Children’s Spirituality Growing With God Margaret Pritchard Houston Children’s Mission Enabler

Early memories of God/spirituality: Community Sensory Nature Story

John Westerhoff – stages of faith development Rebecca Nye – what it is and why it matters Gretchen Wolff Pritchard – importance of story

According to John Westerhoff: Faith grows like the rings of a tree, with each ring adding to and changing the tree somewhat, yet building on that which has grown before. Experienced Faith: When we are very young, or convert to a new faith. We receive the faith of those who nurture us. Focus on welcome and belonging. e.g. bedtime story, praying with parents. 2. Affiliative Faith: We begin to display the beliefs, values, and practices of our faith community. We take on the characteristics of the group and become an accepted partner, part of the faith tradition. High conformity. May be ritualised, e.g. admission. Identifying – where am I in the story? e.g. copying the priest’s motions during Eucharistic prayer Later, Westerhoff combined these two stages into one.

According to John Westerhoff: Faith grows like the rings of a tree, with each ring adding to and changing the tree somewhat, yet building on that which has grown before. 3. Searching Faith: We become aware that personal beliefs or experience may not match those of the group, or question commonly held beliefs or practices. This occurs as one naturally recognizes that his or her faith is formed more by others (parents, peers, congregation, etc.) than by personal conviction. Is this true? Why is there suffering? How does this story help me make sense of the world and provide meaning? e.g. asking challenging questions, showing an interest in converting to a different faith 4. Owned Faith: We claim a personal, owned faith. Our life is reoriented as we claim personal ownership of and responsibility for beliefs and practices. Faith becomes a part of the person and impacts the decisions, choices, and actions of the individual

Thoughts on this model? 1. Experienced Faith: When we are very young, or convert to a new faith. We receive the faith of those who nurture us. 2. Affiliative Faith: We begin to display the beliefs, values, and practices of our faith community. We take on the characteristics of the group and become an accepted partner, part of the faith tradition. High conformity. May be ritualised, e.g. admission. 3. Searching Faith: We become aware that personal beliefs or experience may not match those of the group, or question commonly held beliefs or practices. This occurs as one naturally recognizes that his or her faith is formed more by others (parents, peers, congregation, etc.) than by personal conviction. 4. Owned Faith: We claim a personal, owned faith. Our life is reoriented as we claim personal ownership of and responsibility for beliefs and practices.

Westerhoff at Household of Faith conference, 2013: Faith development is a process of enculturation as much as education. Received ways of being and doing Shared: Values Authority Traditions Story

Rebecca Nye – Children’s Spirituality: what it is and why it matters Children’s spirituality is: God’s ways of being with children and children’s ways of being with God. “Children’s spirituality starts with God – it is not something adults have to initiate … the difficulty comes in trying to appreciate, and support, the ambiguous forms these ways can take.”

Space Process Imagination Relationship Intimacy Trust Rebecca Nye – Children’s Spirituality: what it is and why it matters Space Physical, auditory (silence), emotional – space to be apart and to be held in safety. Process Spirituality is on-going work. It’s not finished. Children’s spirituality is not about performative cuteness. Process is open-ended making of meaning, not “guess what the teacher wants” towards a pre-determined goal. Imagination Using imagination =/= our beliefs are imaginary. Imaginative play is one way children approach God. Relationship Between each of us and God (taken seriously, regardless of age/experience) and between each other. Intimacy “The central factor is probably 'feeling safe,' a feeling that it's okay to come closer ... The 'safety' needs to be well guarded - ... life itself is not a gentle ride ” Trust Comfortable with different kinds of knowing/not knowing. Trust in: God, the child, the faith (Bible, liturgy, etc.)

STORY How do we tell these stories to our children? In order As stories, not morals With room for play

Gretchen Wolff Pritchard – Offering the Gospel to Children In order: from “once upon a time” to “happily ever after.” As a source of imaginative power and wonder. Not just wrapping paper for a moral that is extracted for adult approval. Not in need of being jazzed up and given Shiny! New! Wrapping paper! The “kiddie gospel” – babies and flowers, Jesus’s resurrection as “his friends were so happy they got their friend back,” etc.

 “The goal of Christian Education is not the communication of correct views about what the various works and words of Jesus might mean; rather it is the stocking of the imagination with the icons of those works and words themselves. It is most successfully accomplished, therefore, not by catechisms that purport to produce understanding, but by stories that hang the icons, understood or not, on the walls of the mind.” -    Parables of Grace, by Robert Farrar Capon