Once a school has made a link with a church, you will probably discover that apart from the church building being a relevant place to visit for RE work, the church membership is a rich resource for your teachers to draw upon. Many church members have interesting jobs that could provide an interesting speaker for a science, music or art lesson. Others have hobbies and interests about which they are passionate. Football, painting, bird watching, bee keeping, spinning, car mechanics, quilting, bell ringing are all good examples. Schools could invite such people in to share their expertise with pupils, adding interest to the taught curriculum or through running a school club out of hours.
Other possible contributions arise when people have a story to tell about an interesting country they have visited or grown up in, and about unusual life experiences. Often, churches have visitors from other countries in which they support a missionary link or a relief or aid project. Such visitors may be prepared to stay an extra day in order to come into school to talk to pupils and share something about their country, or their life and work. This can help to bring subjects to life and also can bring variety to what is being taught.
Visits to school by church members could be enhanced if the visitor is able to put together a 'resource bag' filled with artefacts and activity ideas related to the visit, to leave with the teacher to use at a later date. Suggest this to them before the visit.
Religious education lessons are an obvious place where church members have much to contribute. Many areas of the Christian faith form part of the RE curriculum, so a 'real live Christian' able to visit school to talk relevantly about what they believe and how that affects their lives, can help the teacher provide a stimulating lesson.
As with any visitor into school, the school would need to consider whether they have to facilitate a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check.