Responding moment by moment

Abi Cooling was a surprise, last-minute addition to the cohort of students working towards an undergraduate certificate with a youthwork focus. It was God’s perfect timing, she explains.

HH: Thank you, Abi, for agreeing to be interviewed. Can I ask, what kinds of ministry or church work have you been involved in?

AC: Since September 2024, I’ve been doing a volunteer gap year with St Mary’s Bletchley (a self-described ‘Anglican-ish’ church in Milton Keynes that I’ve been connected with for many years) training for children’s and youth work. I’m only 18 (not that much older than some of those I work with), so have a lot to learn; and I am very grateful to be part of a church that is so passionate about reaching out to the community it’s in.

As part of this gap year, I’ve done a mixture of ministry areas:

• discipleship – leading a youth Alpha course, running Bible study sessions, taking a group of young people to the welcome service for the new Bishop of Buckingham, leading kids’ church;
• outreach – helping at the drop-in youth group, kids’ club, a parent and toddler group;
• and seasonal events – the Light Party, school Christmas services, making pancakes with community families on Shrove Tuesday, Easter school assemblies.

At many of these community events, you’ll usually find me at a craft table showing people how to make things – I’m a very creative person and love to share my skills with others.

Although I work across groups that range from very church-based to groups with little to no church experience, I naturally seem to gravitate towards those without church backgrounds and to the edges of church.

How have you ended up on the course and in ministry?

It’s been a rollercoaster ride of God’s perfect timing. 

I really didn’t expect to be doing this gap year, but early last year I sensed a call to get more involved in youth and children’s ministry and develop my leadership skills.

At the same time, I was finishing college and intending to progress onto an apprenticeship in September 2024, so I didn’t see how I could balance church ministry and work/study with my hectic schedule.

However, my apprenticeship offer fell through unexpectedly at short notice, and despite applying for several other places I simply couldn’t find a job.

Over the summer of 2024 I was offered the opportunity by my church to spend a year working with them across several of their children’s and youth ministries and completing some training alongside – this absolutely fitted with my calling and I had simply no reason to say no!

Getting onto this course also required God to move some obstacles – I had very little experience of youth and children’s work; there wasn’t much funding available from my church for the training; and my application was very last-minute. But an applicant to the Pioneer Youth Ministry course dropped out at short notice, leaving an empty funded place which I was able to take.

God’s plans for me are so much bigger than my own, and God has taken me to so many places that I never thought I would go in my faith journey. (In 2023 I didn’t think I would even be a member of this church, but that’s a whole other story…) I can’t wait to see where God will take me next!

Is the course helping you? If so, how and what has been most interesting to you?

Doing the Certificate in Theology, Ministry and Mission with a Pioneer Youth Ministry focus has broadened my horizons and shown me that there are many other people around the country who share my passion to do things differently and reach those who would never walk into a Sunday morning service. Both the study and the practical has been a very steep learning curve for me, since literally everything is new!

The most interesting thing was the residential visit to Lodge Road Community Church in a working-class area of Birmingham, where we got the opportunity to explore the community, see the impact the church is having, visit a local gurdwara, and be part of their service and community meal afterwards.

The level of love and welcome (to our group and to those in the community who would often be excluded, such as LGBTQIA+ people and adults with learning disabilities) was amazing. I left there planning how I can try to include more of that unconditional welcome in the groups I help run.

The assignments have been extremely useful, since they’re very context-focused and allowed me to reflect on how I can apply my learning to my work. 

Could you provide any examples of where study has helped make sense of church or mission for you?

It’s helped me to realise that I don’t need to worry about getting the young people who go to the Bible study groups to come to church, since those groups are already church in their own right; made me re-examine my previous negative views of mission and evangelism; taught me about how to engage and involve young people in youth ministry; and given me more skills in caring pastorally for the young people I work with (I wasn’t even aware that what I do is pastoral care before I started that module).

It’s given me the language to describe my passions and goals – at the beginning of the course I wasn’t sure if I fitted into the category of a pioneer, but now I realise that my desires to push the boundaries of the established church, do things differently, and do ministry with the growing number of young people who don’t go to church is pioneering.

Is there anything else you think is important right now?

Something that has been very important for me during this year is paying attention and being adaptable.

There is literally no script or map to follow when working with such a wide range of people from 0 to 18 years old, situations change so quickly and within a session I play so many different roles.

Add that to the fact that youth and children’s work has changed so much over the past few years – with smartphones, Covid, social media and other things – and it means that much of the older guidance and books about this work are no longer relevant.

I simply have to be aware of what is going on, what God is doing in a situation, and change what I am doing to respond moment-by-moment.

What’s next in your pioneer journey?

I’m currently preparing for a short-term mission trip [at time of interview, the trip took place in May] with others from my church to Manila, Philippines, to spend 10 days volunteering with Streetlight, a charity my church supports that works with street children. I haven’t even been on a plane before, let alone go halfway around the world, so this is totally new for me!

Another thing on the horizon is an ambition to break the silence in my church around being LGBTQIA+. It simply isn’t talked about, there is no official position on the debate, and as far as I am aware there is no one in the congregation who is out and proud, which really isn’t helping some of the LGBTQIA+ youth as they question their identity and figure out their lives and faith.

I’ve already run some Bible study sessions with the youth group on this topic, but I want to get the whole church to notice and be involved. Just getting people aware of this via running something like an LLF course is something I would love to do.

As for what happens after my gap year, who knows! I definitely want to keep volunteering and getting involved in children’s and youth ministry, but I don’t know what role I’ll be doing or in what capacity.

How can we pray for you?

• Pray that God gives me guidance for what to do after this gap year.
• Pray that the mission trip would be fruitful for everyone involved.
• Pray that I get more confidence in myself – I have a bad stutter, often feel like I need to prove myself to others, and doubt my ability to make change.
• Finally, pray that everyone who comes to the community events, Alpha, Messy Church, the drop-in youth group, the youth week away in the summer, and the kids’ club would encounter something of God and want to find out more.

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