May 26, 2025 • 25 mins
Need help with your youth work? Thinking of starting or developing your youth work? Limitless Pioneers is here to assist you in this. Hear about how Limitless Pioneers can help you grow your church by investing in young people.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome, thank you so much for being here.
Honestly just been praying for you guys, for you in this room
right now. So thank you for giving your
time. I know this week is full on, so
thank you so much for making thespace.
So my name is Emma. Hopefully you know that by now,
but yeah, I work for Limitless as The Pioneers developer.
(00:22):
I'm based in Manchester but we work regularly in Malvern and
and it is an absolute pleasure to be able to help Elin churches
start youth work where there is no youth work, or at least a
very small contingent there. And I've been doing that for the
last few years and it's just been a real joy being able to
(00:42):
start projects locally for me inBlackpool and Bradford.
As you heard yesterday, I'm in Prescott at the minute, about to
go back tomorrow night to go anddo that.
And prayers for energy. Thanks very much.
So, yeah. And it's great to be able to
work with volunteers, work with the team, see something start
(01:03):
that you know, wasn't there before and see young people
engage in church. And so hopefully that's why
you're here. You're interested to see what
that means for your church, how we can help you do that, either
us ourselves, we can help you, or just to help start something
thinking in your own brain aboutwhat you can do in your own
context. And so explain a little bit
(01:25):
about pioneers and then we're gonna have some time for a
question answer at the end. And as I say, we're trying to
keep it as short as we can for you.
So, yeah, so as I said, Limitless Pioneers, it's all
about starting youth ministries across the UK.
Tim had a vision a while ago of just about, you know, obviously
how important youth work is #1 but also just at how many
(01:48):
churches across the UK don't have youth ministries and
actually need help. You know, it's the thing that we
know we wanna do it, but actually, how do we do that?
How do we get youth work startedin different ways in different
contexts and confidence and training and all of those kinds
of stuff. And so that's why pioneers
(02:09):
started. And, and I'm going to go through
a few like quick things about why.
Why is it that we need youth work?
Why do we need pioneers just to help start you thinking about
that. And then we'll tell you a bit
about actually how we can help you do that.
And so the why I'm sure you in this room know that there is a
(02:31):
need for youth work. We know that young people need
Jesus. There's some facts on the screen
behind me. Just a couple, which Assad.
We know the culture at the minute.
We know what young people are going through.
If you connect with any of them and there's a couple for you.
From since lockdown, one in six children aged 5 to 16 were
(02:51):
identified as having a probable mental health problem in July
2021, which is a huge increase from one in nine in 2017.
That's five children in every classroom.
That's mad, isn't it? And we know the impact of
lockdown, but we also just know the culture at the minute.
It's a it's a hard place for young people to be.
We know they need hope, we know they need direction and we know
(03:14):
they need Jesus. Don't know this next one is is
tragic. Suicide was the leading cause of
death for both males and femalesaged between 11 to 34 in 2022.
That's the last statistic for that.
But we know, you know, young people need Jesus and they need
the church and they need you. Because we know, I'm sure if you
(03:35):
start to connect in with your young people in your area, I'm
sure you can bring to mind some young people that you're like,
yeah, you know, they need Jesus,they need church.
And we, we can be part of that solution as a wider thing as
well. That actually the problem, as
we've said yesterday a little bit, that 38% of all churches in
(03:59):
the UK have No 6 zero to 16 yearolds and 68% have fewer than
five young people. I'm sure some of you are in this
room right now. You've got just a few young
people in your church. In Ealing specific, there are
around 230 churches with no youth work.
That's why I'm here. Come on then, that's maybe why
you're in the room 'cause you wanna see this happen.
(04:20):
We wanna see that change. And we know, and you might be
feeling this, that actually churches often feel like they
lack volunteers to make this happen.
They know they wanna do it, but actually people time all of that
kind of stuff. Confidence training, how to
actually do this in this day andage, what's the first right step
(04:40):
and all of that kind of stuff. And so we know that.
We know that as pioneers, we know that this is the context
that we work in and that the that, you know, we want to see
changed. But there is good news.
Don't worry, we're moving on now.
There is good news. And there's a couple of major
things here that we know are true that if you invest in your
(05:03):
kids and youth work, your churchwill grow.
It will grow not just in terms of the children and numbers, but
your church will grow. Adults get impacted, families
get impacted. Your church, the people who are
coming to church, their confidence grows, they develop
their faith. So many things happen as you
(05:23):
invest in children's and youth work, you're wider church is
impacted in a positive way. And that's something we've seen
time and time again and it's really exciting.
It's like, let's not just box off youth work.
Oh, that's just over there. No, if you invest in your youth,
if you invest in children, in your community work, everything
grows, everything develops and it's a really exciting
(05:45):
opportunity that next one, it says church attendance for 18 to
24 year olds is in the rise. And if you're in the main
meeting yesterday you heard Tim say that that's an exciting
thing. If you've seen that report that
has been going, the quiet revival and there's other
reports as well about how young people are starting to come back
to church and go, what is this? And a certain certainly are
(06:07):
spiritually open. If you speak to any young
people, they're often really spiritually open, but they don't
necessarily equate that with church.
