How to navigate the 3Gen App
Download the 3Gen app for Apple or Android to get the most up-to-date programme information. You can also use filters to find the right sessions for you. Watch this video to learn how and more!
3Generate: a place where all are welcome
We love the fact that people come to 3Generate from lots of different places, bringing loads of diverse experiences, ideas and beliefs. It may well be that you end up in conversation with people who see the world, and what it means to be a Christian, very differently to you - and that’s okay. In fact, it’s a brilliant opportunity to learn from one another.
We all have a role to play in making sure that 3Generate is a place where everyone feels respected and safe regardless of their race, gender, sexuality, age, what they believe or what their church is like (or if they go to no church at all).
Please be kind to one another while sharing in conversation and fun.
The Methodist Church seeks to ensure that everyone feels respected and safe regardless of their race, gender, sexuality, age, what they believe or what their church is like (or if they go to no church at all). We all have a role to play in making sure that 3Generate reflects this.
Getting the best out of 3Generate
3Generate aims to support local Methodist churches and groups as they nurture children and young people as disciples now. Through 3Generate, children and young people are equipped to become agents of change, who can have an impact in the mission of their churches, and make positive change in their schools, colleges and communities. 3Generate aims to create an inclusive and diverse space for the prophetic voice of children and young people to emerge and be heard. It enables them to speak courageously, and listen to God and each other. 3Generate calls the Church to listen to, and be in relationship and dialogue with and amongst, children and young people, so that change can happen together as a community.
Click here to download a session that has been specially designed to help your children and young people:
- explore the importance of speaking out and being in dialogue with others
- learn how to engage well with the event
- think about the changes they want to see and how they can help to make them happen
- get to grips with the processes of electing the Youth President and Youth Conference Rep.
The session will take around two to two and a half hours in total, but can be split up and worked through over a number of meetings.
*The link above opens the session plan as a PDF document. If you would find it helpful to download a Word version for editing, click here.
Click on the links below to find out more about different things happening at this year's 3Generate!
Group time, 3pm-4pm Saturday afternoon
From 3-4 pm on the Saturday of 3Generate most of the venues will close for 'Group Time'. This is an intentional gap in the programme, so that groups can gather together with their leaders to discuss their experience so far and where they have been tuning into God.
You can collect a selection of resources to use in this time. These will be available from the 3Generate Help Desk from 10am, Saturday 5 October.
Dragons' Den
Got an idea for your local church? Come in a group (of at least three) to develop your idea and pitch it to the 3Gen Dragons, who award (real!) money to make the best ideas happen.
Sign-up at 10am on Saturday if you want to participate in any of the sessions:
Dragons' Den: Mission – Saturday 12:00-13:00
Dragons' Den: New kinds of church – Saturday 14:00-15:00
Dragons' Den: Worship - Saturday 16:30-17:30
Dragons' Den: Children & youth work – Sunday 9:00-10:00
The Big 3Gen Tournament!
New for this year, on Sunday morning from 9am to 11am there will be a special dodgeball arena set-up next to the 3Gen Town.
Sign-up your team at the 3Generate Help Desk to take part in this knockout challenge. Make sure you bring your cheering squad!
9am-10am: 8 to 12 year olds round
10am-11am: 12 to 18 year olds round
(Sorry - no leaders allowed on a team!)
Teams of six (although you can have reserves to 'tag in'!)
If you want to take part, remember to pack some sensible footwear!
3Gen from Scratch
Each year 3Generate provides space for the children and young people attending to share their God-given gifts and talents with others. This year one of the ways we’ll be doing this is through ’3Gen From Scratch’. Look out for different ’From Scratch’ workshops during Saturday in both The Theatre and The Arena and join in. Then, on Saturday evening at 8pm, take to the 3Gen Stage in The Park with others to showcase what you’ve learned.
3Gen on air
Hosted by Premier Radio’s Cassandra Maria and Mike Ivatt our senior Media Officer, the 3Gen podcast will be going live this 3Generate weekend!
Listen to the podcast on the way to 3Generate!
We'll be making the first episode of the podcast available before the 3Generate weekend, with exciting snippets of things you can look forward to once you get to the NEC. This will be available through the 3Generate website, with links also on the App. Why not listen as you travel together?
Get involved in shaping the podcast!
If you want to be a part of creating a 3Gen podcast at the weekend, pop along to the Tech Hub at 10.30am on Saturday.
Listen to the podcast on the way home!
Featuring interviews and highlights of what we know will be a wonderful and exciting weekend. Tune in and remininisce as you travel homeward.
