Digging deep to solve youth church problem

Starting them young is the key to Guernsey Elim’s future, says Matt Gregor. He spoke to Chris Rolfe about a new venture…

- Matt Gregor

With twelve years under his belt as youth pastor in Cardiff, Matt Gregor was used to working in a large city centre church with a wealth of resources and facilities.

So his move to lead Vazon Elim Church on the west coast of Guernsey in 2016 was something of a culture shock.

The 100-year-old church, one of the first to join Elim and with a congregation of around 90 adults, had just one hall to serve the 100 under-14s who attended its clubs and classes each week.

“Cardiff has a great culture for children’s and youth ministry and lots of facilities, so I knew I needed to improve things very quickly after arriving here,” says Matt, who is married to Hannah and has four children. I was concerned about the whole children’s ministry being in one room.”

Passionate about youth and children’s work, Matt was eager to improve the church’s limited facilities to retain and attract families.

And taking part in Elim’s Church Leadership Academy, he says, spurred him into action.

“I knew our Sunday morning children’s programme needed better facilities if we were to go to the next level in terms of seeing children and young people discipled.