Youth work in Baldock

Baldock Church

Baldock is a pleasant market town of 10 000 people with a good community feel. It is the sort of place which people do not move away from. Although generally relatively affluent it is not universally so, the church primary school is slightly below average in socio-economic indicators. There is a selection of shops and a large Tesco's, which for many people is their idea of Church. They go regularly and seek rewards!

It has good rail links to London and Cambridge.

There is an excellent Comprehensive school which also serves the surrounding villages, as well as 3 primary schools (one church Junior School), an EBD school for children with behavioural difficulties and a children's home. There is a community youth centre which at present is open two nights a week.

Baldock from the tower

St Mary's Baldock is the only Anglican Church in the town. Because of this we are mainstream in our worship. We offer traditional worship but try to do it with a light touch. We believe that worship may not always be easy or fun but it should never be boring! We have an organ but also a music group and a worship band as well as a robed choir. We pride ourselves on our welcome and that we try hard to put Jesus first. One of our challenges is to deepen the faith of the many new younger families who come regularly to church (about every 6 weeks!). We have Parish Communion 3 weeks out of 4, and Parish Praise, a shorter service easier to come to if you are new to faith, once a month. We also have a monthly evening service called Worship the Lord, which the worship band plays for. We very much hope that the person appointed would worship with us regularly for about 50% of the time.

A Baldock Service

We have a Junior choir, a Teenage church group, a young enquirers group, and a fairly secular youth group. We have about 25 young people between 10 - 18 who would think of themselves as part of the Church. There is huge potential for the right person to develop both the Christian faith of these individuals and to enlarge the group, building on the excellent links with the local schools.

We take assemblies and help with the CU at Knights Templar comprehensive School and there are very strong musical links. We take assemblies at Hartsfield Primary School and at St Mary's Junior Church School where we have a particularly high profile and run a bible club as well as courses on reading the bible, the real meaning of Christmas, the death and resurrection of Jesus and, for Year 6, beginning to think through your faith.

There is a strong independent Baptist Church in the town and a strong Catholic Church. There are also small Methodist and URC Churches although these have very few young people. We have good links with all these churches.