And we've got to be the connection.
We've got to be that bridge. We've got actually church is
relevant, Jesus is relevant. Jesus is real.
Jesus is where you want to direct your spirituality at
because they're so ready, they're so open for something,
(06:29):
and we've got to be there to stand in the gap for them.
And so Pioneers is here to help.And we know that your church
does need young people and it will, you know, only benefit
you, even if it is some hard work in the meantime.
And so just to give you a littleidea about pioneers and our
vision as a whole, I said a few years ago, Tim had this vision
(06:53):
for us, but it's one obviously that as eland we've really taken
on and and run with and, you know, own as our own.
And it it is this we've got somenumbers.
It is to start 100 youth ministries in churches that do
not have youth work by 20-30. That's my job.
Come on, guys, pray for me. Let's go.
Come on. So drum roll, please.
(07:15):
This is how many we've done so far.
Come on now. The left hand side's good at
drum rolling. Come on.
Right hand side. Let's go. 34.
OK. Yeah, 34.
We've done 34 so far. Prescott has hoped being the
latest one. We're about to do another in
Lancaster. 35, come on. So and hopefully some of you in
this room are going to be addingto that number.
(07:37):
Yeah, come on. We want to add to that number
and I'm going to show you a little video now of one of those
that we've planted in the last year.
This is from Stains, so Elium stains, Community Church stains,
we were able to, so I'm based inManchester, I do some local
ones, but we also have pioneers workers just about around the
(08:00):
UK. So hopefully we've got one near
you. If we haven't, we're going to
we're going to help make that happen.
But we've sent Daniel Schillingford who works in
around London area and he went to Stains and I worked with that
church, trained up some volunteers, help them start the
youth work and it's still going.And I went to visit them on
Friday. And Pastor Desmond is not here
(08:21):
because he doesn't need to be, but he is around.
So go speak to him. And this is just a bit of a
taster of what Pioneers can be. Last year, Pioneers was able to
work with Kingdom Living Church to help them set up a thriving
youth ministry. Pioneers sent our worker Daniel
(08:42):
here to work with them for six months to train the volunteers
to help them set up the administration of the youth work
and then to launch a weekly thriving youth ministry.
Let's go and find out what Pioneers have meant for them.
(09:05):
Yeah, after COVID, I think a lotof our people moved away and we
didn't with that went to the young people.
And so we're praying the church for more young people to come
in. And as we were praying, I sent
Scott saying that we should reach out to the young people
through that the church God willbring their parents.
(09:26):
And so I reach out to Emma and the Pioneer team, and that's how
we all started. And yes, and Limitedness has
been a great organization to work with because there are
three things that the purpose are #1 on the strategy, they
have a strategy that works. It's worked around the country
and we have tested it and it's working for us #2 the focus is
(09:50):
on as core values, core values that we all agree with and
believe in, and also effects ourdevelopment, both spiritual
development and personal life. So there is a piece about us
that will then translate to the young people both in our
community and in our churches. When I first started, there was
things that I thought I knew. Obviously those things I thought
(10:13):
I knew I was right somewhat, butit helps to get trained a bit
more in terms of like deliveringthe service.
So for instance, not just delivering it to kids, but
delivering it to youth that's inthe community.
I think it's quite different to delivering it to like church
kids. They're kind of implementing God
into their lives but not really saying it explicitly.
(10:34):
So they're still living through God, but kind of helping them
build that journey progressivelyand not just like.
Boom. All of a sudden.
So yeah, I'd say that. And I think it also helped my
confidence in delivering things as well.
So when I first started, I was just like, yeah, there's no way
I can do this. There's no way I can like read
(10:54):
an alpha session, but I think astime went on, I kind of
developed the ability and the confidence to do it, and not
just to do it, but just to do itwell and kind of like engage
them at the same time and make it fun for them.
So I think that's one major aspect of the training that I
just took away. I find it fun because I've made
(11:15):
a bigger social group than just a small bunch of friends and
more than. What it was?
And I've made not only more friends, but my other friends
have also come here now as well.It's built my faith by making me
like want to come, want to come to church more and to learn
(11:35):
about God more. I like the youth group because I
think it's fun and that everyoneis kind to each other and like
you can just be yourself there. For me, I like it because you
can, you have the option to comewith your friends and then you
can get more closer to God. And it's like it has built my
faith more in like believing in Jesus.
(11:59):
And yeah, we learn about God through like FIFA and more.
And it's also help us to create a culture that welcomes young
people and their family because as they run around, you see,
everyone is not used to welcoming.
Then they become part of not just part of the church that we
support, but part of the people who are having to run the
(12:20):
church. And so it's completely
transformed the culture in the church and it's connected us
with the community and the family.
And so it's, it changed me as a person and it's changed our
priorities to we now find out that we are investing a lot more
even financially in the church because in the young people,
(12:41):
because it's become the most productive part of the church.
