About IDEAS

About IDEAS

Family Friendly Churches

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	Why IDEAS The Family Friendly Churches Trust is very much aware that leading worship when children are present can be very difficult for worship leaders and preachers. This is true whether a service is nominated as “All Age”, “Parade” or “Family”, or is a service when children are present for part of the time. Too often churches end up either having a children’s service, where the adults feel left out, or conversely an adult’s service where the children are completely ignored. Over the years Mike has built up quite a lot of expertise in leading this kind of worship and particularly holding this delicate balance. In addition, Ann, his wife is a musician and writer with 17 novels published in her pen name (Ann Barker). Together they have now produced over a year's worth of material and are pleased with the result. They have drawn a host of positive comments from members and these appear further down this page.
	IDEAS Weekly Resources Each and every week we provide a host of ideas and resources for worship linked to the lectionary. Although we do provide material for worship when children are present there are plenty of "grown up" resources too. We provide notes for talks based on these readings, some prayer ideas and suggestions for songs – and particularly children’s songs. We now want to provide all the song words in PowerPoint format which can be very easily inserted into your own PowerPoint presentations or used in other projection software. If the words of a suggested song or hymn are not provided then it is because the copyright holder has not given consent for it to be used by IDEAS. The hymns and songs are supplied in versions that match a range of 9 different hymnbooks so that you can be sure that the words on the screen match the word in the books. We also provide video files of some of the songs and hymns as a video with the words and music to help churches that struggle to find musicians. This is particularly true of children's songs as we know that many traditional musicians struggle to play children's songs well and we animate some to add extra interest. We now offer a few songs with full live action video backgrounds as well as the words and music. There are also PowerPoint slides to support the bible readings, the talk and suggested prayers. We also provide every week a music reflection video to lead into worship. We believe that the time before a service is important and our videos are designed to help a congregation prepare to meet with and worship God. Note that in all of this the ideas and resources is not simply aimed at children and young people. Adults will also be catered for. This means that even if there are no children in your church there will be things there for you, too. Access to IDEAS Weekly Resources costs just £7 for the current calender months, £18 for a quarter and £60 for a year.
	The IDEAS Collection We have been made aware of the value of our huge collection of PowerPoint hymns and songs. It is our intention to make much of this available through the IDEAS Collection. It is our plan to bring together the hymns and songs that we offer through IDEAS to form a massive on-line collection that you can just tap into whenever you need to use a hymn. At the moment we are working through our collection updating the PowerPoint Slides and making them available to our IDEAS members. In addition all current IDEAS members will be able to influence our choice by suggesting hymns and songs for the IDEAS Collection. Each week we will make the most nominated suggestions available (subject to gaining copyright consent) and in this way we aim to build the most flexible and useful collection of hymns and songs ever produced. IDEAS Weekly Resources members will have access to the Collection for the months they have purchased and are able to nominate songs. However access to IDEAS Collection can be purchased for £25 for each year's worth of hymns and songs. However we are offering access to the first 2 years (July 2010 to June 2012) for just £25.
	Archive of Resources All IDEAS material remains online indefinitely and members continue to have access to all the material they have purchased. It is possible to gain access to any month's material in our Archive of Resources for just £5
	Index of Resources We maintain a massive index of all the bible readings, hymns, songs and video that we provide. This is useful for members who do not feel tied to the lectionary. This is a very cost effective way of working as you can purchase access to 6 months worth of archived material for just £15.
	A Free Month's Trial We are so confident that you will find our resources useful that we are prepared to offer a month's free trial to anyone who hasn't signed up to IDEAS before.
	Contributor's sign up We are always on the look out for quality resources, so if you have resources to offer us, then let us know and we pay a royalty if we do use them.
	Comments We have had a host of positive comments from our members, here are just a few. "An end of year big "Thank You" for all the resources you've provided for us, and we look forward to your efforts in 2011. We used the Annie Lennox video and music yesterday which was very well received." "I would also like to congratulate you and thank you for the brilliant resources you are sharing through FFCT. I have found them great to use and also some of your ideas have stimulated my tired old grey cells to think afresh and that is also brilliant. So thank you very much for all that you give and long may it continue." "Can I thank you both for your ministry through FFCT to me and an increasing number I hope. God Bless you for the many hours you must spend being creative and for some excellent resources that have been well received. I look forward to journeying with you throughout 2011." "I’d like you to know how much we value the resources of Family Friendly Church. We use them quite regularly in worship and many appreciate them." "Thank you so much for a Band of Angels. Our congregation loved it. At last I think all of them are beginning to see the benefit of the IT system. All gone home singing!" "Thank you for all these wonderful resources. I am using these in my services, picking out what I want to use. The video reflections are wonderful." "Really enjoying the material and working out how to use it in worship." "I like your resources very much - and feel I can dip in and out, according to where I am in the Circuit, whether we are using the Lectionary etc. How good the technologists are. It has a recognisable Methodist feel to it."

Latest News

Next Sunday for IDEAS
is February 5th, (Ordinary 5) - the theme is "Supported by His Strength" looking at the bigness of God and waiting upon Him

Resources now available: February 12th, Ordinary 6
February 19th, Lent -1
February 26th, Lent 1

Sign-up for January's and February's resources.

You can now sign up for all the July to December 2011 resources for just £15

There are now over 500 hymns and songs in the IDEAS Collection - a user driven and convenient collection of ready to project hymns and songs.

All earlier resources are available in our Archive and Comprehensive Index

February's Offer
The Worship Leaders Course for just £25