Pray each day
Each month, you’re invited to pray for church and all that is happening with our monthly Prayer Calendar. You can view and download the calendar below as a PDF.
Bible School with Rachel Riddall
This month Rachel spoke on the interaction of Jesus with Women in John’s Gospel
Preacher's Workshop Resources
Here are the audio recordings of the Preaching workshop run as part of the Woodlands Church Academy.
Creativity and the Kingdom
Bible School this month looked at what the Bible story says about Creativity. Meg Nurcombe, who is currently studying for a PhD in Theology and Art, is our speaker
Session Two of Autumn Bible School - Philippians
Dan Viner and Jack Johnson take us through the second part of Philippians chapter 1 and the amazing Christ poem at the beginning of chapter 2
Autumn Bible School - Intro to Philippians
Here is the first session of our Autumn Bible School on the book of Philippians.
Woodlands Bible School - The Kingdom of God
Here’s a whistle stop tour of what the Bible has to say about one of Jesus’ main obsessions - The Kingdom of God
Summer Bible School - Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs
We take a good look at Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs in our final session of Woodlands Summer Bible School.
Reading the Book of Proverbs Well - Summer Bible School with Dan Viner and Tim Dobson
This week we looked at the Book of Proverbs, understanding a bit about the structure, content, life application and how we see Jesus here.
Book of Psalms with Tim Dobson and Megan Nurcombe
This week we looked at the Book of Psalms. Who wrote these poems, how should we read them and how can we find Jesus in amongst some great psalms of worship, intercession and lament?
The Book of Job with Dr Philip Thomas
Our first session of Summer Bible School looked at the book of Job. Dan Viner hosted the evening and we were joined by Dr Philip Thomas who took us through the book at the start of our Wisdom Literature series.
Woodlands Bible School - Jude
Anna Anderson tells us how to read the book of Jude well
Spring Bible School - starts 22nd April
Here at Woodlands we love the Bible. It is an inspiring, supernatural book, but at times hard to understand. Woodlands Bible School helps you to grapple with different books of the Bible and themes within it. This spring we are going to take four evenings to take a deep dive into the book of Genesis.
Join us from Tuesday 22nd April at 7.30pm in the Foyer at Woodlands Central. All welcome
Vacancy for Early Years Lead
The Woodlands Church Family (WCF) is a vibrant, growing family of churches with eight sites located across the city of Bristol and a vision to plant more. As we’ve grown, so too has our team, and we have an exciting opportunity for someone to join our Children's team as our Early Years Lead with a focus on children aged 0-4 years at Woodlands Central.
As Woodlands Church Family we aim to disciple children and families to be connected, confident and equipped.
1. Connected
We aim to help children and families to connect with Jesus, with one another in friendships, in relationships with the church community and with a sense of belonging.
2. Confident
We aim to help disciple children to be confident in their knowledge of who God is, to have a sense of their own identity in Christ and therefore confident enough to ask questions, explore faith and be curious.
3. Equipped
We aim to equip and support parents as they disciple their children with the help of the Holy Spirit. We aim to equip children with tools to help them to pray, read the bible and experience the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. We want to equip them to own their own faith in Jesus, to obey Jesus and to be empowered ministers to the world around them.
About the Role
This position is a leadership role to oversee and grow how we disciple our early years generation at Woodlands Central. This involves leading, shaping and delivering our discipleship programme for early years. This includes overseeing our Sunday and midweek ministry programmes, as well as events and outreach initiatives throughout the year.
The discipleship strategy will be delivered through a large team of volunteers who you will need to recruit, train and support. You will be responsible for communicating vision to the volunteer teams and wider church. You will also be involved with the wider children’s ministry, with an investment in the whole ministry to all our children.
Candidates should be highly motivated, enthusiastic, able to take initiative, work well in a team and be passionate to see children grow in their faith.
Requirements: This role requires a commitment to be a follower of Jesus and a member of Woodlands Central.
To find out more about this role, download the following documents:
Terms
This is a permanent position contracted at a minimum of 2.5 days per week with a requirement to work on Sunday mornings.
The salary band for this role is £26,000 - £28,000 pro rata, depending on experience. The annual holiday entitlement is 25 days pro rata plus 8 days bank holiday pro rata.
The role will be based at Woodlands Central in Clifton, Bristol.
The post is subject to satisfactory references.
We have a legal responsibility to ensure that all our employees have the legal right to live and work in the UK. Therefore, please only apply if you are eligible to work in the UK as we will have to verify this before you can start work.
How to apply
The closing date for applications is midnight on Friday 28th March 2025. However, this vacancy will close once we have sufficient applications.
Please contact Nigel Savage, Senior Leader at Woodlands Central at nigel.savage@woodlandschurch.net if you have any questions about the role.
If shortlisted, interviews will take place at Woodlands Church on the afternoon of Friday 4th April 2025.
For an application form please contact our HR Administrator Jenny Hanley at hr@woodlandschurch.net.
Please send your completed application to Nigel Savage at nigel.savage@woodlandschurch.net and our HR Lead Julia Shrimpton hr@woodlandschurch.net.
Vacancy for Senior Children & Families Lead
The Woodlands Church Family (WCF) is a vibrant, growing family of churches with six sites located across the city of Bristol and a vision to plant more. As we’ve grown, so too has our team, and we have an exciting opportunity for someone to join our team as Senior Children and Families Lead at Woodlands Central.
As Woodlands Church Family we aim to disciple children and families to be connected, confident and equipped.
1. Connected
We aim to help children and families to connect with Jesus, with one another in friendships, in relationships with the church community and with a sense of belonging.