Actually we we have about about 30 to 40% of our church now is
made-up of young people just in the last one year.
(13:04):
Amazing. I love that.
And honestly, that was only partof what they were raving about.
They just couldn't stop raving about pioneers and just the
impact that it had on their church, not just on that Friday
night, but wider the actual Sundays and everything.
So honestly, just a real encouragement and and so we'll
just go back. Yeah, as I said, this is part of
(13:26):
our problem. You might be one of those.
We've got 230 churches in Elim that are needing that what we've
just had and we want to help that happen.
And so how do we do that? Well, a few different ways,
three different ways basically that we can help you.
Obviously just chatting is always good and always please
(13:46):
just get in touch. You know we're here e-mail and
give us a phone love to chat to you just any questions you've
got. But the basically is three
different options that we can help.
So training is the main 1. So we can train and come and
train your team. So we can do that in two ways.
One is online. So we can do that online or we
(14:09):
can do it over a weekend. And the training itself is 6
weeks course or a crumbs weekendas I said.
So six weeks and we cover youth work strategy.
So for your team, your volunteers who haven't done
youth work before or you know, have got a bit of experience but
need some extra, we've got a youth foot training of how to do
(14:32):
a run, a youth work, how to do outreach, how to share your
faith. So like evangelism, A
discipleship. So, and then we've got a bits of
like safeguarding and stuff likethat.
Although we work with the churchthemselves to do that bigger
piece because we that's really important.
We also cover limitless core values in that what does it mean
to be part of this family that is limitless and elim?
(14:54):
And we actually look at spiritual development for the
for the team because we found actually how important it is to
invest in your team into those adults who are going to continue
it on and improve their Bible knowledge, their prayer life,
you know, give them confidence to pray out loud and all of that
kind of stuff so that they can input that into the young
people. And obviously it's practical.
(15:16):
So we help actually plan that project in that six weeks to six
sessions and an evening. So that can be the online one or
as I said, it is a a weekend ones where we come on a Friday.
If you need to do it, it really,you know, intensive, we can do
it a Friday evening and a Saturday day at your church and
(15:37):
cover that in that way. You also get this beautiful
workbook. We need a oh for this please.
Thank you very much. So that's all covered.
You get given that as well to beable to remember it 'cause it is
a lot of information and as and you know, training matters and
we've really invested in that. And so that's what you cover in
(16:00):
the training. But then the next one is The
Pioneers worker. And this obviously interests
lots of churches because obviously a lot of the problem
is that we can't don't have enough youth workers to actually
come and be a part of your church or you don't have the
finances or whatever it is. And So what we love to do is
invest in church, help you do the youth work.
(16:22):
That's not about this one personperson coming to be the youth
worker and the rest of the church gets on.
It's actually The Pioneers worker comes to invest in your
team and in your church. So the way that it works is we
get a pioneers worker who's within about an hour of where
you your church is, who's been trained as a pioneers worker.
It might be me, might be Ben, might be one of our team.
And they come for a day a week, for six months.
(16:46):
So you get them for six months, a day, a week, the same day
every week. It's flexible depending on what
matches your team. So we have a conversation each
day of the week can match your team, what can match their them
and we do it. So for example, on a Wednesday
evening or whatever. So they'd come Wednesday
afternoon to perhaps do some outreach or certainly do all the
prep and the practical things ofsetting up the youth work in the
(17:08):
afternoon. And then the evening session is
the youth work. And for the first six weeks is
that training. So you get that training as part
of it. You come together for six weeks
as team, do some team building, all that kind of stuff.
And we work towards the launch. So we do out bit of out outreach
and obviously it's different within each context.
We can't tell exactly how we do it because we work with you to
(17:29):
make sure it matches where you are.
So we'll do some outreach and then yeah.
Or helped with the launch and then we help model excellent
youth work. So they come in it as though
they're going to be there for 10years, as though they are your
youth worker. But then very quickly scaffold
and help the team to start doingit themselves.
Lead a bit of a talk or the discussion group or put together
(17:52):
a plan and that kind of stuff. And we also help the back end of
administration and some of your,the fun things are risk
assessments and all of those things that we don't really want
to think about. So we can help with that as
well. And then obviously there's
ongoing support after that. We don't just drop you after the
six months, you part of the family then.
So you get invested in the oxygen conference and obviously
(18:15):
festival and everything else that goes along with that.
What you need to think about andyou need to provide is the 2
main things is people and money and obviously prayer, but
there's people and money. And so we suggest that you have
at least five team members, volunteers who going to say,
yeah, I'm going to be trained who I'm going to come and
invest, say a year. Don't need to give your life
(18:36):
away, but you obviously need some commitment.
Some of you might be kind of king thinking I don't have 5,
that's OK. One way we do suggest is team up
with another church in your area.
Doesn't need to be an elim church.
We've with in Blackpool. We teamed up the local CRV
church to do it all together. That's OK.
Like the more the merrier you know?
