Pilots is fun for children aged 5+.
It's easy to start a company and you can tailor-make it for your own needs. Perhaps you only have a few children across all age groups – then meet all together and you should find the older ones help to look after the younger ones, or perhaps the little ones could start at 5pm and go home at 6.15 pm with the Adventurer age group (7-11s) starting at 6pm until 7.30 pm, so that they have a short time together.
Working round the word PILOTS we have crest work – Prayer, Interest, Learning, Overseas, Talent and Service. Material is revised regularly and we are now using a new edition of Compass packed full of ideas for worship, games, crest work, projects, enrolment services etc. There is also an Overseas Voyage each year to a different country and a worship pack. The material is up to date, attractive and easy to use.
There are always local children who would like to come to Pilots and therefore become part of the local church, even if they don't appear very often in the pews on Sunday. It's not so easy to find leaders, but once you have found someone in the local church to become Pilots Captain, then a group of adults could work on a rota to cover meeting night so that no-one (including the Captain) has to be there every week.
Training is available locally and nationally. Pilots Desk in Tavistock Place is there to help with advice and equipment. Marilyn Armstrong is Northern Synod Regional Pilots Officer and is very willing to come along with ideas – St George's in Hartlepool have a Pilots group on Thursday evenings from 6-7.30 pm and you are very welcome to visit. Other Pilots in our Synod are at Glanton, Roker, and Morpeth.
More information about Pilots is on the Pilots Website: www.pilots.org.uk