“How do we teach young people about the Christian faith if we are not able to be in schools?” This is the question that we at crossteach have had to face. In normal times, we go into schools to teach young people about the character and promises of God, so they can develop spiritually through understanding, engaging with and responding to the Christian faith.
Most young people are now being taught at home. Schools are providing resources and online activities. Parents are often trying to supplement this with additional activities and resources. For Christian parents, they are also faced with the reality that any church-run groups are also not meeting in their usual way.
It seems clear to us at crossteach that the biggest need schools and parents have is access to good quality resources they can use to teach young people. So we have redirected our focus and energy to make some of our resources available in digital format so that our partner schools, churches and supporters can use them.
This includes a mix of lesson plans, worksheets, videos, digital presentations and much more, enabling young people to learn about the Christian faith, even if it is not in a face-to-face setting with crossteach staff. Our circumstances have changed, but the need for our work has not; we remain convinced this is the mission God still has for us.
Our materials have been well received by teachers and others who are having to make significant adjustments and find suitable resources at short notice. A Warwickshire-based teacher of RE and philosophy, said, “Thank you for the fabulous resources.” A youth worker based in West Sussex said, “Thank you so much for sharing these with us. It’s a massive help and blessing in these days.”
Resources for you
It is now clear that the impact of coronavirus on schools is going to last for months, probably well into the autumn term. So we are also making our resources more widely available. We are working hard to add more resources to our online library that offer something for a variety of ages and are created with a degree of flexibility so they can be adapted for individual circumstances.
The resources are being used by schools, by parents at home and by churches within services or children’s / youth groups. As a member of the Evangelical Alliance, we want to offer our support to you by giving you access these resources.
Two taster resources
More resources
If you would like to access our other resources, you can either email us at admin@crossteach.com, or you can use our sign-up form to be added to the mailing list to receive information about our resources.
Helping young people pray for their school communities
We always encourage Christians to pray for their local communities, including school communities. Every year we participate in Pray for Schools Fortnight (10−24 May) as a time to give particular focus to praying for our local schools.
It seems now is a time for even more prayer, so we have started a new Instagram series, ‘prayforschool’, aimed at teenager (but can be used by people of all ages) to encourage and equip them to pray for their school community. As well as a short Bible passage and a suggested prayer, we also include an idea for something they could do to be a blessing to their community.
Remember crossteach in your prayers
We would be grateful if you could think of crossteach and make time to pray for us and our work. We continue to trust in God and His faithfulness, and we are already excited about our return to schools and all that God will do in us and through us.