(18:57):
Lots of small churches working together going to make one great
thing. That's great and also we can
help. Come and do a talk at your
church and envision the the church to get involved if you do
think that might be a problem for you.
But we found five's a good number.
You know, life happens, people drop out, some weeks you might
not be able to be there, all that kind of stuff.
(19:19):
So less than that. We want it sustainable.
We don't just want to you know, hit and run.
So we want to make sure it lastsfor you and a budget.
So obviously some of these things do cost and then but also
have some money there to invest in your youth work, resources,
buying that equipment, stuff like that.
Again, we can help you do that. For example in Macclesfield
we're able to apply for council funding and we got 2 grand to
(19:42):
set it up. There are ways round it and we
also were able to, you know, geta second hand table tennis table
and stuff like that, you know, so don't be put off by numbers
and God is good and he'll provide for you.
But obviously you've gotta have some funding there as well.
And also your regional, it's great.
Get in touch with your regional coordinator as well for Elim
because they're really great andinvested in this and helping out
(20:05):
as well. You also need to provide fully
your safeguard training and yourfirst aid training, stuff like
that. We cover a bit of it, but it's
so big it needs its own, you know, concentrated look as well.
So that's an aside. So how much and all?
That's kind of fun things. There it is, that's the painful
bit for you. So online training is the six
(20:26):
weeks course. Online has 180 lbs so you get
all the training and all the books and everything for that.
The weekend training is a bit more because we've got a
investment on time and travel. So 240 lbs plus the travel and
the accommodation because it will be a night stay for myself
or the person. And then The Pioneers worker is
(20:47):
£495 a month, so that times up by 6 and you can either pay that
in one go or monthly, whatever suits you.
And we've found we've done that in terms of how much cost of
time that is. It's obviously a really great, a
cheap way of getting a worker for you for a short amount of
time. But the, you know, the idea is
(21:10):
that we want to help you run it.We want it sustainable for you.
So yeah, that's the basics. This is a verse to really stand
behind. You know, I my numbers yesterday
we started with eight at Prescott and then it went to 16.
It's not hundreds, is it? But that's OK.
That's honestly the team that's so good for that team.
(21:31):
That's what that team needs. They need is, you know, 16.
They can cope with that. They can learn and we can grow
from that. You know, it's those 16 young
people that haven't connected into church for that's
incredible. And we want to start those
little ways. So yeah.
So hopefully you can turn into one of these amazing youth
groups that we've connected in one of those 34.
You're going to be 36 off of Lancaster.
(21:54):
So yeah, if you are interested, you can scan that code and just
leave your e-mail for me as well.
But that's that's a little presentation of what we do.
But yeah, we'd love to chat to you.
So Tim and Ben are here as well,wave at the back.
(22:15):
So yeah, you can chat to them aswell.
Ask questions. Has anybody got any questions
you want to ask right now? But we are also going to stay
around for the next 1015 minutesas well as people finish lunch.
But yeah, any thoughts or questions that I haven't covered
for you? Oh, my presentation was all
(22:35):
right then. No, but seriously, yes, please
leave me your e-mail anyway because we just love to get in
touch with you, find out what you're up to, take the leaflet
which has got those three information bits and the finance
and stuff like that. Come to the stand, come and say
hello, have a flick through the workbook as well.
(22:57):
But yeah, thank you so much. Can I pray for us?
Is that all right? I know there's lots of thoughts
and hopes and dreams in this place.
So yeah, Jesus, we want to thankyou.
We want to thank you for the youth across our nation, in our
communities, those that are in our churches, those few that
that come on that Sunday with their family, that that we want
(23:20):
to help connect him more. But but for the wider community
that we want to reach out to, Jesus help us, Father, give us
those Holy Spirit insights of how to connect in, of who to
connect in those young people ofpeace in our communities that
are desperately waiting for you.Jesus, help us to connect with
those. And we just pray specifically
(23:42):
for the people in this room. Father, I pray, Holy Spirit,
would you pour yourself out afresh on us, Father, as they
try and go again, as they try and think through how to do this
again. We pray for wisdom, we pray for
insight, and we pray for financing and provision.
God, we pray for team, for thoseadults, for those team to say,
(24:04):
yeah, do you know what? I'm going to do this.
Let's do this together. Let's run together.
And Father God, would we see newyouth groups and youth
ministries start in this place? Father, off the back of this
week and of what you're doing inUS and through US.
Father, would young people come to know you in Jesus name, Amen.
Amen. Thanks, guys.
(24:24):
Thanks for coming so much. And just to say, guys, just
before you go 22 very quick things.
Firstly, if you're like, oh, I'minterested in that, but how
might that work in my church? Book a meeting with Emma either
over the next day and a half while we're here, Emma's around
to have those conversations. Or like while you're here, book
(24:47):
a Zoom call with Emma. We want to see how we can tailor
this to best help you. So book some time with Emma.
Also, there are three or four ofthe workbooks just kind of going
around. So have a little look at the
workbooks before you go, get a little feel for what that
training is and and that will give you some insight as well.