2. Confident
We aim to help disciple children to be confident in their knowledge of who God is, to have a sense of their own identity in Christ and therefore confident enough to ask questions, explore faith and be curious.
3. Equipped
We aim to equip and support parents as they disciple their children with the help of the Holy Spirit. We aim to equip children with tools to help them to pray, read the bible and experience the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. We want to equip them to own their own faith in Jesus, to obey Jesus and to be empowered ministers to the world around them.
About the Role
This position is a strategic leadership role to oversee and grow the Children’s and Families ministries at Woodlands involving leading, shaping and building an expanding children's ministry for children aged 0-11.
This includes planning ministry programmes, events and outreach initiatives throughout the year. You will lead and line manage the staffed Children’s Team and through them recruit, train and support a large team of volunteers. You will oversee the Families Ministry including daytime groups and events, equipping parents to disciple their children in the home.
Candidates should be highly motivated, enthusiastic, able to take initiative, work well in a team and be passionate to see children grow in their faith.
Requirements: This role requires a commitment to be a follower of Jesus and a member of Woodlands Central.
To find out more about this role, download the following documents:
Terms
This is a permanent position contracted at a minimum of 3 days per week (22 hours 30 mins) with the possibility of more hours being added and the role potentially becoming a full-time position.
The salary band for this role is £29,000 - £31,000 pro rata, depending on experience. The annual holiday entitlement is 25 days pro rata plus 8 days bank holiday pro rata.
The role will be based at Woodlands Central in Clifton, Bristol.
The post is subject to satisfactory references.
We have a legal responsibility to ensure that all our employees have the legal right to live and work in the UK. Therefore, please only apply if you are eligible to work in the UK as we will have to verify this before you can start work.
How to apply
The closing date for applications is midnight on Friday 28th March 2025. However, this vacancy will close once we have sufficient applications.
Please contact Rachel Riddall, Senior Leader at Woodlands Central at rachel.riddall@woodlandschurch.net if you have any questions about the role.
If shortlisted, interviews will take place at Woodlands Church on the afternoon of Friday 4th April 2025.
For an application form please contact our HR Administrator Jenny Hanley at hr@woodlandschurch.net.
Please send your completed application to Rachel Riddall at rachel.riddall@woodlandschurch.net and our HR Lead Julia Shrimpton hr@woodlandschurch.net.
New course - Sharing Jesus Naturally
Starting on Tuesday 25th, over six sessions we will explore how you can be confident in sharing about Jesus, how to tell your story making Jesus the hero, how to start a natural conversation with your friends about Jesus.
This is a new course being delivered from Woodlands Academy.
Volunteer Opportunity: Children's Team Administrator
The Woodlands Church Family (WCF) is a vibrant, growing family of churches with eight sites located across the city of Bristol and a vision to plant more. As we’ve grown, so too have our teams, and we have an exciting volunteering opportunity within our Children’s Church team at Woodlands Central.
JOIN THE TEAM
We are recruiting for volunteers to join our Children’s Church team to support and underpin some key administrative work for the team at Woodlands Central. We’d love to hear from you if you’re interested and Children’s team admin is something that sounds like an area you’d be interested in helping with!
Key areas of work include:
Volunteer rota checks for acceptances/declines and highlighting gaps where more volunteers are needed.
Processing all new children’s church volunteers through the recruitment process.
Processing new children into groups on ChurchSuite.
Transfer Sunday registers of attendance to ChurchSuite records.
Assist with setting up meeting dates and sending out invitations.
General administration as delegated by children’s church leaders e.g. booking a venue space in the building, sending prewritten emails to groups e.g. for one off events.
Personal attributes and key skills
Strong administration skills with an eye for detail
Good written communication skills
Administering confidential information in line with our Data Protection Policy
Team player
Our volunteer roles require a commitment to be a follower of Jesus and a worshipping member of the Woodlands Church Family.
Could you commit to around one day a week to support this ministry? Ideally it would be helpful, if you have availability during the day, to meet with the children’s minister on a Monday between 11.30am - 12.30pm to run through weekly tasks but there is flexibility as to when the rest of the hours/tasks are delivered in the week. You’d be very welcome to join us at our Children’s team meeting too.
Support in volunteering role
You’ll be given in-house training on Data Protection and the use of our ChurchSuite database if needed.
You are also welcome to join in with our wider Central team time on Monday mornings from 10am - 11am where we gather to worship, pray, share good news and have input from key members of the team.
Hannah Dunmall
Assistant Children’s Minister
INTERESTED?
Please contact our Assistant Children’s Minister Hannah at hannah.dunmall@woodlandschurch.net for an opportunity to meet and discuss the role further.
Wholeness Course Starts 25th Feb
Wholeness: Explore Identity
Explore how our lives can be established on the sure foundation of our God given identity. This is a course with stories of breakthrough, teaching, including our ‘Spiritual spring clean’ and opportunities for receiving prayer.
Our next Wholeness 1: Explore Identity course will be taking place over 6 weeks beginning the 25th February and running on Tuesday evenings from 8pm - 10pm at Woodlands. To sign up follow the link below.
To find out more about the wholeness course head to the webpage here.
Hear some Testimony’s from the Wholeness Course
Refresh Group for Mums and Little Ones
On Thursday mornings at 10am in The Crypt, we offer mums with little ones a chance to meet up, share a cuppa, refresh and pray with one another.
This group is specifically aimed at supporting the well-being of mums and their little ones.
Why not check out our Tiny Treasures Toddlers group that meets on Wednesday mornings at 10am in term time.
GET IN TOUCH
For more information about Woodies Kids - get in touch with the children's church team by filling in the contact form below.
Lorna Savage
Senior Families & Children’s Lead
Hannah Paton
Children’s Minister
