Children’s Ministry Conference Eastbourne

Hand in Hand – an excellent title for a conference on children’s and family ministry, as it’s all about partnership with churches, supportive organisations like S.U. and Barnabas, the children’s and family workers and the children and families themselves. We had a great time over the weekend, meeting so many friends old and new. I was worried that no-one would come to the Messy Church seminar as everyone knows about it already, but about a hundred people came and very few fell asleep.
And Jane had gloomily predicted that there would be nobody at 9.15 on a Sunday morning to hear about faith at home, but she was wrong by about seventy warm bodies. It was so good to meet so many enthusiasts, with people bubbling over with what Messy Church is doing to bring people closed to God in their patch.
The Saturday evening’s entertainment was a series of happy near-disasters – by the time the first two acts had substituted a rubber chicken for one of the patriarchs and nearly annihilated a poor chap who met his match in a pink balloon, we were ready for anything to happen. Such a generous audience: I still don’t know why asking a nice straightforward warm-up question like, ”So, have you had anything to eat tonight?” should have been met with side-splitting hoots of laughter, but laugh they did.
The conference runs around the same time each year so make a date now and bring your team along for a fantastic weekend.