The media has been filled in recent weeks with parent's real-life stories, updates and speculation about school closures and the impact that this is having on our children's education, development and well-being. Yet very little has been said about their spiritual well-being, and the impact that the physical closure of churches was having on children's faith nurture. Physical closure of churches resulted in children not being able to attend 'Sunday School' type activities. This created a significant gap in the support that children and their families had for nurturing their children's faith.
Churches were generally very quick to respond to meet this need. It was heart-warming to see the phenomenal efforts that many churches made to bridge this gap, both within the UK and world-wide. This was not a situation that was planned for in any way. And it is by no means the ideal scenario or way to disciple children, but it was the reality. So we must applaud churches who quickly responded in this way.
But now many are becoming frustrated and exhausted and are beginning to reflect upon the best approach to take in the ongoing situation over the coming months. It is within this mindset that the nurturing young faith research seeks to make recommendations which will help churches to be more effective in their continued online nurture of children. The full report is available below:
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