The Church

Cheadle is a large village in the county of Cheshire, just to the south of Manchester, in the northwest of England. We are part of the Church of England, in the Diocese of Chester.We are committed to praising and serving God as well as helping people to get to know Jesus better through studying the Bible together. Our church meets in the beautiful and ancient building of St. Mary's right at the centre of the village. However, the church offices are in the Upper Room complex across the road, which also houses a community café, function and seminar rooms as well as a sports hall. 

Website: http://www.cheadle.org.uk

Services

St. Mary’s has three services a week, and an additional 8:00AM service once a month. Our average weekly attendance across the services is 350+, which includes around 100 children and young people.

The weekly services are:

The 9:30 Service The 11:15 Service The 18:30 Service

We also have a Café Church Service, which takes place on a Tuesday evening once a month.

The Children

There are many weekly groups for Children at Cheadle St. Mary’s, as we believe our commitment to reaching out to our community with the good news of Jesus is important for every age! Some of these groups are focused on discipleship, and some are outreach groups focusing on evangelism.

Our Children’s groups include:1. Crèche2. Mustard Seed3. Bright Start4. Noah’s Ark (monthly)5. Starters and Followers6. Adventurers7. Discoverers8. Dynamos

9. Dangerous Boys 10. Adventurous Girls11. Primary Saints

Creche (pre-school)Our Sunday creche is run by a dedicated team of volunteers and parents who explore different ways of sharing God’s love with the children. We take discipleship of all ages seriously, and this extends to our creche – it is not a babysitting service but the first oppurtunity these very young children have to experience the love of God within the Church.

Mustard Seed (pre-school)Mustard Seed is a mid-week community pre-school mothers and toddlers’ group which attracts upwards of 50 families regularly. It’s a great oppurtunity for us to serve the local community and have fun together while providing oppurtunities to introduce people to the gospel and Church life.

BrightStart (pre-school)BrightStart is a mid-week teaching creche for children of any mothers who attend our weekly women’s bible study, with crafts and songs every week in order to engage the children with the teachings of Jesus.

Noah’s Ark (pre-school)Noah's Ark is 'praise and play' for pre-school children with their parents and carers.  It meets on the second-Friday-of-the-month from 10.30-11.30am in the church building and includes craft, puppets, prayers, bible story, singing and refreshments.  We aim to provide a warm, age-appropriate welcome to children, and their families, and to teach them faithfully from the Bible.

Starters & Followers (KS1)Starters and Followers meets every Sunday during term time in the 9.30 am service. We play together first and then sing, learn memory verses, do an activity and then share a Bible Story together. Afterwards we reinforce the story by making some craft together. Our aim is to build the foundations of faith in a fun age appropriate way and show the children in our care God's love.

Adventurers (KS2)A KS2 group that meets on Sundays during the morning service, Adventurers aims to grow children in faith and challenge their thinking about the Bible Studies they often know well but don’t really understand. We introduce prayer in an active way, encourage them to grow in relationship with Jesus, have fun, play games and show them what it means to love Jesus!

Discoverers (KS2)

A Sunday morning group for school years 5 and 6, currently with around 10 children. We look at the Bible each week, encourage the children to think about the Christian faith for themselves instead of relying on their parent’s faith. The children are encouraged to invite their friends along as well.

Dynamos (KS1 average: 5; KS2 average: 10-14)Dynamos is our primary aged outreach club, particularly aimed at the local Cheadle Primary School (but not exclusively) meeting on Tuesday’s between 3.30 & 5pm. Each key stage group meets fortnightly to be able to focus the teaching and activities appropriately. The sessions include songs, games, stories, crafts, teaching and refreshments. The group is run by Mark Tomlinson.

Dangerous Boys / Adventurous Girls Bible Study (Boys average: 4; Girls average: 0 at present) These ‘no frills’ Bible study groups for KS2 children are all about getting stuck in to God’s word, learning how to handle the Bible and acquiring a deeper understanding. They are more discipleship based but with evangelistic features. The group meets on Monday’s fortnightly, from 4.30 to 5.30pm. The group runs on the Dynamos KS1 week. The groups are overseen by Mark, who runs the boy’s group.

