How can we safely invite others into our groups?
Session 2.3 · Note 5
Inviting Others into Your Group Safely
Often our groups are quite contained, with just a few leaders or helpers whom people get to know well. When you invite other people from church into your group, you can widen parents’ and carer’s experience of church and build relationships that might help them feel and become part of the wider church community. It’s also a great opportunity for families to get to hear others’ experiences of God.
Key Ideas
- You need to do this in a safe way, so do consult your church’s safeguarding officer to make sure you’re doing it well.
- Make sure the person you invite in has a natural role so they feel comfortable being there e.g.a bird watcher to help your Wild Church learn about birds / an artist to help with Christmas decorations / a knitter to teach basic knitting skills / a musician to help with singing time.
- You can also invite people in with a relevant story to tell. For example, if your Bubble Church’s theme is God hears us, invite someone with a story about a time they cried out to God and he turned up. Or if you are inviting toddler parents and carers to think about if they’d like their baby to be baptised you could invite in someone who brought their baby for baptism and what that was like.
- Think about key people you’d like your parents and carers to meet and encourage them to come along from time to time. For example your vicar or curate may be a good option so if families turn up at Easter, things feel a bit more familiar.
- Whoever you invite, build in time for chat so relationships can start to grow.
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