Growing Youth and Families Work
On Sunday 12th January we launched a new growth initiative for 2025 at St Kea and ChristChurch. This initiative is one of our PCC’s main targets for 2025 and aims to capitalise on our currently growing Youth Work. Over the course of the next year, our ambition is to develop the size of our youth team, grow the scale of our youth groups and serve many more young people. To lead this growth initiative we are asking the church families at St Kea and Christ Church to consider pledging to increasing their regular giving to fund the appointment of a full time dedicated Youth and Families Worker.
This page gives you more information about why we think this is so important and how you can pledge to make it possible.
A Critical Age
Research has consistently shown that in the UK over 75% of people who will come to follow Jesus at some point in their lives do so before the age of 21. It is a critical age. Across our churches we are, of course, committed to ministry to all-ages, but we also know that it is vital for children and young people to hear the good news of Jesus in these formative years.
St Kea’s History
St Kea has been at the forefront of church based youth work in Cornwall for decades. It is a heritage that we praise God for. We are one of the few churches in Cornwall that has constantly championed youth work and invested in it, sometimes at real cost. We have employed youth workers in the past and, more recently, have benefited from the ministry of Steve Murray and Hugh Barne. Currently, over 20 adults are part of our volunteer team leading our different groups and activities. As we grow our work across Trinity, the PCC believe it is now right to grow this team and once again add a dedicated Youth Worker post.
Desperate Need
Across the whole of the Diocese of Truro, less than ten churches are able to run weekly groups for Young People. Amazingly, God has blessed us such that at the moment we run five different Youth Groups just in our church plus our Sunday Morning youth provision. Some of the groups are large (like Tuesday Night Youth) whilst some our much smaller than we would wish. We want to see the size and scale of all our groups grow in 2025, we know there is much more for us to do.
A Vast Harvest Field
There are currently over 57 thousand young people (aged 10-19) living in Cornwall. 4000 of these young people attend secondary schools in Truro, with an additional 5000 studying at Truro College. Very few will have the opportunity to hear the gospel from someone who loves them. We are privileged to have young people in our churches who attend the main secondary schools in Truro, including in the sixth form years at Truro College. Our task is to equip our young people to live for Jesus amongst their friends and to provide activities they can invite their friends to come along to. We need to help them grow as young, bold, resilient disciples of Jesus.
How Much Will It Cost
To be able to fund a Youth and Families Worker we would need to raise more than 20 thousand pounds each year, every year. Those funds would then be combined with the money we currently spend to fund our part time Youth Worker, making one full time role. To achieve this, everyone who currently gives to our work would need to increasing their giving by £20-30 a month. We know not everyone can do that, some can given more, others less. Of course we would need to raise much more to be able to keep our part time Youth Worker role as well.
Timetable
The PCC developed these plans in Summer 2024, following recommendations from the Youth Leadership Team. This autumn, the PCC committed to the appeal that we are now launching. The appeal for pledges closes on Sunday the 2nd February. If we have reached our target, we will then be able to advertise straight away, with the hope that the new worker will be in post for the start of the next academic year in September. We will only ask for people to actually honour their pledge once the appointment has been made. At this stage we are just asking for pledges.
Watch the video
The reality is that the need for growing our work amongst families and young people in Cornwall is vital. To find out more, watch this video recorded for the launch of this pledge appeal.
Pray and then Pledge
We believe this is the right next step for the growth of the life of our church. We also believe that if this is the right time for this step, God will provide the funds. We depend on God for everything we do. So please pray now. Consider if you can pledge to give generously and sacrificially towards this work. Then click on the link below and make your pledge. The pledge appeal closes on Sunday 2nd February and after that we will report back on whether we are able to take this step.
The information you share on the Pledge Form will only be seen by a couple of people involved in gathering the pledges and will not be made public. By completing this form you are giving permission for St Kea Church to hold this information about you for the purposes described above. This data will be held in compliance with our data handling and GDPR policies.