And as Emma said, we're all around now to chat as well, but
do book a meeting in and we wantto do everything we can to help
(25:08):
help you where you are. Thank you.
Thank you, Emma.
Welcome, thank you so much for being here.
Honestly just been praying for you guys, for you in this room
right now. So thank you for giving your
time. I know this week is full on, so
thank you so much for making thespace.
So my name is Emma. Hopefully you know that by now,
but yeah, I work for Limitless as The Pioneers developer.
(00:22):
I'm based in Manchester but we work regularly in Malvern and
and it is an absolute pleasure to be able to help Elin churches
start youth work where there is no youth work, or at least a
very small contingent there. And I've been doing that for the
last few years and it's just been a real joy being able to
(00:42):
start projects locally for me inBlackpool and Bradford.
As you heard yesterday, I'm in Prescott at the minute, about to
go back tomorrow night to go anddo that.
And prayers for energy. Thanks very much.
So, yeah. And it's great to be able to
work with volunteers, work with the team, see something start
(01:03):
that you know, wasn't there before and see young people
engage in church. And so hopefully that's why
you're here. You're interested to see what
that means for your church, how we can help you do that, either
us ourselves, we can help you, or just to help start something
thinking in your own brain aboutwhat you can do in your own
context. And so explain a little bit
(01:25):
about pioneers and then we're gonna have some time for a
question answer at the end. And as I say, we're trying to
keep it as short as we can for you.
So, yeah, so as I said, Limitless Pioneers, it's all
about starting youth ministries across the UK.
Tim had a vision a while ago of just about, you know, obviously
how important youth work is #1 but also just at how many
(01:48):
churches across the UK don't have youth ministries and
actually need help. You know, it's the thing that we
know we wanna do it, but actually, how do we do that?
How do we get youth work startedin different ways in different
contexts and confidence and training and all of those kinds
of stuff. And so that's why pioneers
(02:09):
started. And, and I'm going to go through
a few like quick things about why.
Why is it that we need youth work?
Why do we need pioneers just to help start you thinking about
that. And then we'll tell you a bit
about actually how we can help you do that.
And so the why I'm sure you in this room know that there is a
(02:31):
need for youth work. We know that young people need
Jesus. There's some facts on the screen
behind me. Just a couple, which Assad.
We know the culture at the minute.
We know what young people are going through.
If you connect with any of them and there's a couple for you.
From since lockdown, one in six children aged 5 to 16 were
(02:51):
identified as having a probable mental health problem in July
2021, which is a huge increase from one in nine in 2017.
That's five children in every classroom.
That's mad, isn't it? And we know the impact of
lockdown, but we also just know the culture at the minute.
It's a it's a hard place for young people to be.
We know they need hope, we know they need direction and we know
(03:14):
they need Jesus. Don't know this next one is is
tragic. Suicide was the leading cause of
death for both males and femalesaged between 11 to 34 in 2022.
That's the last statistic for that.
But we know, you know, young people need Jesus and they need
the church and they need you. Because we know, I'm sure if you
(03:35):
start to connect in with your young people in your area, I'm
sure you can bring to mind some young people that you're like,
yeah, you know, they need Jesus,they need church.
And we, we can be part of that solution as a wider thing as
well. That actually the problem, as
we've said yesterday a little bit, that 38% of all churches in
(03:59):
the UK have No 6 zero to 16 yearolds and 68% have fewer than
five young people. I'm sure some of you are in this
room right now. You've got just a few young
people in your church. In Ealing specific, there are
around 230 churches with no youth work.
That's why I'm here. Come on then, that's maybe why
you're in the room 'cause you wanna see this happen.
(04:20):
We wanna see that change. And we know, and you might be
feeling this, that actually churches often feel like they
lack volunteers to make this happen.
They know they wanna do it, but actually people time all of that
kind of stuff. Confidence training, how to
actually do this in this day andage, what's the first right step
(04:40):
and all of that kind of stuff. And so we know that.
We know that as pioneers, we know that this is the context
that we work in and that the that, you know, we want to see
changed. But there is good news.
Don't worry, we're moving on now.
There is good news. And there's a couple of major
things here that we know are true that if you invest in your
(05:03):
kids and youth work, your churchwill grow.
It will grow not just in terms of the children and numbers, but
your church will grow. Adults get impacted, families
get impacted. Your church, the people who are
coming to church, their confidence grows, they develop
their faith. So many things happen as you
(05:23):
invest in children's and youth work, you're wider church is
impacted in a positive way. And that's something we've seen
time and time again and it's really exciting.
It's like, let's not just box off youth work.
Oh, that's just over there. No, if you invest in your youth,
if you invest in children, in your community work, everything
grows, everything develops and it's a really exciting
(05:45):
opportunity that next one, it says church attendance for 18 to
24 year olds is in the rise. And if you're in the main
meeting yesterday you heard Tim say that that's an exciting
thing. If you've seen that report that
has been going, the quiet revival and there's other
reports as well about how young people are starting to come back
to church and go, what is this? And a certain certainly are
(06:07):
spiritually open. If you speak to any young
people, they're often really spiritually open, but they don't
necessarily equate that with church.
