The Good Childhood

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The Good Childhood
my church
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A child-shaped childhood
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My Church postcards

• Three questions
• What do you think makes a good church for you?
• What could be changed to make your church better
  for you?
• What difference (if any) does church make to your
  life?
• 500 postcards received and analysed so far

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Ages
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My Church postcards
Unknown (10)
Male (35)
Female (55)
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What do you think makes a good church for you?
My Church postcards

• Friendly people who are kind A good service A
  nice decoritive church Hymns and songs Bible
  readings Nice vicer

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The findings

• Relationships with people
• Religious and spiritual aspects
• Creative activities
• Other activities
• Environment

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Relationships with people

• Friendliness
• Kindness and support
• Inclusive of different ages
• Groups
• I think a good church is when all the church acts
  like a 1 big famly!
• One that includes everyone. One that is a
  community not just a place

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Religious and spiritual aspects

• Services and Sunday school
• I like to sing and do Sunday school
• Connection with Jesus and God
• Prayer / worship
• Learning
• helps me to learn about God and how to act in
  life

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Creative activities

• Music
• Art
• The importance of sharing these
• well we get to go in and have a good time and
  display our work on the wall because we did it at
  the Church
• we sing songs in front of lots of people from the
  village

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Other activities

• Fun
• time in church for playing!
• I like Wayfinders. I like playing games
• Going out
• Meeting new poeple. Going out every other Sunday

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Environment

• Facilities and space
• there is space to play around the church
• Seating
• Visual aspects
• flowers, displays, seats at the front for
  children

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2. What could be changed to make your church
better for you?
My Church postcards
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Nothing

• Nothing, I like my church just the way that it is
  (Female,16)
• I think this church Im at has nothing wrong with
  it in my opinin (Unknown gender and age)

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Inclusive activities

• More involvment for children such as activites.
  Not just small children, for example 13-18
  (Female, 13)
• more drama, dance and music, updated (Female,12)
• It is a little boring to sit there for 1 hour, so
  I think that it must be changed so that children
  can be involved (Female,12)
• Make family service (Male, 9)

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Inclusive environments

• There could be a room for children to draw and
  read if it was raining outside(Female, 9)
• It would be better if we had a childrens corner
  with word serches on religous things, and things
  like that(Male, 10)
• It would be good if we had smaller chars for the
  smaller children in church(Male, 8)

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More children and young people

• More children being encouraged to come to clubs
  and services(Male, 12)
• I think it would be better if there were more
  children to make other children comfortable in
  the church (Female,10)
• More children.. Get more people to fill those
  empty seats(Male, 9)

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3. What difference (if any) does church make to
your life?
My Church postcards

• Helps me be a better person
• Learn about Jesus and God
• I feel more a part of a community
• Makes me like myself and feel part of Gods
  family

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Impact key themes

• Social networks and support
• Spirituality Social networks and support
• Values
• Learning
• Overall well-being

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Social networks

• its made me part of a different group of people
  and helped me meet people (Female, 15)
• making friends with all ages (Male,3)
• Somewhere we can go is were upset or in
  trouble(Male, 10)
• Gives me somewhere I belong and feel safe to be
  me, nobody judges you(Female, 15)

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Spirituality

• It has made me belive in god more (Female, 15)
• It makes me feel closer to God when I pray to
  him. I also feel closer to Jesus (Female,12)
• it helps me to get through every day knowing
  Jesus is with me (Female,11)

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Values

• Church makes me think more about Jesus and how he
  would like us to live (Female,11)
• It helps me become a good person. Being around
  nice people that can act as someone you look up
  to can be very benefitial(Male, 13)
• how to act (Female,12)

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Learning

• It makes you think and helps you know more which
  will help you at school (Female, 10)
• gets me a A in RE (Male,14)

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Overall well-being

• I am a happier, friendlier person (Female, ?)
• It makes me happier and more confident(Male, 12)

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The Good Childhood