Resources for youth ministry

Youth Discipleship Groups Training

Whether you’ve been involved in youth ministry for years or if you’re just starting out with youth ministry, we have some new training available to help specifically with leading discipleship groups. Read more.  Our adaptable framework seeks to support both churches with a handful of young people and those with larger groups.

New in role?

If you’re new to youth ministry, contact the Diocesan Mission Enabler for Youth, Alastair (details below) for a friendly introduction to all the support you can access through his office. 

You can also read more about the role of a youth leader and see if the First Timer Scheme could be helpful.

Helping young people explore faith

Youth Catalyst is our new programme that puts the needs and wants of young people at the centre. We’ll be building a team, working with schools, putting on big events for everyone and creating smaller groups for those young people who want to explore faith further.
From 2023 to the end of 2024 we will:

• Work with three Church of England secondary schools and one state secondary school to create spaces for young people in schools to explore faith by placing missional youth ministers in each of these schools
• Equip and empower four church-based apprentice youth leaders and four existing youth ministers
• Build a team to facilitate high-quality youth worship gatherings across the diocese
• Train volunteer youth leaders in small group discipleship
• Prepare for the launch of our one-year internships for young people who want to explore a sense of vocation.

This first phase will test and refine how it all works, to be expanded in a second phase that will run until 2031.
 
We’ve worked closely with lots of youth leaders across the diocese as we’ve developed this programme. If you’d like to know more and host training for your team, or if you would be interested in hosting a worship gathering in your church contact Alastair Etheridge. 

Diocesan Young Leaders Forum

The Guildford Diocesan Young Leaders Forum aims to seek out the voice of young people on key issues that impact the life of the church. The group meets once a term. 

In the Autumn and Spring Terms we meet on a Saturday morning in a different parish within the diocese, and in the summer term we gather for afternoon tea at Willow Grange with Bishop Andrew.

Up to four young leaders aged from 10-18 from any one church are welcome to join each meeting alongside an adult from their church, (usually a vicar, curate, or youth leader). 

We meet for food, worship, leadership training and to discuss key issues that impacts the church and young people. Each meeting offers the chance for young people to shape key aspects of diocesan life.

If any of your young people is interested in being a part of the Forum, Alastair would be delighted to hear from you (details below).

Links

Confirmation

If any of your young people are thinking about getting confirmed, praise God! They’ll be prepared by your parish clergy for the service, but initially, you might like to direct them to the Church of England website, which has a useful FAQ.

Sports ministry

The Church of England’s Sport and Wellbeing Project highlights the value of sport in making connections with young people. The project is hosted by Sportily in Gloucestershire, which offers support to Churches for starting up sports ministry. 

The Diocese of Guildford is one of the pilot dioceses for this exciting work – read more about the support that’s available and who to contact if you’re interested in starting up a missional sports-based youth group.

Stay in touch

Follow the Diocese of Guildford’s Youth ministry Facebook page for regular news and updates.

Contact