From Tom Wharin, Wotton-under-Edge Baptist Church
We run 9 x Year 7 RE lessons on ‘Who Is Jesus?’
The school had seemed closed to church involvement for a number of years before my arrival here. God opened the door in the following way:
1. We prayed about it a lot at our regular prayer meetings in 2010-2011.
2. We got in contact with a Christian teacher at the school, who pointed out the need for litter picking. In spring 2012 we did a ‘love litter picking’ week (photo attached) with a few students from WBC and other churches, which gave me the opportunity to meet one of the Senior Management Team
3. Some of those students set up a student led CU. Which was gobsmackingly successful in its first year – sometimes with 70 students (about ½ unbelievers) crammed into a room & led on to a small youth Alpha at WBC, endless school conversations about faith and one Baptism here.
4. I was invited in to get involved with the CU regularly & was introduced by the aforementioned Christian teacher to the head of RE.
5. I offered the support of the Wotton clergy in delivering their syllabus & got asked to come and speak to the year 7 classes about Jesus for the first time in autumn 2012.
6. Now a yearly fixture. The kids are studying what people believe about Jesus and I go as a specimen, do a talk not dissimilar to the ‘who is Jesus?’ session of Alpha and they ask questions about what I believe about Jesus and why I believe it.