This is an
Open Invitation.
If you're a church leader who wants to reach children and young people, but doesn't quite know where to start or has tried and found it hard, this page is for you.
Growing Younger Together exists to share what we've built at St John's Upper Norwood, and to walk alongside other churches as they build it too. Not as a consultancy. Not as a franchise. As partners. You don't need an existing children's programme, a large congregation, or a youth worker on staff. You don't need a church school or a children's choir, St John's had neither when we started.
What you do need is a genuine desire to grow younger, a team of willing volunteers, and a congregation that's ready to welcome new families. If that sounds like your church, we'd love to talk.
How it works
Growing Younger Together is a structured partnership, built around a programme of growth that has been developed and tested at St John's over several years. It's not a quick fix. But it is a proven one.
Before we begin, we help you put the right foundations in place: your ChurchSuite database, your communications, your volunteer team, and a realistic picture of your current children's and youth offering. That groundwork matters. It's what makes the launch stick.
Here's what the journey looks like:
Step 1Step 2Start with a conversation. No commitment, no forms, no pressure. Just a chance for us to hear about your church and for you to hear more about what we do.
Get in touch
Explore together
We'll visit your church, get to know your context, and help you understand which programmes are the right fit and when to launch them.
Step 4Step 3As your programmes take root, we stay alongside you, helping you build the team, develop the next programme in the pathway, and navigate the inevitable challenges along the way. The goal is a connected journey from PlayTime! all the way through to Youth Church, with every age group supported.
Launch your first programme
Grow together
With full training, resources, and hands-on support from the Growing Younger Together team, you'll launch your first programme, usually PlayTime!, which is designed as the natural starting point. PlayTime! has grown to capacity within 12 months at every church where it has been launched.
This model has worked before, in a very different church.
Before Growing Younger Together was launched at St John's, the programme was developed and piloted by Mthr Rachael Gledhill at St Barnabas, Dulwich, a middle-of-the-road Anglican church with five church schools and a strong choral tradition. PlayTime! and Messy Church quickly grew to capacity. Forty children, primarily from non-churched families, were prepared for First Communion. The Sunday congregation surpassed its pre-pandemic numbers within two years.
St John's had no church school and no children's choir. St Barnabas had both. The model worked in both contexts. That's exactly the point.
What you get as a partner church.
Partnering with Growing Younger Together means you're never on your own. Here's what we bring to the table:
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Practical, in-person training days delivered by the St John's team. We share not just the what, but the how, including the lessons learned the hard way.
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We come to you. Before launch, during launch, and as you grow. We want to know your context, your congregation, and your community.
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Everything you need to run PlayTime!, PlayTime! Disciples, Discover Communion!, Pentecost Camp, and more, developed, refined, and ready to use.
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Help with branding, social media, and guidance on how to reach families in your local area, including publicity templates and a strategy for getting the word out.
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A direct line to the Growing Younger Together team throughout your partnership, by phone, email, and regular check-ins.
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We know budgets are tight, especially in smaller parishes and areas of deprivation. We work with you to explore what grant funding and financial support is available.
What we ask of you.
Partnership works both ways. To make this work, we ask that partner churches come in with real commitment, from the vicar, the PCC, and the wider congregation.
That means being ready to welcome new families who may never have set foot in a church before. It means giving Growing Younger Together the priority it needs to grow, and sticking with the structure and curriculum we've developed together.
It also means being prepared for a bit of mess. New families come with noise and energy. Sessions take over the nave. Children do what children do. At St John's, 85% of the children now coming through our doors had no previous church connection. Many arrived not knowing what a church was for. That's not a problem to manage, it's the whole point.
Want to know more about what the partnership involves?
Frequently Asked Questions
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Growing Younger Together is rooted in the Sacramental tradition of the Church of England. We currently partner primarily with Anglican churches, but we're open to conversations with other traditions, get in touch, and we can talk through whether it's a good fit.
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There's no minimum size. What matters more is having a team of people willing to help and a congregation that's ready to welcome new faces.
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You'll need a usable indoor space, ideally with a kitchen and toilets on site. It doesn't need to be grand. It needs to be welcoming.
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There's no flat fee for partnership. We work with each church individually on what resources they'll need and what funding support might be available. Get in touch and we'll talk it through honestly.
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That's one of the most common things we hear. The honest answer is that Growing Younger Together is built around sustainability from the start, training your team, building your congregation's ownership, and creating programmes that don't depend on one person to hold them together. It's not a programme you run. It's a culture you build.
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At St John's, PlayTime! grew to capacity within twelve months of launching. At St Barnabas, Dulwich, a similar pattern emerged. That said, every church context is different, and we're honest about the fact that this is a long-term commitment, not a quick fix.
The first step is just a conversation.
No commitment. No lengthy application. Just a chance to talk about your church, your context, and whether Growing Younger Together might be the right fit.