And we've got to be the connection.
We've got to be that bridge. We've got actually church is
relevant, Jesus is relevant. Jesus is real.
Jesus is where you want to direct your spirituality at
because they're so ready, they're so open for something,
(06:29):
and we've got to be there to stand in the gap for them.
And so Pioneers is here to help.And we know that your church
does need young people and it will, you know, only benefit
you, even if it is some hard work in the meantime.
And so just to give you a littleidea about pioneers and our
vision as a whole, I said a few years ago, Tim had this vision
(06:53):
for us, but it's one obviously that as eland we've really taken
on and and run with and, you know, own as our own.
And it it is this we've got somenumbers.
It is to start 100 youth ministries in churches that do
not have youth work by 20-30. That's my job.
Come on, guys, pray for me. Let's go.
Come on. So drum roll, please.
(07:15):
This is how many we've done so far.
Come on now. The left hand side's good at
drum rolling. Come on.
Right hand side. Let's go. 34.
OK. Yeah, 34.
We've done 34 so far. Prescott has hoped being the
latest one. We're about to do another in
Lancaster. 35, come on. So and hopefully some of you in
this room are going to be addingto that number.
(07:37):
Yeah, come on. We want to add to that number
and I'm going to show you a little video now of one of those
that we've planted in the last year.
This is from Stains, so Elium stains, Community Church stains,
we were able to, so I'm based inManchester, I do some local
ones, but we also have pioneers workers just about around the
(08:00):
UK. So hopefully we've got one near
you. If we haven't, we're going to
we're going to help make that happen.
But we've sent Daniel Schillingford who works in
around London area and he went to Stains and I worked with that
church, trained up some volunteers, help them start the
youth work and it's still going.And I went to visit them on
Friday. And Pastor Desmond is not here
(08:21):
because he doesn't need to be, but he is around.
So go speak to him. And this is just a bit of a
taster of what Pioneers can be. Last year, Pioneers was able to
work with Kingdom Living Church to help them set up a thriving
youth ministry. Pioneers sent our worker Daniel
(08:42):
here to work with them for six months to train the volunteers
to help them set up the administration of the youth work
and then to launch a weekly thriving youth ministry.
Let's go and find out what Pioneers have meant for them.
(09:05):
Yeah, after COVID, I think a lotof our people moved away and we
didn't with that went to the young people.
And so we're praying the church for more young people to come
in. And as we were praying, I sent
Scott saying that we should reach out to the young people
through that the church God willbring their parents.
(09:26):
And so I reach out to Emma and the Pioneer team, and that's how
we all started. And yes, and Limitedness has
been a great organization to work with because there are
three things that the purpose are #1 on the strategy, they
have a strategy that works. It's worked around the country
and we have tested it and it's working for us #2 the focus is
(09:50):
on as core values, core values that we all agree with and
believe in, and also effects ourdevelopment, both spiritual
development and personal life. So there is a piece about us
that will then translate to the young people both in our
community and in our churches. When I first started, there was
things that I thought I knew. Obviously those things I thought
(10:13):
I knew I was right somewhat, butit helps to get trained a bit
more in terms of like deliveringthe service.
So for instance, not just delivering it to kids, but
delivering it to youth that's inthe community.
I think it's quite different to delivering it to like church
kids. They're kind of implementing God
into their lives but not really saying it explicitly.
(10:34):
So they're still living through God, but kind of helping them
build that journey progressivelyand not just like.
Boom. All of a sudden.
So yeah, I'd say that. And I think it also helped my
confidence in delivering things as well.
So when I first started, I was just like, yeah, there's no way
I can do this. There's no way I can like read
(10:54):
an alpha session, but I think astime went on, I kind of
developed the ability and the confidence to do it, and not
just to do it, but just to do itwell and kind of like engage
them at the same time and make it fun for them.
So I think that's one major aspect of the training that I
just took away. I find it fun because I've made
(11:15):
a bigger social group than just a small bunch of friends and
more than. What it was?
And I've made not only more friends, but my other friends
have also come here now as well.It's built my faith by making me
like want to come, want to come to church more and to learn
(11:35):
about God more. I like the youth group because I
think it's fun and that everyoneis kind to each other and like
you can just be yourself there. For me, I like it because you
can, you have the option to comewith your friends and then you
can get more closer to God. And it's like it has built my
faith more in like believing in Jesus.
(11:59):
And yeah, we learn about God through like FIFA and more.
And it's also help us to create a culture that welcomes young
people and their family because as they run around, you see,
everyone is not used to welcoming.
Then they become part of not just part of the church that we
support, but part of the people who are having to run the
(12:20):
church. And so it's completely
transformed the culture in the church and it's connected us
with the community and the family.
And so it's, it changed me as a person and it's changed our
priorities to we now find out that we are investing a lot more
even financially in the church because in the young people,
(12:41):
because it's become the most productive part of the church.
Actually we we have about about 30 to 40% of our church now is
made-up of young people just in the last one year.
