Lilly Endowment Inc. awards ABHMS $1.25 million grant to foster faith development in children through inclusive worship practices

VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS 11/26/2024)—American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS) is pleased to announce the receipt of 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; and,
• Enhancing worship and prayer practices that are more fully inclusive of all children, including children with disabilities.

Underscoring ABHMS’ commitment to developing this program, Executive Director Dr. 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,” said Haggray. “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 sees in the ABHMS Nurturing Children Initiative an ideal methodology for fostering that shift. ABHMS will be creating safe environments to learn, share ideas, work through challenges, and try new methods of effectively engaging children without fear of backlash or resistance to change. “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,” he explained.

ABHMS is one of 91 organizations funding through the latest round of the Lilly Endowment Inc. initiative. They represent and serve congregations in a broad spectrum of Christian traditions, including Catholic, mainline Protestant, evangelical, Orthodox, Anabaptist and Pentecostal faith communities. Several organizations are rooted in Black Church and Hispanic and Asian American Christian traditions.

“Congregational worship and prayer play a critical role in the spiritual growth of children and offer settings for children to acquire the language of faith, learn their faith traditions and experience the love of God as part of a supportive community,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion. “These programs will help congregations give greater attention to children and how they can more intentionally nurture the faith of children, as well as adults, through worship and prayer.”

About Lilly Endowment Inc.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 and is a separate entity from the pharmaceutical enterprise Eli Lilly and Company, with a distinct governing board, staff, and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion. The principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of diverse religious traditions by supporting fair and accurate portrayals of the role religion plays in the U.S. and across the globe.

American Baptist Home Mission Societies partners with American Baptists to promote Christian faith, cultivate Christ-centered leaders and disciples, and bring healing and transformation to communities across the United States and Puerto Rico.

American Baptist Churches USA is one of the most diverse Christian denominations today, with approximately 5,000 congregations comprised of 1.3 million members, across the United States and Puerto Rico, all engaged in God’s mission around the world.