a number of smaller groups or pairs and assign each group one of the following passages of scripture:

Luke 1:26-38 (Mary)

Mark 1:14-19 (The first disciples)

Ruth 1:1-17 (Ruth)

Acts 9:1-19 and / or Philippians 3:1-14 (Saul who became the apostle Paul)

Invite the small groups to read the passages and discuss them using these questions:

Who gave up what?

What did it cost them?

Did they make a good choice?

What would YOU have done?

Ask someone from each small group / pair to feedback to the larger group.

Preparing Young People for membership of the United Reformed Church

Discussion: The cost of belonging to the church today

Share some information about Christians in other parts of the world who suffer hardship in order to express their faith. (For information, see for example Christian Solidarity Worldwide www.csw.org.uk) This could be in walking many miles to attend church, or suffering persecution because they attend church.

Ask people what they think drives people to continue to belong to the church in these circumstances?

Draw up 2 lists on a flip-chart:

Things that you think would make someone want to belong to your church

Things that you think would make people NOT want to belong.

Discuss ways to overcome the negatives and advertise the positives?

Next steps

Ask the group to think about what they each could do to help develop their sense of belonging to the church? This might be an appropriate time for the course leader to share how they found a sense of

belonging in the church. You could also encourage the young people to ask other Christian people

about this over the next week.

Ask the group: How might ‘belonging’ be linked with ‘believing’ or ‘behaving’?

Share with the young people details of children’s or youth events, which might help them to find a sense of belonging to the wider United Reformed Church. If you are not sure, you could contact your Synod Children’s & Youth Development Officer or the Assembly Youth & Children’s Work Office.

N.B. If this is the final session, invite people to reflect on what their own next step might be as a result of this course.

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Preparing Young People for membership of the United Reformed Church

Behaving: Preparing Young People for membership

of the United Reformed Church

For this session: You will need: Post-it notes and pens Opening Discussion

Show a film clip about someone trying to learn a different culture. For example: ‘Lifted’ – a Pixar short film (4 min 50 sec) in which an alien tries to teach another alien about Earth. It is available on DVD - PIXAR Short Films Collection Volume 1. Alternatively, it can be found on Youtube by searching for ‘Lifted PIXAR’. Start a discussion using the following questions Why do you think we showed that clip? What have you had to do in order to belong / fit in to a group? To what extent do you feel that you belong to the church?

Activity: Behaviour as a sign of belonging

Ask people to think about what they do which shows that they are part of the church and write each thing on a post-it note (one thing per post-it note) Compare with others in the group. What are the similarities and differences? Keep these post-it notes for use later in the session.

Role play: Behaviour in the church

Split people into two or more smaller groups

Invite each smaller group to come up with a scenario about behaviour you might see in a church and act it out to the rest of the group

The rest of the group must debate and decide if this is acceptable or unacceptable behaviour in a church

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What is formal membership?

Explain that there is a distinction between being part of a local church informally and entering into formal membership of that church.

Unpack the statements in the list below using one or more of the methods which follow:

Making a commitment to membership in front of the church family

Meeting together with the church community

Serve together within the church

Receive and share forgiveness and power

‘The Christian life is all about receiving to give’

Participation in public worship & communion

Prayer

Witness & service in the local community

Participation in church meeting

Taking on specific responsibilities within the church

Willingness to learn & admit weakness

Giving time & money

This list is derived from the URC document ‘Talking about Church Membership’ available from the URC website.

Preparing Young People for membership of the United Reformed Church

Here are a couple of methods which could help you explore the statements above:

Discussion – for each of these statements discuss these questions:

What might that look like in practice?

Which one of these seem easiest and most difficult to you?

Could you leave out any of the statements above without losing anything important?

Get into smaller groups / pairs. To each group / pair give a set of cards with the membership responsibilities printed on them. Invite them to prioritise the list of membership responsibilities, creating a pyramid of priorities, with the most important at the top and ones which are less important at the bottom. Discuss the differences between the groups.

Activity: What difference does it make?

We are now going to explore the differences which becoming a formal member might make to the way we behave.

Lay out a number of large pieces of paper and put one of the following headings on each:

Public Worship

Private Prayer

Giving & serving

Sharing faith

Church decision-making

Invite people to put each of their post-it notes (from the opening activity) under the heading they think is most relevant.

Highlight any gaps in what people are already doing compared to the responsibilities of formal membership.

Sensitively explore the outcomes of this exercise, especially any items which had very few post-it notes.

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Worship & personal reflection:

Read the following passage from the Bible: James 2:14-17 - faith without deeds is dead

Put some quiet background music on and ask people to reflect on their own life with this question: How far does my behaviour reflect my beliefs?

Create a simple prayer collage on a large piece of paper with the title ‘Faith in action’:

EITHER invite people to draw around one of their hands and feet on coloured paper, then cut out the shapes and write onto them things that they want to do in order to put their faith into practice.

OR invite people to cut out images & words from magazines which symbolise things that that they want to do in order to put their faith into practice.

Stick the shapes / images onto a large piece of paper to form a prayer collage.

Round up this time by saying the Lord’s prayer together.

Next steps

Ask the group to identify something that they could do this week.

Ask the group: How might ‘behaving’ be linked with ‘believing’ or ‘belonging?

Share with the young people opportunities for taking on responsibilities within the church and

opportunities for serving in the community.

N.B. If this is the final session, invite people to reflect on what their own next step might be as a result of this course.

Preparing Young People for membership of the United Reformed Church

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