(13:04):
Amazing. I love that.
And honestly, that was only partof what they were raving about.
They just couldn't stop raving about pioneers and just the
impact that it had on their church, not just on that Friday
night, but wider the actual Sundays and everything.
So honestly, just a real encouragement and and so we'll
just go back. Yeah, as I said, this is part of
(13:26):
our problem. You might be one of those.
We've got 230 churches in Elim that are needing that what we've
just had and we want to help that happen.
And so how do we do that? Well, a few different ways,
three different ways basically that we can help you.
Obviously just chatting is always good and always please
(13:46):
just get in touch. You know we're here e-mail and
give us a phone love to chat to you just any questions you've
got. But the basically is three
different options that we can help.
So training is the main 1. So we can train and come and
train your team. So we can do that in two ways.
One is online. So we can do that online or we
(14:09):
can do it over a weekend. And the training itself is 6
weeks course or a crumbs weekendas I said.
So six weeks and we cover youth work strategy.
So for your team, your volunteers who haven't done
youth work before or you know, have got a bit of experience but
need some extra, we've got a youth foot training of how to do
(14:32):
a run, a youth work, how to do outreach, how to share your
faith. So like evangelism, A
discipleship. So, and then we've got a bits of
like safeguarding and stuff likethat.
Although we work with the churchthemselves to do that bigger
piece because we that's really important.
We also cover limitless core values in that what does it mean
to be part of this family that is limitless and elim?
(14:54):
And we actually look at spiritual development for the
for the team because we found actually how important it is to
invest in your team into those adults who are going to continue
it on and improve their Bible knowledge, their prayer life,
you know, give them confidence to pray out loud and all of that
kind of stuff so that they can input that into the young
people. And obviously it's practical.
(15:16):
So we help actually plan that project in that six weeks to six
sessions and an evening. So that can be the online one or
as I said, it is a a weekend ones where we come on a Friday.
If you need to do it, it really,you know, intensive, we can do
it a Friday evening and a Saturday day at your church and
(15:37):
cover that in that way. You also get this beautiful
workbook. We need a oh for this please.
Thank you very much. So that's all covered.
You get given that as well to beable to remember it 'cause it is
a lot of information and as and you know, training matters and
we've really invested in that. And so that's what you cover in
(16:00):
the training. But then the next one is The
Pioneers worker. And this obviously interests
lots of churches because obviously a lot of the problem
is that we can't don't have enough youth workers to actually
come and be a part of your church or you don't have the
finances or whatever it is. And So what we love to do is
invest in church, help you do the youth work.
(16:22):
That's not about this one personperson coming to be the youth
worker and the rest of the church gets on.
It's actually The Pioneers worker comes to invest in your
team and in your church. So the way that it works is we
get a pioneers worker who's within about an hour of where
you your church is, who's been trained as a pioneers worker.
It might be me, might be Ben, might be one of our team.
And they come for a day a week, for six months.
(16:46):
So you get them for six months, a day, a week, the same day
every week. It's flexible depending on what
matches your team. So we have a conversation each
day of the week can match your team, what can match their them
and we do it. So for example, on a Wednesday
evening or whatever. So they'd come Wednesday
afternoon to perhaps do some outreach or certainly do all the
prep and the practical things ofsetting up the youth work in the
(17:08):
afternoon. And then the evening session is
the youth work. And for the first six weeks is
that training. So you get that training as part
of it. You come together for six weeks
as team, do some team building, all that kind of stuff.
And we work towards the launch. So we do out bit of out outreach
and obviously it's different within each context.
We can't tell exactly how we do it because we work with you to
(17:29):
make sure it matches where you are.
So we'll do some outreach and then yeah.
Or helped with the launch and then we help model excellent
youth work. So they come in it as though
they're going to be there for 10years, as though they are your
youth worker. But then very quickly scaffold
and help the team to start doingit themselves.
Lead a bit of a talk or the discussion group or put together
(17:52):
a plan and that kind of stuff. And we also help the back end of
administration and some of your,the fun things are risk
assessments and all of those things that we don't really want
to think about. So we can help with that as
well. And then obviously there's
ongoing support after that. We don't just drop you after the
six months, you part of the family then.
So you get invested in the oxygen conference and obviously
(18:15):
festival and everything else that goes along with that.
What you need to think about andyou need to provide is the 2
main things is people and money and obviously prayer, but
there's people and money. And so we suggest that you have
at least five team members, volunteers who going to say,
yeah, I'm going to be trained who I'm going to come and
invest, say a year. Don't need to give your life
(18:36):
away, but you obviously need some commitment.
Some of you might be kind of king thinking I don't have 5,
that's OK. One way we do suggest is team up
with another church in your area.
Doesn't need to be an elim church.
We've with in Blackpool. We teamed up the local CRV
church to do it all together. That's OK.
Like the more the merrier you know?
(18:57):
Lots of small churches working together going to make one great
thing. That's great and also we can
help. Come and do a talk at your
church and envision the the church to get involved if you do
think that might be a problem for you.
But we found five's a good number.
