Lights, Camera, Action
Page Summary
This activity includes using video cameras to capture the children / young people's opinions about the church.
Good For...
- Understanding how children/young people experience church
You Will Require
- An empty church building
- Enough video cameras for groups of children/young people to have one per group
Preparation
- Borrow enough video cameras (or camera phones) for your group.
- Make sure you know how the video cameras work - and that the children/young people also know!
- Create a list of suggested questions (see below) to prompt the participants' imagination.
- Find someone who will be able to help with editing the films.
What To Do
- Gather centrally in the church.
- Divide the group into 2s or 3s (depending on how many cameras you have).
- Explain that you'd like to know what the children/young people think about the church - you'd like them to video what they have to say. They can video in any part of the church.
- Emphasise that there are no right or wrong answers - but they might need to talk together about what is the right answer for them.
- Distribute a list of questions that they might want to answer (but they don't need to be limited to the list). They don't have to start with the first question!
- Allow 15/20 minutes for the videoing.
- Come back together and listen to some of the things they videoed.
- Arrange for the films to be edited. Who would they like to see the finished films?
- Reflect - What have you learned? How might that feed in to what you (or the church) do? Who can help things to change?
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Adapt It For Younger Children
- Have an adult/young person help the children with the cameras.