Primary Saints Sports Club (average: 5)This KS2 sports club runs fortnightly on the opposite week to Dangerous Boys / Adventurous girls and on the same week as KS2 Dynamos. It is a sports club aimed at having fun but also teaching good technique in sports in general, within a church context. Although not one of the Bible-based clubs it is trying to set good foundations for participating in the sporting arena. The group is run by Mark.

The Youth

We regularly see 70+ youth members a week across our youth groups. There are several youth groups at Cheadle St. Mary’s:

1. The Forge2. Rooted3. Focus (and Focus Small Groups)4. Juice Puppets

The Forge (average: 45)The Forge is a Friday night outreach group for ages 10-14. We regularly get around 45 members each week, although the group is growing. The Forge includes activities in the Sports Hall, table-tennis, Xbox One and other games consoles, a tuck shop, board games, and music. Each week a leader will answer a question from the Question Box which the members have asked in previous weeks, and the leader will answer them biblically and relevantly.

Rooted (average: 15)Rooted is our 11-14 discipleship group which meets just before the 6:30 Evening Service on a Sunday. After an activity and an opening talk, we split off into small groups to study and discuss a Bible passage, before closing in a time of shared prayer. Afterwards, we eat together, before going over to the Evening Service.

Focus (average: 17)Focus is our 14-18 group (primarily discipleship-focused), which meets on Sunday evenings, just after the 6:30 Evening Service. Table-tennis, an activity in the Sports Hall, music and hanging out is followed by a talk from a leader on either the Bible or Christian living.Focus also has midweek small groups, which are held at one of the leader’s houses. These are bible studies and prayer times, and are a brilliant oppurtunity to deepen relationships with the Focus members, as well as help them apply the Bible to their lives and situations.

Juice PuppetsJuice Puppets is a puppeteering group run by Mark Tomlinson - and almost all of the puppeteers are youth members! This gives them a great oppurtunity to serve in a fun context, and their presentations are almost all at evangelistic events, in church or the community.

The Schools WorkMarkMark has brilliant relationships with two of the local Primary Schools, Lady Barn House School and Cheadle Primary. In Cheadle Primary, Mark co-ordinates regular weekly assemblies for the staff team and delivers a third of them. He also teaches some RE lessons and occasional sports lessons. He has been a school governor for more than 18 years there and is part of the senior leadership of the school. In Lady Barn House School, Mark annually delivers over 100 lessons between January and July, to years 2 to 6, 4 assemblies on Christmas and 3 assemblies on Easter to KS2. Considering the changing climate in schools throughout the country, this is an amazing blessing with huge opportunities to share the gospel.

LukeLuke has recently forged strong connections with the Secondary School in our Parish (Kingsway) has taken assemblies, organised and helped run a day-long drama workshop, as well as organising a rock band to go in and lead sessions for hundreds of students. Luke and the current Children and Youth Ministry Trainee have recently started ‘Kingsway CU’, a time for prayer and support before school once a week.

Luke is also a main leader of the Connect Schools groups, which meet in both Cheadle Hulme High School and Kingsway. Connect are lunchtime groups teaching of Christianity, and there are hopes to begin working with the local College, Cheadle College, in the future.

Take a look

Take a look at our Youth Facebook page here: facebook.com/cheadlestmarysyouth

North West Partnership Theological Training Course

As part of the Children and Youth Ministry Training Programme at Cheadle St. Mary’s, we commit to investing in you. We believe in helping you to be as effective as you can be in your ministry, and we believe that the North West Partnership Theological Training Course will give you a strong theological foundation, a good support network of gospel workers across the region, and training in how to write and deliver talks.

For more information on the North West Partnership Training Course, see their website: http://northwestpartnership.com/training/ministry-training-course/its-purpose