You know, life happens, people drop out, some weeks you might
not be able to be there, all that kind of stuff.
(19:19):
So less than that. We want it sustainable.
We don't just want to you know, hit and run.
So we want to make sure it lastsfor you and a budget.
So obviously some of these things do cost and then but also
have some money there to invest in your youth work, resources,
buying that equipment, stuff like that.
Again, we can help you do that. For example in Macclesfield
we're able to apply for council funding and we got 2 grand to
(19:42):
set it up. There are ways round it and we
also were able to, you know, geta second hand table tennis table
and stuff like that, you know, so don't be put off by numbers
and God is good and he'll provide for you.
But obviously you've gotta have some funding there as well.
And also your regional, it's great.
Get in touch with your regional coordinator as well for Elim
because they're really great andinvested in this and helping out
(20:05):
as well. You also need to provide fully
your safeguard training and yourfirst aid training, stuff like
that. We cover a bit of it, but it's
so big it needs its own, you know, concentrated look as well.
So that's an aside. So how much and all?
That's kind of fun things. There it is, that's the painful
bit for you. So online training is the six
(20:26):
weeks course. Online has 180 lbs so you get
all the training and all the books and everything for that.
The weekend training is a bit more because we've got a
investment on time and travel. So 240 lbs plus the travel and
the accommodation because it will be a night stay for myself
or the person. And then The Pioneers worker is
(20:47):
£495 a month, so that times up by 6 and you can either pay that
in one go or monthly, whatever suits you.
And we've found we've done that in terms of how much cost of
time that is. It's obviously a really great, a
cheap way of getting a worker for you for a short amount of
time. But the, you know, the idea is
(21:10):
that we want to help you run it.We want it sustainable for you.
So yeah, that's the basics. This is a verse to really stand
behind. You know, I my numbers yesterday
we started with eight at Prescott and then it went to 16.
It's not hundreds, is it? But that's OK.
That's honestly the team that's so good for that team.
(21:31):
That's what that team needs. They need is, you know, 16.
They can cope with that. They can learn and we can grow
from that. You know, it's those 16 young
people that haven't connected into church for that's
incredible. And we want to start those
little ways. So yeah.
So hopefully you can turn into one of these amazing youth
groups that we've connected in one of those 34.
You're going to be 36 off of Lancaster.
(21:54):
So yeah, if you are interested, you can scan that code and just
leave your e-mail for me as well.
But that's that's a little presentation of what we do.
But yeah, we'd love to chat to you.
So Tim and Ben are here as well,wave at the back.
(22:15):
So yeah, you can chat to them aswell.
Ask questions. Has anybody got any questions
you want to ask right now? But we are also going to stay
around for the next 1015 minutesas well as people finish lunch.
But yeah, any thoughts or questions that I haven't covered
for you? Oh, my presentation was all
(22:35):
right then. No, but seriously, yes, please
leave me your e-mail anyway because we just love to get in
touch with you, find out what you're up to, take the leaflet
which has got those three information bits and the finance
and stuff like that. Come to the stand, come and say
hello, have a flick through the workbook as well.
(22:57):
But yeah, thank you so much. Can I pray for us?
Is that all right? I know there's lots of thoughts
and hopes and dreams in this place.
So yeah, Jesus, we want to thankyou.
We want to thank you for the youth across our nation, in our
communities, those that are in our churches, those few that
that come on that Sunday with their family, that that we want
(23:20):
to help connect him more. But but for the wider community
that we want to reach out to, Jesus help us, Father, give us
those Holy Spirit insights of how to connect in, of who to
connect in those young people ofpeace in our communities that
are desperately waiting for you.Jesus, help us to connect with
those. And we just pray specifically
(23:42):
for the people in this room. Father, I pray, Holy Spirit,
would you pour yourself out afresh on us, Father, as they
try and go again, as they try and think through how to do this
again. We pray for wisdom, we pray for
insight, and we pray for financing and provision.
God, we pray for team, for thoseadults, for those team to say,
(24:04):
yeah, do you know what? I'm going to do this.
Let's do this together. Let's run together.
And Father God, would we see newyouth groups and youth
ministries start in this place? Father, off the back of this
week and of what you're doing inUS and through US.
Father, would young people come to know you in Jesus name, Amen.
Amen. Thanks, guys.
(24:24):
Thanks for coming so much. And just to say, guys, just
before you go 22 very quick things.
Firstly, if you're like, oh, I'minterested in that, but how
might that work in my church? Book a meeting with Emma either
over the next day and a half while we're here, Emma's around
to have those conversations. Or like while you're here, book
(24:47):
a Zoom call with Emma. We want to see how we can tailor
this to best help you. So book some time with Emma.
Also, there are three or four ofthe workbooks just kind of going
around. So have a little look at the
workbooks before you go, get a little feel for what that
training is and and that will give you some insight as well.
And as Emma said, we're all around now to chat as well, but
do book a meeting in and we wantto do everything we can to help
(25:08):
help you where you are. Thank you.
Thank you, Emma.
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