Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. 1Timothy 4: 12
We in Seapatrick love working with young people not to get anything out of it, or to fill our pews. No - we love working with young people because we love young people.
In serving we choose to put their needs before ours, and in doing so we strive to exhibit the characteristics of Christ so that through meaningful contact and intentional face to face work they choose to follow the God we know and love
All too often youth work is seen as something to be done to young people, or it is seen as a vehicle for conveying a message of change and transformation, however youth work in Seapatrick Parish is done a little differently - we see our role as being servants of Christ, and in serving we choose to serve those who very often are seen as 'problems to be fixed'.
In serving we choose to put their needs before ours, and in doing so we strive to exhibit the characteristics of Christ so that through meaningful contact and intentional face to face work they choose to follow the God we know and love.
It is this fundamental foundation of choice which we believe in most - that young people are people in their own right, with their own issues, hopes and fears - and by respecting that basic premise, we trust in the work of the Holy Spirit to honour our motivations and integrity by working in the lives of those we come across.
Please check out our work with young people:
We believe in safeguarding the welfare of all children and young people
The Church of Ireland has a Child Protection Policy which we in Seapatrick endorse in all our youth work. We ensure all our leaders are Access NI checked, Child Protection Trained and are aware of leadership responsibilities before they volunteer with us or engage with any face to face work.
The policy document which we work to can be found on the Church of Ireland website. We could produce it here, but it is so big that it would take ages to download (It's over 7mb in size). The document can be found using the link below.
Click here for the Safeguarding Trust document on Child Protection from the Church of Ireland (opens in a new window - Seapatrick Parish is not responsible for the content of external websites)
Should you have any question on this policy or wish to speak to the youth pastor about this, please contact Martin at the church office.