Talk with Jesus on the shoreline
This year 3Generate will be partnering with Shoreline Methodist Community. Shoreline is an online group, who gather for worship and daily prayers in order to feel encouraged and supported to go out and serve local communities and beyond. You can find them by the Tech Hub, where you will be encouraged to imagine yourself on your favourite beach, to see that Jesus has lit a fire for you and wants to know what is on your mind. Sit by the fire, on our very own 3Generate shoreline, and share with Jesus the changes you want to see in your church, your community and in the world. You’ll be invited to record your prayer, so that others can pray alongside you as part of the Shoreline movement.
Group leaders, why not come and sit on the shoreline and record a prayer for other youth leaders and for work with children and young people?
Virtual escape rooms
Recognising just how popular escape rooms have proven to be at 3Generate in the last couple of years, in 2024 we’re trying to increase capacity and make space for everyone to have a go – by taking our Escape Rooms into the virtual world. You and your group can have a go at solving the challenges and cracking the codes through the magic of VR.
Action for Hope HQ
The Methodist Church is working towards net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. It’s a huge task, but so important at this time of climate crisis, and we need every one – no matter their age – on board! You can either drop-in to find out more or, if you’re really serious about taking action, book a surgery slot and bring your whole group to do some serious planning for how you’re going to lead the way when you get back home.
Vocational market
Back for this year and bigger! Find the market next to the new Discovery Centre venue and explore the stalls, with lots of exciting opportunities on offer and resources to get you thinking about how you can use your God-given gifts and skills to be an Agent of Change in the world.
Lego at 3Generate
We have two kinds of Lego sessions for young people on Saturday at this year’s 3Generate, one more creative, the other more technical.
For 8-11s, these will run from 09:00 - 10:30 and 10:30 - 12:00.
For 12-18s, these will run from 13:00 - 15:00 and 16:00 – 18:00.
The first of these sessions will operate on a sign-up basis, and the second will be a first-come first-served drop-in. Each session will allow for 30 children, working in pairs.
You can sign up for these sessions at the Help Desk on Friday night and Saturday morning.
In the Tech Hub, you’ll find robotic Lego you can code and engineer, making use of motors, sensors and computing power to solve problems or create amazing robots.
In the Park, we will be running two sessions – garden design and town planning, for our creative and design-minded young people. These sessions will be more free-flowing and allow children and young people to realise their utopian visions in LEGO, or think about how people can best live amongst each other.
Garden design will run from 09:00 – 10:30 and 13:00 – 15:00, and town planning will run from 10:30 – 12:00 and 16:00 – 18:00.’
A Methodist Way of Life at 3Generate
Nothing we do can make God love us more - but things we do can help us tune in and realise how deeply we are loved by God. In the Methodist Church, there are 12 practices that we think particularly help us to meet God and grow in faith. We call this A Methodist Way of Life.
Some might feel familiar and safe, or like a passion. But we might avoid some others because they’re scary or difficult - meeting God here feels hard. God calls each of us to get involved in all 12, so that we experience God’s love and respond to it in different ways. We won’t find it easy, but God helps us to do it as best we can.
These practices are things we do in all parts of our life - not just on Sunday, but at school with our friends, or at home with our family. And at 3Generate!
Lots of the activities at 3Generate connect to one or more of the practices of A Methodist Way of Life. Why not pick your favourite practice and the one you’d like to avoid, and do an activity for each one? That way you’ll be doing one thing you’ll really enjoy, and one thing that might be hard but that you’ll grow from.
You can use the app on your phone or on one of the tablets on site to search for something to do. Just go into the app, click on the programme, and filter by the practice you want to find.
Or use the ‘Now and Next’ screens to see which practice the activity you’re about to do relates to.
Or take a short quiz on one of the tablets in the Town Square.
But wait, there’s more!
Because A Methodist Way of Life is about all of life, we’re giving you a free gift to take home with you. Every person at 3 Generate (yes, the leaders too!) gets to take home either a blanket or a beanie hat.
As you get involved in different sessions and activities at 3Generate, you’ll be given badges that can be ironed or sewn onto your blanket or beanie. Take these home with you, show them to your friends and explain what they mean to you.
You can find help with sewing your badges straight onto your beanie or blanket in the Village Green.
Got any questions? Come find the MWOL team in the Town Square.
Youth Rep programme
Youth Rep programme
The Youth Reps will be around site over the weekend, found mostly in the Park during Saturday. The Youth Rep programme is open to those aged 16-21. If you have young people in your group who may be interested, please talk to them about the Youth Rep programme and encourage them to speak to one of the reps at 3Generate.
More info about the Youth Rep programme, and how to apply, is available here.
Elections and voting
There will be two elections taking place over the 3Gen weekend – Youth President 2025/26 and Methodist Conference Youth Rep. Please encourage your groups to look at the information about the candidates before they arrive.
Voting opens at 9am on the Saturday morning and will close at midnight on the Sunday.
Children and young people will be able to vote via the 3Gen App or website. They could also visit the Town Hall venue during the weekend to vote. They will need to enter the code on their wristband to vote.
What is 3Generate all about?
