American Baptist Home Mission Societies has received a $1.25 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative.
Over five years, grant funds will help ABHMS establish and execute its Nurturing Children Initiative, a program intended to equip American Baptist congregations with research-based, developmentally appropriate methods of engaging children, newborn to 12 years of age, in intergenerational corporate worship and prayer practices, while nurturing their faith in God.
Central to the ABHMS program is a collaborative, cohort-based process of adapting traditional Christian worship and prayer practices to better align with stages of child development. ABHMS intends to convene dozens of congregations in communities of practice that will include congregation teams, child development experts and a network of missionally aligned thought partners to achieve the following objectives:
- Strengthening worship and prayer practices that attend to and respect how children experience God and express their faith
- Enhancing worship and prayer practices that are more fully inclusive of all children, including children with disabilities.
Jeff Haggray
Executive Director Jeffrey Haggray emphasized the urgent need for a culture shift within congregations toward discipling children.
“Like other Mainline denominations, many American Baptist churches are suffering from aging congregations, declining membership and an absence of families with young children,” he said. “We aim to fuel a culture shift that embraces children’s natural curiosity, creativity and forms of physical expression in corporate, intergenerational worship environments.”
Absent such a shift, “our cherished Christian faith might not transmit to oncoming generations,” he warned.
Haggray added: “Our goal is to provide enriching, supportive and collaborative spaces for congregations to adapt and redesign their traditional worship and prayer practices in ways that fully engage, support and nurture children so they will know God for themselves and share God’s love with others as they grow in faith.”
ABHMS is one of 91 organizations funded through the latest round of the Lilly Endowment initiative.