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Two Years On & Still the Early Bird Catches ...

By Victor Howlett.

It's almost 9.00am on Sunday Morning and at first it seems that nothing is stirring in the Wiltshire market town of Corsham. But round in Church Square parents with young children and toddlers are arriving - they have got up early and if you ask them why it's because of the Early Bird Service!

The problem

Just over a year ago we were concerned that we were missing out with a whole age range of young children and their parents at our services. Families with children aged seven years upwards were coming, but below that the attendance was sparse and erratic. Coupled with this we did not seem to be making any lasting contacts with families that brought their children for Baptism. We did have a 'mums and toddlers' group that met on a Thursday afternoon but that was all.

Developing a strategy

We were convinced that the children and parents were out there, but how could we attract them to actually come to church and enjoy it? We took soundings from mums at the toddlers group and asked round at various events. It did seem that there was an interest, however slight, and if we could get it right it could work!

By now we decided that something fairly radical had to be done and the major problem was 'when?' Already we had two established Sunday morning services - 8.00am Holy Communion and 10.00am Holy Communion or Morning Prayer. Attendance at these was good and what we didn't want to do was to upset those arrangements and alienate a proportion of our congregation just to attract another group. That did not seem either sensible or sensitive. "Well, there is a slot at 9.00am when the church is not used" - that thought kept running through my mind. Could we do it? Could it work that early in the day? More soundings - some reservations, but after much thought and prayer too we decided to go for it. And looking back now it seems to me that part of the success of this strategy was to add to the church's programme rather than try and adapt or amend what we already had.

We needed a name that would indicate what we were about and so the "Early Bird Service" was born, capitalising on the fact that it was early on Sunday mornings and also that it was worth getting up for. Most parents had told us that children were often well awake on Sunday mornings - it was the parents who lay in bed!

Would anyone come, and if they did, would they come every week or just once a month? In the end we plumped for once a month and on reflection that seems to have been the correct choice. And as for the timing, 9.00am was when the church was available (we did not have a suitable church hall), but then there is choir practice at 9.30 and people start arriving for the 10.00am service.

Some more lateral thinking was required. Let's do it for 25 minutes! Church services were always geared around an hour - but we were trying to be innovative. Would people come for just a short time? The questions were innumerable. ...

Programme Content

What then were we trying to do in this service? We had to be clear so as to channel our efforts in the right direction. The objectives were simple:

1. to provide an accessible service for parents and young children who wouldn't normally come to church or when they did found it out of their depth, boring or not child-friendly.
2. to teach simple Bible truths in a relevant way.

One basic premise was agreed and that was that each service was built round a Bible story. That gave us the focus we needed. In fact, what we did was to plan, in faith, six months' programme at a time so there was some progression and cohesion between each service.

Actually twenty-five minutes is a long time when you are trying to be always relevant to young children without being patronising, and fairly fast moving so that they do not get bored, with lots of participation.

So our programme always started with our Early Bird song and one or two other songs from our own multi-coloured song book that we have devised. Often songs we found were too long so many have been abridged and simplified. The Bible story is always by way of a drama - usually home written and then we add some prayers - basically that's it, BUT we found, by accident, how to improve participation. I think it was the second Early Bird Service that we ran out of what we had prepared too early. So, admittedly to fill in, we decided to have the drama again, but with anyone who wanted to join in. It went like a dream and ever since we always do the Bible story drama twice, once to watch and then anyone who wants to can come and join in the second time later on in the service. It sounds chaotic. It is, and we have 10 Zacchaeus's or whatever, but the involvement of the children has been a delight.

Publicity Strategy

It was no good just aiming at church folk because that is where we had the lack of numbers of families with young children. So how could we get the Early Bird Service on the town map and make people aware of it? First, we circulated all the parents of children we had baptised in the last three years - a personal letter from the clergy plus some colourful invitation cards. Second, posters in as many shops and playgroups in Corsham that we could persuade to take them. In fact, this has continued. We issue a different coloured poster every month about a week before the service and it is exciting to see these appear all over town.

That first morning!

Would it work? Would any one come? Would my idea fall flat on its face? I remember at 8.50am on the first Sunday - our team (four people) were there and no one else. We waited. Then the sound of children coming up the church path gave us hope and by 9.00am we had over sixty parents and children in church. It was an answer to much prayer! And what was amazing is that over 70% were not regular church folk at all. Since then we have gradually grown. Admittedly not everyone comes every month, but that is the nature of churchgoing today. We have topped over 100 on two occasions so far - the average is usually about 85. We have been amazed and surprised ourselves at the response - perhaps we shouldn't.

On-going growth in faith

While I have always resisted the idea that the Early Bird Service is a bait to get folk to come into other 'mainstream' services - they see through that straight away - it has gradually and gently happened. We have also had unsolicited enquiries from Early Bird attenders for confirmation, baptism and so on. That has been so encouraging to see God at work in people's lives in this way.

Looking back and forwards!

Now we have just celebrated our second birthday of the Early Bird Service. Yes, lessons have been learnt, for example, to not be afraid to think differently and radically. What's more important is, as one church member commented in arriving for the next service and seeing a stream of children coming out of church with their parents, "I've never seen such happy faces - they really seemed to have enjoyed coming to church". Praise God for that!

Now through our initiative other similar Early Bird Services have started in other churches in the Diocese - perhaps not quite exactly the same, but similar in content and objectives. For myself I have just moved on to three new parishes - and maybe, just maybe that might be a fertile ground for such a strategy towards parents and young children there - we'll have to see!

Victor Howlett is now Vicar of Wick, Doynton & Dyrham, Bristol.