Whenever I am asked what is the most useful starting point to building a children’s or youth ministry where every child thrives, I always answer – PACE!
PACE is an acronym which stands for Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy and it’s a brilliant tool, created by leading child psychologist, Dan Hughes, which describes an affirming, relational approach that aims to make a child feel safe.
We can spend a lot of time planning and talking about our programmes in CYF ministry – our ‘what’ – but how often do we think about the ‘how’ – the approach we are going to bring as we deliver that programme? PACE helps us do just that by giving us language and a framework to define what a safe approach might look like and to talk about it within our teams.
And the biggest reason I love PACE as an example of a safe approach is that it’s an approach I see modelled by Jesus!! What’s not to love?!