Back to School with God

Holding an all-age Back to School with God service is a fantastic opportunity for your church family to pray for and support children, young people and school staff at the start of a new school year.

Back to School with God is an initiative of SU Scotland in collaboration with SU Northern Ireland and CVE Scotland. Every year we produce a resource to enable churches to mark a date which is very significant for children, young people, teachers, parents, grandparents, in fact everyone in the community - the return to school! A Back to School with God church services provides an excellent way to remind everyone that they go back to school with God.

Our 2024 theme is Spot the Difference, exploring Jesus' interactions with the blind man and Zacchaeus in Jericho (Luke 18:35-19:10). We will discover how meeting with Jesus changed them in a way that others could clearly see, how others could spot the difference between the way they were before they met with Jesus, and how they were afterwards! This challenge will be applied to the whole congregation but particularly those who are in schools. We provide a choice of activities, ways to tell the Bible story, creative prayer suggestions as well as children's crafts and activities for use in a midweek or Sunday club. You can shape the service to fit your congregation!

TO ACCESS THE 2024 BACK TO SCHOOL WITH GOD SERVICE RESOURCES, PLEASE REGISTER BELOW.

Back to School with God is all about marking the new school year - a huge milestone in the lives of individuals in our churches and communities. We want to help churches send children, young people and staff back to school with God through providing resources for an all-age Sunday service which aims to:

• heighten awareness that God goes with us into school
• reassure that the church family cares and is praying
• challenge Christian pupils and staff to be lights for Jesus in school
• raise awareness of year-round schools prayer.

Back to School with God is an initiative of Pray for Schools and we hope that if you haven’t already done so, you will consider registering your ongoing commitment to pray for local schools on the signup form. 

If you live in Scotland and have been blessed by Back to School with God resources, why not consider being an SU Ambassador in your church? That way you will receive a monthly email informing you of other SU Scotland resources, events, training opportunities, vacancies and more to share with others in your church family. Find out more and register here. 

For further information on Back to School with God Sunday or enquiries about schools prayer, contact Elizabeth McDowall. We would love to hear what Back to School with God Sunday looked like in your context, and suggestions for future resources.

For information on Back to School with God in Northern Ireland, check out the SU Northern Ireland website. For information on CVE Scotland, click here.