Escaping the spidery vestry

Local author, Eleanor Zuercher’s passion for lively and relevant children’s ministry has transformed the experience of ‘churchgoing’ for youngsters in her local rural area. Now she has written a book to pass on her ideas to other small churches. Here she talks to Sally Jarman.

Visit the rural village of Tingewick in the West Buckingham Benefice on a Saturday afternoon and you will find enthused Acorns and Saplings at play, under the equally enthusiastic guidance of Eleanor Zuercher.

Acorns and Saplings are, in fact, children’s church groups for 3-12 year olds. And at a time when many churches are struggling to attract and keep children, they are thriving.

The secret of success, Eleanor says, has been timing, and an emphasis on fun. Whether it’s puppet shows, triathalons or ‘feely-boxes’ there are two main messages that she aims to teach her young charges - that God loves them, and that church can be both relevant and enjoyable for them.

It is also, quite evidently, down to Eleanor’s own drive to bring God into children’s lives. The former company secretary with a firm of city solicitors (now training to be a primary school teacher), devotes hours each week to the Saturday sessions and the planning for them. I asked her how it all began.

She recalls: ‘We moved to Tingewick in 1998 after my second son, Bertie, was born. By that time I had become a regular churchgoer again after a gap during my university years. But although I enjoyed the services I really felt there should be something more to engage the children.

‘With the help of our vicar we tried various models of Sunday School-type worship. But often it was just me and my two boys sitting in a spidery vestry. I just thought I’d rather sit at home in comfort!

Looking around for alternatives Eleanor wondered if a successful children’s Good Friday workshop, already established in the village, could be built upon.

Encouraged by the vicar to have a go she says: ‘I had a think about it and talked to God and, though he didn’t give me a direct answer, I had this tremendous rush of ideas.’

Along with tremendous energy it has proved to be a winning combination.
Prior to Acorns and Saplings she tried half-hour sessions each Saturday.
‘But it was too often and too short and it just disintegrated,’ she says: ‘We had a re-think and decided that it had to be longer, so that parents saw it as a time they could get on with other things, and just regular enough to have some continuity without taking up every Saturday. Families have so many weekend commitments.’

They settled on once a month each for the Acorns (3-8-year-olds) and Saplings (8-12-years) and invited children from the whole benefice. The response has been huge, and not just from churchgoing families.

Eleanor is delighted: ‘The invitation to come along is treated a bit like a party invitation. People feel pleased to have been asked and put it in their diaries. They feel wanted, and that they belong.’

Another driving force for Eleanor is the importance of engaging children at this age before they become disillusioned with church in the traditional sense. Eleanor believes, as statistics show that children who leave the church at 12 these days have, by and large, already made up their mind to do so at seven. But it is not just the fact that families can plan it into their diaries that has helped. In a move away from lectionary-based, tailored material for children, Eleanor has felt inspired to make up her own style of activities specially for each age group, with puppets, storytelling and Godly Play, among others. All are geared to encourage discussion on the theme of the day.

Does such a commitment, alongside family and work responsibilities, leave Eleanor time to nurture her own faith?

‘Not always,’ she says; ‘ but children [my own and in the groups] are often an inspiration. They regularly amaze me with what they say and with their understanding and ideas. They’re wonderful.’

Her teaching studies at Oxford Brookes university also give her ‘sanctuary’ time to recharge and pray in the chapel there before lectures begin.

She hopes, too, that when she begins work at a C of E school in September, she will be able to bring elements of her church work to school life.

‘Being a faith school there is the feeling that there is a place for God in daily life and I hope to be able to contribute to that.

‘I’ve already used Godly Play in some of my teaching practice sessions and it has gone down really well.’

When she begins teaching she hopes still to continue with Acorns and Saplings, and is pleased that following the success of the younger groups, someone has now set up a group for older children in the village, ensuring God’s continued presence in their lives.
And as if that wasn’t busy enough, she has found time to write a book sharing her model and ideas for children’s ministry in small churches, titled ‘Not Sunday Not School!’

Her work is described in the  foreword by Dr Jill Hopkinson (national rural officer for the Church of England) as ‘inspiring and exciting’.

Something that the children of the West Buckingham Benefice would most definitely agree with.

‘Not Sunday Not School! Through-the-year children’s programmes for small churches’ is published by BRF. It offers suggestions for 11 themed sessions of two hours and a five-day holiday club, with guidance for each stage.
Priced £9.99, it is available from Christian bookshops and BRF.