Welcome to The 12 Days of Giving! Each day from 1 to 12 December, we will be sharing a story or highlight from BRF, or one of our ministries, that could only have happened because of your generous donations. Check back in each day to stay updated!
Could you consider donating to continue the work of Anna Chaplaincy, BRF Resources, Messy Church and Parenting for Faith? Your gift helps us impact thousands of lives every year and we are so grateful for every donation received.
- A desire to see Christians grow
At BRF Ministries we are committed to inspire and equip people to grow in Christian faith. We’re the home of Anna Chaplaincy, BRF Resources, Parenting for Faith and Messy Church and it’s through these ministries we support people of all ages and stages. Over the next few days we’ll be sharing with you just a little of what we’re involved in and the incredible impact we’re having in the lives of both individuals and churches. We’d love for you to check in each day to hear more!
2. Forge Gatherings
The Forge Gatherings from Parenting for Faith are online or residential retreats for local children’s, youth and families’ leaders (both paid and voluntary). The goals of The Forge are to provide time to worship and reflect, hear about new developments in children’s, youth and families work and learn from each other. An important part of what we do is to have fun together too! It’s a fantastic opportunity to meet others working in the same field, and our delegates leave with loads of contacts and some great new friends.
This video gives you a small flavour from The Forge in September 2025!
3. Prayer Diaries
We are so grateful to know that there are people specifically praying each day for our work to have kingdom impact. This is such a significant way in which people can support us. We issue a seasonal prayer diary to help shape what people can pray for each week, but also send a weekly prayer email to keep you up to date with what our teams are doing. If you’d like to receive this please sign up here.
Here’s why one of our prayer partners supports us in this way: “The work BRF Ministries does is a wonderful example of God working through people to help others in so many ways. The work you do with Anna Chaplaincy, Messy Church and Parenting for Faith is so valuable and I think it is so important to support this work with prayer.”
4. Unique ministries
Anna Chaplaincy – Our network of Anna Chaplains offers spiritual care in later life, in a wide range of contexts. We accompany older people in reflecting on their life and their relationship with God, breaking down generational barriers and offering friendship and community. Because we believe we’re never too old to embrace faith and enrich our lives. Visit the Anna Chaplaincy website.
BRF Resources – We’ve been resourcing people’s spiritual journeys for over 100 years, providing comfort in hard times, enrichment in good times and challenge and inspiration at any time. Through books, Bible reading notes, events and blogs, we’re constantly exploring faith in new ways, because with the right support, anyone and everyone can build a lifelong relationship with God. Visit BRF Resources
Messy Church – It’s church, but not as you know it. Every month thousands of people of all ages come together to discover Jesus, including those who’ve never been to church before. In over 30 countries around the world, we eat, play and worship together. Expect activities, songs and prayers and an entirely new way to express your faith. There are around 2500 Messy Churches across 4 continents! Visit Messy Church website
Parenting for Faith – In a busy world, we’re equipping parents, carers and communities with the skills they need to help their children of any age to meet and know God. We offer courses, resources, events and training to support spiritual parenting, and make a lasting difference to young lives. Visit Parenting for Faith
5. Parenting for Faith courses
Parenting for Faith offer 5 fantastic options across many stages:
- The Original Parenting for Faith course
- The Babies and Toddlers bitesize course
- The Parenting Teens for a Life of Faith course
- The Parenting as a Church Leader course
- The Grandparenting for Faith course
Each of these courses has content to equip parents, carers, grandparents and church leaders to encourage the children in their care in a life of faith. They provide opportunity for teaching sessions as well as space to share experiences and ideas with like-minded individuals.
‘Hands down the most interesting, insightful, inspirational, relevant, useful course I have ever done. I have already started to put some of what I have learnt into practice in my church role and can see it bearing fruit immediately. I am so grateful.’ —CYF leader and participant in the Parenting for Faith Certificate course at Cliff College.
For more information or to join a Parenting for Faith course click here
6. Messy Church projects
With funding from the Church of England, we are looking into how we make Messy Churches more engaging for young people, seeking a variety of ways to make our wonderful Messy Church format more youth-attractive and age appropriate for all who come along.
In 2024, we surveyed the Messy Church network and found that in our hospitable, creative, celebratory and wonderfully Christ-centred Messy Churches, our ‘all-age’ value was often missing a certain demographic – namely, the teenagers. The survey showed that 50% of Messy Churches in the UK do not have anyone aged 12–16 years old attending.
With this ‘missional challenge’ highlighted, we decided it was time to find creative ways to address the age gap. We went to the Church of England with an innovative project proposal – and they agreed this was worth investing in, granting us funding to run the 6 new pilot approaches to find the best creative ways to keep young people in Messy Church.
Read more about the Messy Momentum project here.
7. New releases
BRF Resources exists to resource your spiritual journey through the Bible, prayer and fellowship. We want to help people experience vibrant, living Christian faith and to live out that faith in their communities supported by a wide range of resources including books, Bible reading notes and digital content.
Our customers find themselves coming back time and again, whether it’s for new titles for their personal use, resources for their church or gifts for others, and we love that we can provide resources for everyone on their Christian journey.
Please do browse our collection here
“From my Bible reading notes, prayer diary and the BRF Book of 365 Bible Reflections, you have allowed my faith and love in the Lord to grow daily.”
8 Spiritual Care sessions
BRF Ministries offers a groundbreaking course to help churches equip leaders and members for ministry to older people. Consisting of eight two-and-a-half hour sessions (including video material) it gives churches and carers the confidence, understanding and skills to provide effective holistic spiritual care.
