A Christian children's ministry has launched a free texting service for children to help them get more involved in Church life.

MethodistChildren launched mctxt4, a service for nine-to-13-year-olds, with the aim to keep children in touch with what's going on in the world and give them food for thought.

Children who subscribe to the service will receive texts under eight different topics: Links, UrWorld, Challenge, World, Action, Prayer, DaBuzz and Headsup.

Penny Fuller from MethodistChildren said: "Church can sometimes seem boring or irrelevant to young people and we want to show them that there are loads of exciting ways to get involved."

MethodistChildren is part of the Connexional Team of the Methodist Church in Britian. The ministry's aim is to be a beacon of innovation and good practice in children's ministry, working with children's workers to encourage and inspire children of all ages and enabling the voice of children to be heard.