Schools Ministry, Billericay

Did you know that approximately one million shiny new pupils join our education system every year?
Did you also know that only 4% of this country’s young people will cross the threshold of a church more than once in their entire lives?
How about this one? - 97% of all young people acquire all they are ever going to know about God from school*, whether that information is actually true or not.
And finally, the amount of money spent on R.E. resources in our schools per child, per year is less than the cost of a Mars bar.
Staggering statistics aren’t they?

Over twelve years ago, at a party, I was introduced to a woman called Shirley Gowland. After discovering we both had a passion to reach young people for the Lord she asked if I’d be willing to co-ordinate prayer cover for a series of lunchtime clubs she was planning to run in our local primary schools. These clubs were to be called ‘Y2K?’ and gave young people the opportunity to investigate what the millennium was all about and why we had it in the first place. It was July 1998. A prayer group was formed, willing volunteers from local churches stepped forward and by the year 2000 ‘Y2K?’ clubs had been running successfully for over a year.

When we had first met, Shirley had also mentioned that the CU at one of the senior schools in our town needed an extra adult to assist in running it. She asked if I thought I might be that person. My youngest son was just about to start school that September and I felt this was a God-given opportunity to serve my community. I thought, ‘I’m only assisting. How hard can it be?’ And it wasn’t hard, it was an absolute joy. Pretty soon I wasn’t just assisting. By the grace of God I was helping to lead.

I discovered that, back in 1992, Shirley had been working for ‘Help the Aged’. One of her responsibilities had been to deliver occasional assemblies to Essex primary schools highlighting the work of the charity. She was appalled at the poor Bible resources she found in most of the schools she visited and determined to do something about it. Her first priority was to seek out like-minded people from her church to form a prayer-support group. These stalwart prayer warriors began raising funds to provide quality bibles for their local schools. When these were donated Shirley would offer to come in to take an assembly or deliver a follow-up lesson or two using the new children’s bibles. This was the beginning of School’s Ministry Billericay or SMB.
Through ‘Churches Together in Billericay’ local churches in the town decided they would like to support this fledgling ministry. Every financial year, each church contributed to a central fund to enable SMB to continue its work. It has continued through nearly two decades.

During that time Shirley has developed a training course for anyone who has a heart to serve their local schools through school’s ministry and would like to know the practicalities of doing so. This is called, ‘Serving Our Schools’ or ‘S.O.S’. This has also lead to the development of an educational resource, called ‘Bible in Literacy’** which has been sponsored by The Bible Society, and can be gifted by churches to their local schools. This creates a bridge between the two communities and greatly enhances the school’s delivery of their R.E. syllabus.

Through SMB God reaches thousands of school children in and around our town across all four keystages. Through assemblies, lessons and lunchtime clubs they hear that there is a God who loves them as they are, a God Who has a purpose for their lives.
This may seem strange in an age where political correctness seems to be silencing our Christian voice, yet why should we be surprised that a God for Whom nothing is impossible wants to reach a world of young people with His love. It is He who makes a way for us and gives us favour with the people.

There is such brokenness and low self-esteem among young people in the world today, due to factors such as disintegrating families, enormous pressure to achieve academically, the ‘image is everything’ mindset and an increasing focus on materialism. Our young people need to know they are loved and valued and there is no better way for them to know that than to know Jesus. And that happens through us. They rarely come to us. We need to go to them.

Now I’m not suggesting that SMB has the definitive answer to successful school’s ministry but it is a model that works. Obviously the main reason for this is God’s grace and the deep foundation of prayer that underpins everything SMB do but I also believe the model itself has a major part to play in this. It’s the continuity of contact across the whole of our young people’s academic lives that is the key.
Fun interactive assemblies, lessons and lunchtime clubs are delivered regularly to all primary age groups across fourteen schools. This means that by the time the young people reach senior school they have come to associate the Bible, Jesus and those connected with them in a wholly positive way and we have established relationships with them.

The lessons include Bible in Literacy** and Bible Explorer***with ‘transition’ lessons for year 6 using ‘It’s Your Move’ books from Scripture Union. Lunch time clubs use predominately ‘ALF’ material from Arise Ministries. Very often, as year 6 children move up to year 7 and senior school, SMB workers are the only familiar adult faces they see in their new schools. The two senior schools invite us in to cover lessons as diverse as ‘Why Christians celebrate Easter’ to lessons on ‘The Supernatural’, giving many opportunities for personal testimony and Q and A sessions.

We have had many young people come along to ‘New Gen’ lunchtime groups at senior school because they have had Bible in Literacy and Bible Explorer lessons, or come to ALF clubs in their primary schools. The majority of these young people do not come from Christian families yet discover the reality of a relationship with Jesus through their regular contact with Christians in their schools. This is their ‘Church’.
Being able to deliver Bible-based lessons and assemblies in schools does not allow us to preach to the young people but, using the ‘life-filled’ material we have, we don’t need to.

I once heard well known author and speaker, Jill Briscoe, say, ‘..we just need to throw out as much ‘seed’ as we can and let God do the rest’. At a conservative estimate seed has been thrown out to well over 100,000 young lives through the years of SMB’s existence and this has happened quietly in one average sized town in Essex. Imagine what that could look like nationwide?
In Billericay, SMB can’t actually cope with the demand for their services as they don’t have enough volunteers. Many people think they don’t have the abilities needed to be involved in school’s ministry. If you can pray you can be involved in school’s ministry. Very often, the only ability God requires us to have is availability. He multiplies incredibly whatever we place in His hands.

The National Curriculum requires that all faiths are taught in schools today. How great would it be if the awesome truths of the Christian faith could be delivered in our schools by Bible-believing Christians who love Jesus, using sound material respected by the education community? With God, all things are possible. Could He be calling you to serve your local school? The harvest is ready, People, but the workers are few. Your local school needs YOU!

*According to ‘The Biblos Project’, a three year study conducted by Exeter University in
association with The Bible Society.
** ‘Bible in Literacy’ at www.bibleinliteracy.org

 *** ‘Bible Explorer’ at www.Bible.org.uk