The urgent need to prioritise the support of older people was highlighted during the pandemic and it’s increasingly recognised that they thrive when their spiritual well-being is cared for alongside their physical, mental and social needs.
Courses are run by BRF Ministries (as well as other churches) and the sessions include:
- Understanding the ageing process
- Spirituality in ageing
- Good communication
- The power of storytelling
- Dementia
- A new home and a new way of life
- Grief, loss, death and dying
- Roles, boundaries and self-care
Participant feedback – “Honestly, I think it could be THE teaching tool that changes perspectives on ageing, both in Christian communities and those invested in care provision. It could lead to much improved, more respectful and appropriate care of all kinds amongst older people: if spiritual care is taken seriously, it means all aspects of care are being taken seriously. People will be able to enter residential care to live rather than to die, seeing out the end of their lives with hope and confidence. We were absolutely enamoured by it. We thought it was wonderful, such an excellent course. It was an extremely professional presentation, and it was totally relevant. It explored situations that all of us were likely to encounter at some point in our work with older people.”
“The need for this kind of ministry hasn’t gone away, quite the opposite, and we need to respond”
If you would like to support the work of BRF Ministries which allows us to run courses like this, we would be so grateful. To read more about the Spiritual Care Series click here.
Donate to the work of BRF Ministries
9. Anna Chaplaincy Resources
The main purposes of an Anna Chaplain are:
- Offering spiritual support to older people who are living in care homes and
sheltered housing complexes, their relatives and staff who look after them - Promoting the spiritual welfare of older people in the wider community,
particularly those facing challenges living independently
This will look different in each context, but could be working directly with older people, supporting relatives and carers, working with churches or working within the community. Importantly, an Anna Chaplain will work across the generations to build partnerships, break down stereotypes and increase understanding of how young and older people can learn from each other and enjoy each other’s company.
“Anna Chaplaincy – in seeking out the elderly the lonely and the isolated does exactly what Jesus would have us do: and in so doing, we might challenge and transform our contemporary society. The work of Anna Chaplaincy is a vital sign of the Kingdom of God, and on the cutting edge of ministry today. I wholeheartedly commend it for your support, and believe this to be one of the very best ways of supporting mission and ministry today.”
10. Holy Habits
Holy Habits encourages and explores the practice of ten disciplines: bible teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer, sharing resources, serving, eating together, gladness and generosity, worship and making more disciples. Church handbooks, Bible reflections and Group studies are designed to help churches explore these creatively and a range of contexts.
As well as the Holy Habits materials, BRF Ministries produces lots of other resources to support the spiritual journey of everyday Christians. We’ve recently developed a podcast, where you can hear from some of our authors who discuss the topics and themes in their new books.
We offer regular training across all of our ministries including in-house training and events from BRF Ministries as well as collaborative ventures and partnerships with other organisations.
“I could not imagine my life without your thoughts and prayers and books.”
11. Messy Church articles
It was with great excitement that the BRF Ministries Messy Church team gathered at High Leigh Conference centre to host the fourth Messy Church conference 20-22 June 2025.
The theme for the weekend was ‘All Together’, digging deep into the Messy Church core values of being for all ages and hospitality, and it was a joy to embody that from the start in welcoming 160 people from all over the world including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, USA and all over the UK; alongside a range of nationalities we had a wealth of diversity in age, ethnicity, expertise and Messy Church experience – some who have run Messy Churches for fifteen years plus and those just about to start!
Over the weekend we spent time in an (air-conditioned!) marquee to Dwell in the Word, hear from our incredible keynote speakers and dance a sweaty but fun-filled Ceilidh! Conversations happened on the sunny terrace, in the coffee lounge, at the dinner table and everywhere in between. We did Messy Church Goes Wild out in the glorious sunshine, star-gazed the night-sky to find awe in God’s creation, workshopped in every part of the building and finished on Sunday with Messy Church communion and a blessing as we went out back to our places of ministry.
“Was a Biiiig blessing to me to meet the wonderful people and to be inspired by the Messy Church stories and experience. I am going home blessed with all the Gifts of the other Members of the Body. Thanks for Welcoming and Celebrating me and my Country/People by inviting me to pray. I appreciate the opportunities and friendships.”
Read more about Messy Church and sign up for the latest news here.
12. Months of Bible reading notes
Bible reading notes have been a key part of BRF Ministries’ publications since 1922. Each series has a distinct approach to suit different needs and preferences, offering a variety of ways to resource your spiritual journey and help people to understand and apply scripture in daily life.
Our Bible reading notes have a wide readership and we love that some have been using our notes for over 60 years! We hear from readers who pass them on when they’ve finished reading them, and people who are housebound who would be ‘lost’ without them. Many tell us that our notes deepen their relationship with God and provide awareness of God every day.
Read more about our range of Bible reading notes here.
“Just do it, it will build your faith.”
“It has helped me to be more aware of God every day.”
Support BRF Ministries with a one-off donation or regular giving
Over the last few days we’ve told you some of the exciting highlights of BRF Ministries – above is a reminder! Would you consider partnering with us in this incredible work to enable us to continue to inspire, equip and resource people in their faith? We’re seeking to support people of all ages and at every stage and we simply can’t do that without our donors.
We are grateful for every donation, but really value and hugely appreciate regular giving as it allows us to plan for the future and know that we’ll be able to continue to sustain our visionary ministries and projects.
To make a one-off donation or to give regularly please click the button below. Also do browse the rest of the BRF Ministries website to read more about the work we’re involved in!
Give a one-off or regular donation