Beyond the Children's Corner: Creating a Culture of Welcome for All Ages

Beyond the Children's Corner is a practical handbook to help churches become more welcoming to children and families in worship. It encourages PCCs and ministry teams to reflect on the spiritual needs of children, the pastoral needs of families, and how to remove barriers and manage change effectively. Based on multiple training sessions and extensive casework, informed by research by the Church of England’s Life Events team and the Methodist Church, it explores: • The changing needs of modern families; • What tells you it’s time for change; • 'Quick wins’ to make the worship space more welcoming and spiritually imaginative; • Engaging children in spiritually nourishing worship; • Children and contemplative worship – what to do about noise; • Building and sustaining relationships with families and children. Many books on All-Age Worship focus the service itself. Beyond the Children's Corner explores how children and adults can be truly integrated as the church community, covering parents’ perspectives, the church building and the challenge of change as well as what happens in worship.

Margaret Pritchard Houston is Children's Mission Enabler Adviser for the Diocese of St Alban's and was previously Children's and Families Worker in the Diocese of London. She lectures widely on the topic of this book and is involved in the training of licensed lay ministers and curates.